Energy Technology Progress for Sustainable Development

Energy security is a fundamental part of a country`s national security. Access to affordable, environmentally sustainable energy is a stabilizing force and is in the world community`s best interest. The current global energy situation however is not sustainable and has many complicating factors. The primary goal for government energy policy should be to provide stability and predictability to the market. This paper differentiates between short-term and long-term issues and argues that although the options for addressing the short-term issues are limited, there is an opportunity to alter the course of long-term energy stability and predictability through research and technology development. While reliance on foreign oil in the short term can be consistent with short-term energy security goals, there are sufficient long-term issues associated with fossil fuel use, in particular, as to require a long-term role for the federal government in funding research. The longer term issues fall into three categories. First, oil resources are finite and there is increasing world dependence on a limited number of suppliers. Second, the world demographics are changing dramatically and the emerging industrialized nations will have greater supply needs. Third, increasing attention to the environmental impacts of energy production and use will limit supply options. In addition to this global view, some of the changes occurring in the US domestic energy picture have implications that will encourage energy efficiency and new technology development. The paper concludes that technological innovation has provided a great benefit in the past and can continue to do so in the future if it is both channels toward a sustainable energy future and if it is committed to, and invested in, as a deliberate long-term policy option

US Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) exports: boom or bust for the global climate?

Due to surging natural gas production, the United States is now a growing exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to overseas destinations. However, the potential greenhouse gas implications from increased US natural gas remain unclear. Through a hybrid lifecycle energy strategy analysis, we investigate potential greenhouse gas scenarios of US LNG exports to Asia, the largest source of global LNG demand. We find that the climate impacts of US exports to China, Japan, India, and South Korea could vary tremendously. Annual global lifecycle emissions range from -32 to +63 million metric tons CO2e per billion cubic feet (Bcf) per day of exports. Despite this range, emissions are not likely to decrease and may increase significantly due to greater global energy consumption, higher emissions in the US, and methane leakage. However, international climate obligations are a critical uncertainty underlying all emissions estimates. Our results indicate the need for further research into quantifying the climate impacts of LNG exports, and energy exports more generally

Electricity portfolio innovation for energy security: the case of carbon constrained China

China’s energy sector is under pressure to achieve secure and affordable supply and a clear decarbonisation path. We examine the longitudinal trajectory of the Chinese electricity supply security and model the near future supply security based on the 12th 5 year plan. Our deterministic approach combines Shannon-Wiener, Herfindahl-Hirschman and electricity import dependence indices for supply security appraisal. We find that electricity portfolio innovation allows China to provide secure energy supply despite increasing import dependence. It is argued that long-term aggressive deployment of renewable energy will unblock China’s coal-biased technological lock-in and increase supply security in all fronts. However, reduced supply diversity in China during the 1990s will not recover until after 2020s due to the long-term coal lock-in that can threaten to hold China’s back from realising its full potential

Low-carbon cities: Lifestyle changes are necessary

Today, more than half the world's population live in cities, and the UN expect this figure to rise to two-thirds by 2050. Already, cities are responsible for an estimated 70% of global energy use. Cities must cut their energy use in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Urban Heat Island effect and urban air pollution, and global fossil fuel (especially oil) depletion. Available approaches include shifting to alternative energy, energy efficiency improvements, and energy conservation. We find that although both increased use of renewable energy and energy efficiency improvements are desirable, they will be unable to reduce significantly fossil fuel use by 2050. This is important because many researchers argue that large reductions in oil, and to a lesser extent other fossil fuels, will be needed within the next two decades, because of their mounting energy, monetary and environmental costs. Achieving the necessary large cuts in both fossil energy use and their accompanying emissions will, we argue, necessitate energy conservation, largely though lifestyle changes

Warning signs for stabilizing global CO2 emissions

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuels and industry comprise ~90% of all CO2 emissions from human activities. For the last three years, such emissions were stable, despite continuing growth in the global economy. Many positive trends contributed to this unique hiatus, including reduced coal use in China and elsewhere, continuing gains in energy efficiency, and a boom in low-carbon renewables such as wind and solar. However, the temporary hiatus appears to have ended in 2017. For 2017, we project emissions growth of 2.0% (range: 0.8%−3.0%) from 2016 levels (leap-year adjusted), reaching a record 36.8 ± 2 Gt CO2. Economic projections suggest further emissions growth in 2018 is likely. Time is running out on our ability to keep global average temperature increases below 2 °C and, even more immediately, anything close to 1.5 °C

Mapping the Influence of Food Waste in Food Packaging Environmental Performance Assessments

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149217/1/jiec12743-sup-0001-SuppInfoS1.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149217/2/jiec12743.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149217/3/jiec12743_am.pd

A simple energy usage toolkit from manufacturing simulation data

A fundamental problem in energy management is the inability to clearly predict any possible energy saving opportunities. The cost of both under or overestimating potential returns on investment can be prohibitive to a decision maker. In recent years the simulation of energy usage using existing manufacturing simulation tools has increased in popularity among researchers, but it is energy managers who need to see the benefits of this discipline. This paper proposes an interactive manufacturing energy management tool which makes use of existing productivity simulation models for the prediction of energy usage. An interactive Microsoft® Excel® based tool is developed to control Lanner’s WITNESS® discrete-event simulation software using Microsoft® Visual Basic® for Applications. The tool has the ability to predict potential areas where energy saving opportunities can be made within a complex manufacturing line, and is accessible from management presentations and proposals. The interactivity of the tool provides an environment which facilitates efficient hypothesis testing. The paper includes an industrial case study where the approach was used to quantify theoretical savings from certain energy usage reduction scenarios within a complex automotive engine manufacturing line

Gas generation and wind power: A review of unlikely allies in the United Kingdom and Ireland

No single solution currently exists to achieve the utopian desire of zero fossil fuel electricity generation. Until such time, it is evident that the energy mix will contain a large variation in stochastic and intermittent sources of renewable energy such as wind power. The increasing prominence of wind power in pursuit of legally binding European energy targets enables policy makers and conventional generating companies to plan for the unique challenges such a natural resource presents. This drive for wind has been highly beneficial in terms of security of energy supply and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, it has created an unusual ally in natural gas. This paper outlines the suitability and challenges faced by gas generating units in their utilisation as key assets for renewable energy integration and the transition to a low carbon future. The Single Electricity Market of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and the British Electricity Transmission Trading Agreement Market are the backdrop to this analysis. Both of these energy markets have a reliance on gas generation matching the proliferation of wind power. The unlikely and mostly ignored relationship between natural gas generation and wind power due to policy decisions and market forces is the necessity of gas to act as a bridging fuel. This review finds gas generation to be crucially important to the continued growth of renewable energy. Additionally, it is suggested that power market design should adequately reward the flexibility required to securely operate a power system with high penetrations of renewable energy, which in most cases is provided by gas generation