Did you know—• It took more than an iceberg to sink the Titanic.• The Challenger disaster was predicted.• Unbreakable glass dinnerware had its origin in railroad lanterns.• A football team cannot lose momentum.• Mercury thermometers are prohibited on airplanes for a crucial reason.• Kryptonite bicycle locks are easily broken.“Things fall apart” is more than a poetic insight—it is a fundamental property of the physical world. Why Things Bre...

From the first spark created by human hands thousands of years ago, mankind has grown dependent on nature’s vast stores of energy to build, explore, and experiment. Our expanding knowledge and technologies have come from the felling of forests to the harnessing of wind and water, from the burning of coal and oil to tapping the energy of the atom. Energy does more than heat our homes and fill our gas tanks; it fuels our imaginations. Our future is inextricably linked to energy, and in this ...

One cubic mile of oil (CMO) corresponds very closely to the world's current total annual consumption of crude oil. The world's total annual energy consumption - from all energy sources- is currently 3.0 CMO. By the middle of this century the world will need between 6 and 9 CMO of energy per year to provide for its citizens. Adequate energy is needed remove the scourge of poverty and provide food, clothing, and shelter for the people around the world, and more will be needed for measures to...

Methanol - The Chemical and Energy Feedstock of the Future offers a visionary yet unbiased view of methanol technology. Based on the groundbreaking 1986 publication "Methanol" by Friedrich Asinger, this book includes contributions by more than 40 experts from industry and academia. The authors and editors provide a comprehensive exposition of methanol chemistry and technology which is useful for a wide variety of scientists working in chemistry and energy related industries as well as acad...

In the past decade, there has been a substantial increase of grid-feeding photovoltaic applications, thus raising the importance of solar electricity in the energy mix. This trend is expected to continue and may even increase. Apart from the high initial investment cost, the fluctuating nature of the solar resource raises particular insertion problems in electrical networks. Proper grid managing demands short- and long-time forecasting of solar power plant output.Weather modeli...

This important compendium deals with the primary world problems of global warming and the coming energy crisis. In alternating chapters, it lays out the nature of the two interrelated problems, and specifies the various economic considerations. Thus, it describes the coming shortfall of fossil fuel energy in detail and then presents the economic factors governing possible solutions.Written by two world renowned academics — a physicist who writes about the nature of the problem, and an econ...

Frequency disturbances, transients, grounding, interference…the issues related to power quality are many, and solutions to power quality problems can be complex. However, by combining theory and practice to develop a qualitative analysis of power quality, the issues become relatively straightforward, and one can begin to find solutions to power quality problems confronted in the real world. Power Quality builds the foundation designers, engineers, and technicians need to survive in the cur...

This book is a complete update of the classic 1981 FAST BREEDER REACTORS textbook authored by Alan E. Waltar and Albert B. Reynolds, which , along with the Russian translation, served as a major reference book for fast reactors systems. Major updates include transmutation physics (a key technology to substantially ameliorate issues associated with the storage of high-level nuclear waste ), advances in fuels and materials technology (including metal fuels and cladding materials capable of h...

As part of the effort to increase the contribution of solar cells (photovoltaics) to our energy mix, this book addresses three main areas: making existing technology cheaper, promoting advanced technologies based on new architectural designs, and developing new materials to serve as light absorbers. Leading scientists throughout the world create a fundamental platform for knowledge sharing that combines the physics, materials, and device architectures of high-efficiency solar cells. While ...

This book provides an advanced introduction to extended theories of quantum field theory and algebraic topology, including Hamiltonian quantization associated with some geometrical constraints, symplectic embedding and Hamilton-Jacobi quantization and Becci-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin (BRST) symmetry, as well as de Rham cohomology. It offers a critical overview of the research in this area and unifies the existing literature, employing a consistent notation.Although the results presented ap...

This book is a concise and authoritative reference work and dictionary in the field of corporate social responsibility, sustainability, business ethics and corporate governance. It provides reliable definitions to more than 600 terms and concepts for researchers and professionals alike. By its definitions the dictionary helps users to understand the meanings of commonly used terms in CSR, and the roles and functions of CSR-related international organizations. Furthermore, it helps to ident...

This book approaches the energy science sub-field carbon capture with an interdisciplinary discussion based upon fundamental chemical concepts ranging from thermodynamics, combustion, kinetics, mass transfer, material properties, and the relationship between the chemistry and process of carbon capture technologies. Energy science itself is a broad field that spans many disciplines -- policy, mathematics, physical chemistry, chemical engineering, geology, materials science and mineralogy --...