Energy Systems Engineering for Global Sustainability, Instructor Iddo Wernick
Spring 2014 Syllabus (subject to refinement/updating)
SUS 7200B—Energy Systems Engineering for Global Sustainability
Instructor:
Dr. Iddo Wernick. Iddo99@yahoo.com
Prerequisites: ChE 22900 or Engr 23000 or Chem 33000 OR Consent of instructor.
Room:
TBD.
Time:
Monday 4:50-7:20pm.
Office hours: Monday 3-4 PM, Room 307B Shepard Hall
Description: This course is intended to provide students with the background and tools to
analyze energy choices for the future. World energy supplies, demand, and trends. The
politics of energy. The scientific basis for anthropogenic global warming and its impact on
climate and planetary ecosystems. Characterization and analysis of conventional sources of
energy and fuels production including refineries, fossil fuel fired power plants, and gas
turbine combined-cycle systems from both thermodynamic and environmental points of
view. Alternate sources of power including nuclear, wind farms, solar (both photovoltaic
and thermal), and biomass. Energy consumption by the transportation, manufacturing, and
space heating and cooling segments of the economy. Societal barriers such as denial, lockin, and NIMBY. After completing this course, students should: (1) Have a working
knowledge of the supply and demand components of energy usage on both a national and
global scale and the impact of the near-term end of cheap oil. (2) Have an understanding of
the scientific basis of global warming and climate change, the predicted global impact, and
the prospects based on various mitigation scenarios. (3) Have an understanding of the
technological, environmental and economic aspects of producing and distributing energy
from the entire range of inputs such as fossil fuels, nuclear fuels, solar isolation, wind,
hydro, and biomass. (4) Be able to analyze, based on thermo-dynamic, safety, and economic
considerations, the prospects for new energy technologies. (5) Be able to perform a systems
engineering, life-cycle analysis of proposed technologies to reduce energy consumption. (6)
Understand the societal and political factors that can inhibit the introduction of new
approaches to dealing with our energy crisis, factors such as technological and economic
lock in, perceived risk versus actual risk, and changes in lifestyle.
Textbook:
There is no textbook for the course. A bibliography will be distributed on the
first day of class. Required readings will be provided on Blackboard.
Objectives: To provide background and tools to analyze energy systems. The course will
provide students with a technical overview of how human societies generate and consume
energy. Emphasis will be placed on engineering systems and the environmental
consequences of different energy options. The course will also address the economic and
political context of how energy systems have evolved in the past and could evolve in the
future.
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Energy Systems Engineering for Global Sustainability, Instructor Iddo Wernick
Spring 2014 Syllabus (subject to refinement/updating)
Class Format: After the 3rd lecture the course will follow a seminar format for half of each
class period. Students will be required to make 2 presentations over the course of the
semester on an issue relating to one or more of the following areas:
1) Energy resources
2) Electricity generation
3) Energy distribution
4) Energy consumption
5) Geo-engineering
6) Energy policy
Grading:
Homework
– 30%
Participation – 20%
Presentations – 50%
Lecture Sequence:
What is energy?
