ENERGY CONVERSION

MME 9617a
Eric Savory
www.eng.uwo.ca/people/esavory/mme9617a.htm

Lecture 1 - Introduction

Department of Mechanical and Material Engineering

University of Western Ontario
Today’s class will cover:

● Outline of the course and course project

● A brief history of energy sources and

energy usage

● World population growth and energy

demand

● Introduction to some present day

numbers and challenges
 Course Objectives
● To introduce the basic technical and economic
criteria for the design of efficient energy
conversion systems, including traditional as
well as alternative power systems

● To discuss strategies for increased energy

efficiency and more environmentally sound
operation

● To assess design alternatives and selection

criteria, based on long-term economic viability
and overall energy management strategies
 Topics

● Introduction to energy conversion

● Economic considerations in energy production
● Fuels
● Review of basic theory
● Thermal energy (e.g. heat exchangers)
● Mechanical energy (e.g. pumps, turbines)
● Heat pumps
● Solar power
● Nuclear power
● Fuel cells
● Wind and wave
 Assessment

The course grade will be based on term

work:

Assignments (30%)
Term research project report and
presentation (70%)
The Norfolk Broads
East Anglia, England
By the 12th century, much of East Norfolk had
been cleared of its woodland for fuel and
building materials
The first written evidence of peat digging for
fuel in the Broads also dates from this time

Between the 12th and 14th centuries peat

digging (or turf cutting) was a major industry

Peat diggings were abandoned by the 14th

century because they kept filling with water.
They flooded, and this man-made landscape
became a wetland, rich in wildlife.

Now it is a major tourist and vacation area ….

 A brief history of energy
sources and energy usage
It all started with wood and peat ……

Wood
Electricity

Coal
Oil
Nuclear
 Those are the main energy sources but what are they
used for ?

Transportation
Transportation
Energy Uses have changed …
Energy consumption in the USA (1775 – 1999)
World population growth
and energy demand
World population (1,000s)
?
Likely to peak at 10 - 16 bn
Are there limits?

Science, 162, 1243-1248

“The Population Bomb”

100 1,000 10,000 100,000
Annual income per capita $ US
 Percentage shares of world population, world GDP* and
world commercial energy consumption for selected countries
* GDP – Gross Domestic Product
 Carbon emission factors from energy use

CO2 = Pop x (GDP / pop) x (Btu / GDP)

x (CO2 / Btu) – Seq

- GDP / pop represents standard of living

- Btu / pop represents energy intensity
- CO2 / pop represents carbon intensity
- Seq accounts for sequestered CO2

* British Thermal Unit - defined as the amount of heat required to raise

the temperature of one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit.
Melting a pound of ice at 32 °F requires 143 BTU.
* Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
BP Statistical Review of Edmonds J, Energy Policy
World Energy (2000) 23, 4 – 5 (1995)
Introduction to some present
day numbers and challenges
 21st century trends
• Increase in population leads to
increasing demand for energy
• Interest in developing local energy
resources grows
• Environmental and health concerns
increase on all scales
• Increased electrification
• Infrastructure security concerns
increase
 The numbers are huge !
• Population 6,000,000,000
• Land area 58,000,000 sq miles
• Population density 100+ people / sq mile
• Annual energy consumption 400 Quads
– oil equivalent 72,000,000,000 bbl
– coal equivalent 14,400,000,000 tonnes
• Registered car and trucks 700,000,0000
• Electric generating capacity 3,000,000 MW
• Annual steel production 650,000,000 tonnes
• Annual aluminium production 20,000,000 tonnes
• Annual cement production 1,500,000,000 tonnes
Progressing towards asymptotic ?
• Population -6+ billion growing to 10 to 15+
billion (?)
• Total primary energy –
– 400 quads growing to 2000+ quads annually
(1 quad = 1015 Btu)
– 73 billion growing to 365+ billion bbl of oil/yr
• Per capita energy per year
– 10 BOE/yr-person growing to 25 BOE/yr-person
• Number of cars and trucks –
– 750 million now growing to 5 + billion
• MW electric generating capacity -
– 3.5 million MW now growing to 15+ million MW
 Other global concerns

• Carbon emissions may be affecting

climate
• Health concerns over other emissions
are growing
• Global fossil energy resources are not
uniformly distributed
 Solutions: 2003

TOP 10 GLOBAL CONCERNS Find alternatives to oil

Solar energy etc
Transport energy as energy, not
as mass
2050
Nanotechnology  local energy
storage (e.g. 100 kW)
High voltage long distance
transmission (100s GW rather
than 1GW)

* http://cohesion.rice.edu/
NaturalSciences/Smalley/emplibrary/
120204%20MRS%20Boston.pdf
 Total primary power required
Energy For IPCC BAU scenario
sources
& demand

M I Hoffert et al,
Nature, 395,
881 – 4 (1998)

WRE = Wigley,
Richels and
Edmonds,
ppmv of CO2.
Pre - industrial
level is 350
ppmv
 Energy questions
• Can we satisfactorily reduce emissions
and remediate wastes residing in our
water and air basins?
• Can we offset changes being introduced
by our consumption of fossil fuels?
• Can we significantly reduce our
dependence on imported oil?
• Can nuclear, renewable, and other non-
fossil energy resources be deployed
quickly enough to make a difference?
 End use of energy forms
• Thermal
• Electrical
• Electromagnetic
• Chemical
– fuels for transportation
– fuels for industrial processes
• Electrochemical
• Mechanical ( KE or PE ) for power
 Primary energy sources

