New fossil fuel energy technologies – a possibility of improving energy efficiency in developing countries

As the unacceptable results of continued fossil fuel combustion on climate change become ever clearer, a need to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by aggressive energy conservation and immediate transitioning global civilization to alternative energy sources has become evident. Many energy technologies are capable of displacing significant volumes of fossil fuels. Unfortunately, neither the enormous scale of the current fossil fuel energy system nor the necessary growth rate of these technologies is well understood within the limits imposed by the net energy produced for a growing industry. This technical limitation is known as energy cannibalism and refers to an effect where rapid growth of an entire energy producing or energy efficiency industry creates a need for energy that uses (or cannibalizes) the energy of existing power plants or production plants. Thus during rapid growth, the industry as a whole produces no net energy because new energy (or conserved energy) is used to fuel the embodied energy of future power plants or production facilities. Such life cycle analysis is also valid for GHG emissions. All current technologies are dependent to some degree on fossil fuel energy and thus also contribute to emissions. This paper expands earlier work to generalize the GHG emission neutral growth rate limitation imposed by energy cannibalism to any renewable energy technology or any energy efficiency technology. Conclusions and recommendations are made from the analysis to assist decision makers in optimizing deployment of technologies on large scales to reduce GHG emissions to safe levels without overshoot.

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Wastewater Treatment Facility Energy Efficiency and Fossil Fuel Energy Independence

Proceedings of the Water Environment Federation ◽

10.2175/193864717822153788 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 2017 (14) ◽

pp. 1265-1284

Author(s):

James McCaughey

Keyword(s):

Energy Efficiency ◽

Wastewater Treatment ◽

Fossil Fuel ◽

Treatment Facility ◽

Wastewater Treatment Facility ◽

Energy Independence ◽

Fossil Fuel Energy

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Solar Thermal Energy

10.1093/oso/9780198769804.003.0009 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

E. L. Wolf

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

Thermal Energy ◽

Fossil Fuel ◽

Rankine Cycle ◽

Carnot Cycle ◽

The Sun ◽

Solar Thermal Energy ◽

Heat Engines ◽

Direct Use ◽

Fossil Fuel Energy

The Sun’s spectrum on Earth is modified by the atmosphere, and is harvested either by generating heat for direct use or for running heat engines, or by quantum absorption in solar cells, to be discussed later. Focusing of sunlight requires tracking of the Sun and is defeated on cloudy days. Heat engines have efficiency limits similar to the Carnot cycle limit. The steam turbine follows the Rankine cycle and is well developed in technology, optimally using a re-heat cycle of higher efficiency. Having learned quite a bit about how the Sun’s energy is created, and how that process might be reproduced on Earth, we turn now to methods for harvesting the energy from the Sun as a sustainable replacement for fossil fuel energy.

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