o 1st law of thermodynamics
o Equivalence between different forms of energy
o Natural Examples (non-engineered)
Readings
Horse Power
Promise and problems of emergy analysis
History of Energy Use - Oxen to Nuclear reactors
o
o
o
o
o
o
Agriculture
Materials
Fuels
Engines/Turbines
Transportation
Electricity
Readings
o Tutorial Energy, Power, Entropy
o Chapter 2 Without Hot Air http://www.withouthotair.com/download.html
Physical principles of energy conversion
o Second law of thermodynamics – Heat and work
o Faradays Law
o Primary and secondary energy
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Energy Systems Engineering for Global Sustainability, Instructor Iddo Wernick
Spring 2014 Syllabus (subject to refinement/updating)
Readings
The Latest Infatuations
Farewell to Fossil Fuels
Resources
o
o
o
o
Resources and Reserves
Hydrocarbons
Other natural sources
Auxiliary materials
Readings
The Nonsense of Biofuels - under Bio Energy
The Coal Question Introduction - under Resource Assessment
Carbon Forever – under Hydrocarbons
Technologies for electricity generation
o Conventional electricity production
o Renewable electricity production
o Utility Economics
Readings
Levelized Cost of New Electricity Generating Technologies
Chapter 18 Without Hot Air http://www.withouthotair.com/download.html
True Cost of Electric Power
Energy systems and biogeochemical flows of CNSP and Toxics
o
o
o
o
o
Earth’s Carbon cycle and anthropogenic emissions
Earth’s radiation balance and climate forcing
Sulfur cycle
Nitrogen cycle
Toxics
Readings
Climate backlash
The Industrial System
Technologies for energy consumption
o
o
o
o
Total Energy Demand by sector, by fuel,
HVAC
Motors
Lighting
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Energy Systems Engineering for Global Sustainability, Instructor Iddo Wernick
Spring 2014 Syllabus (subject to refinement/updating)
Readings
Solid-state lighting: an energy-economics perspective
Scandinavian Hospitals
Distribution
o
o
o
o
Co-generation
Smart Grid
Electricity Markets
Carbon markets
Readings
Load Management Strategies
Mobility and Transportation
o
o
o
o
Automobiles
Other passenger modes
Shipping-Freight
Synthetic Fuels
Hydrogen
Biofuels
Batteries
Readings
The Evolution of Transport
Energy Storage
Stationary vs. Mobile
Types of storage
Physical limits
Readings
Electric Power Storage CRS
Course Bibliography (preliminary)
Books
Vaclav Smil, 2010, Energy Myths and Realities: Bringing Science to the Energy Policy
Debate
Vaclav Smil, 2010, Energy Transitions: History, Requirements, Prospects
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Energy Systems Engineering for Global Sustainability, Instructor Iddo Wernick
Spring 2014 Syllabus (subject to refinement/updating)
Vaclav Smil, 2000, Energies: An Illustrated Guide to the Biosphere and Civilization
Vaclav Smil, 2010, See http://www.vaclavsmil.com/publications/ for Smil papers
Burton Richter , 2010, Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Climate Change and Energy in the 21st
Century
John M. Deutch and Richard K. Lester, 2004, Making Technology Work: Applications in
Energy and the Environment, Cambridge University Press
Robert B. Laughlin, 2011, Powering the Future: How We Will (Eventually) Solve the
Energy Crisis and Fuel the Civilization of Tomorrow
David MacKay, 2001, Sustainable Energy without the hot air,
http://www.withouthotair.com/download.html
More Political
Robert Bryce, 2010, Power Hungry: The Myths of "Green" Energy, and the Real Fuels of
the Future
Amory Lovins, Marvin Odum and John W. Rowe, 2011, Reinventing Fire: Bold Business
Solutions for the New Energy Era
Daniel Yergin, 2011, The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World;
Also, “The Prize”, 1991
More Natural Resources
Jared M. Diamond, 1999, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Thomas Gold, 1999, The Deep Hot Biosphere: The Myth of Fossil Fuels
Reports, Papers
The Future of Nuclear Power: An Interdisciplinary MIT Study, 2003 Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. Available on the web.
The MIT Energy Initiative http://web.mit.edu/mitei/research/energy-studies.html
Wernick I.K., 2007, Global Warming and the Industrial System, International Relations and
Security Network (ISN), Zurich, Switzerland.
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/pubs/ph/details.cfm?lng=en&id=30366
On Borrowed Time?: Assessing the Threat of Mineral Depletion,2003, John E. Tilton,
Resources for the Future (Rff Press),, Washington, DC.
facultysenate.mines.edu/dist_lecture/tilton_text.pdf
J Y Tsao et al 2010, Solid-state lighting: an energy-economics perspective, J. Phys. D: Appl.
Phys. 43 354001 doi:10.1088/0022-3727/43/35/354001
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Energy Systems Engineering for Global Sustainability, Instructor Iddo Wernick
Spring 2014 Syllabus (subject to refinement/updating)
Jesse H. Ausubel, 1991Energy and Environment: The Light Path,
http://phe.rockefeller.edu/light_path/
Data Sources
U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)
http://www.eia.gov/
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
http://www.nrel.gov/analysis/
BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2011 http://www.bp.com/sectionbodycopy.do?categoryId=7500&contentId=7068481
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