• Nuclear fission and fusion

• Solar radiation
• Chemical reactions, e.g. combustion of
fossil and biomass fuels
• Gravitational forces, planetary motion,
and friction ( tides, waves and wind)
 Energy rate scaling
• Food 250 kcal / candy bar
• Average daily requirement 2000-3000 kcal / day = 100 W
• Human heart 2W
• Running 500 W
• 1 horsepower 750 W
• 747 jet plane 250 MW
• Automobile 100 kW
• Space shuttle (with boosters) 14 GW
• Typical electric gen. plant 1000 MW
• 1 wind turbine 1-3 MW
• Laptop computer 10 W
• Cell phone 2W

US energy consumption per year: 3.5 TW

Worldwide energy consumption per year: 15 TW
 Sustainable energy technology
characteristics
• Non-depletable on a short time scale
• Low impacts on natural resources - land, water, etc.
across process life cycle
• Accessible and well distributed – available close to
demand
• Emissions free – no NOx, SOx, CO2, particulates etc.
• Scalable – from 1 kW to 1,000 MW
• Dispatchable - for base load, peaking and
distributed needs
• Robust - simple, reliable, durable and safe to
operate
• Flexible - applications for electricity, heat, and co-
gen
• Competitive economically
 Energy supply options
• Earth based energy
– Conventional fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas)
– Unconventional fossil fuels (oil shale, tar sands)
– Nuclear fission – uranium, etc.
– Hydropower
– Geothermal heat
• Ocean based energy
– Tidal
– Waves
• Solar based energy
– Solar thermal
– Photovoltaics
– Wind
– Biomass
Millions of Tons of CO2 emitted
per Quad (1015 BTU)
 Fossil and nuclear options
• Fossil – oil and gas resources are
depletable and maldistributed worldwide
and carbon sequestration will be costly
and not a permanent solution
• Fissile – no carbon emissions but
wastes, proliferation and safety remain
as dominant public acceptance issues
• Fusion – technology not ready with
uncertain costs and performance
 Renewable energy technologies have
high sustainability index scores
– Solar
– Wind
– Biomass
– Geothermal
– Hydro
Costs relative to fossil fuels remain high
 ‘Playing by the rules’
• The Laws of thermodynamics are
relevant !!
• Heat and electric power are not the same
• Conversion efficiency does not have a
single definition
• All parts of the system must work – fuel
supply, fuel and energy converters,
control and monitoring sub systems, and
the interconnection if required
 Seek collateral opportunities

• Combined heat and power (co-generation)

to increase resource utilization efficiency
• Integrated high efficiency building
designs
• Hybrid energy use with distributed
generation
• Manufacturing processes that use less
materials and energy
 Energy chains
• Locating a source – solar, fossil, geothermal,
nuclear
• Recovery and/or capture
• Storage of a resource, or storage due to the
intermittency of a renewable energy supply
• Conversion, upgrading, refining, etc.
• Storage as a refined product
• Transmission and distribution
• Use and re-use
• Dissipation as degraded energy and/or
wastes
 Resource assessment
• Global energy resources are not uniformly
distributed and vary widely in quality
• Characterization inadequate for developed
countries and very poor for developing
countries
• Energy resource bases and energy reserves are
not the same
• New technology enhancements exist to
significantly improve resolution and
quantification of assessments
• Resource assessment is under-valued and
under-supported nationally and internationally
 Global resources bases
Estimating resource bases is highly uncertain –
(i) for mineral-based resources like oil, gas, and coal –
dependence on technology and has limited data.
(ii) for renewables land-use and capture efficiency are
critical
Historical energy prices
 Price vs. cost vs. value
• 1 litre of gasoline = $ 0.50
• 1 litre of gasoline without tax = $ 0.35
• 1 litre of liquid hydrogen = $ 0.85
• 1 litre of bottled water = $1.00
• 1 litre of milk = $ 1.50
• 1 litre of orange juice = $ 3.00
• 1 litre of Dom Perignon 1995 = $ 150.00
• 1 litre Ralph Lauren aftershave = $ 450.00
• 1 litre of Chanel #5 perfume = $ 12,000.00
Courtesy of MIT website
Next week:

Definitions of energy and the economic

considerations in energy production
Details of the Individual Term Project

Report: 50% of course grade

Presentation: 20% of course grade

 Objective

To improve your knowledge of a specific area of energy

conversion analysis by providing an individual project
report concerning a critical appraisal of an energy
conversion process (or series of linked processes) in
which you will examine current practice including
example calculations, the process efficiencies and
alternative strategies for achieving the same practical
outcome, against a background of the need to reduce
local and global carbon emissions.

To present the project to the class, including answering

questions from the audience.

To provide a final report.

 Topic Selection

Firstly, you should select your topic from one

of the following sectors:

1. Energy production, storage and transmission

2. Transportation (e.g. road vehicles, rail

vehicles, aircraft, ships)

3. Manufacturing industry (e.g. raw materials

processing, finished product manufacturing)

4. The built environment (e.g. houses, roads, tall

buildings, bridges)
 Researching the literature

Then, within that sector choose a specific energy

conversion process or linked processes.

You will then need to identify and obtain the key

papers relating to your chosen topic as these will
form the basis of your discussion. A minimum of
10 papers must be included in your discussion, at
least 5 of which should be journal papers. It is
useful if you can identify a recent review paper as
this will help you find the key publications.

Next weeks class: Engineering librarian will give a

talk on research strategies for this course
 Deadlines

Before Wednesday 24th September – Choose topic and e-

mail me title and brief outline of proposed area of research

Before the next class - I will e-mail you with comments

concerning your proposal so you can start detailed work

Wednesday 26th November - Paper copy of your final report

due (11 weeks from today!)

5 pm on Tuesday 18th November – Powerpoint presentation

file to be e-mailed or given to me

19th and 26th November – Presentations (15 minutes) in

class time slot to be attended by all students registered on
the course