An Overview of Energy Technologies for a Sustainable Future

Abstract

Population and the economic growth are highly correlated with the energy demand. The world population was multiplied by a factor of 1.59 (reaching above 7 billion) from 1980 to 2013, while the total energy consumption of the world was multiplied by 1.84 (getting beyond 155,000 TWh) in the same time interval. Furthermore, the demand for energy is expected to increase even more with an average annual rate of 1.2 % in the near future. However, for the last 30 years, about 85-90 % of the energy demand is supplied by petroleum, natural gas, and coal, even though they are harmful for the environment and estimated to be depleted soon. Hence, building energy policies to satisfy the needs of increasing population and growing economy in a sustainable, reliable, and secure fashion has become quite important. This may involve optimizing the energy supplies, minimizing the environmental costs, promoting the utilization of clean and renewable energy resources and diversifying the type of energy sources. Thus, not only the conventional energy generation technologies must be developed more, but also environmentally friendly alternative energy sources (such as wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, and bio) must become more widespread to sustain the energy needs for the future. However, this requires a significant amount of research on energy technologies and an effective management of the energy sources.

Atmospheric Iodine (127I and 129I) Record in Spruce Tree Rings in the Northeast Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

“…3 Meanwhile, the increased consumption of fossil fuels (from 1000 TWh/y in 1980s to 3200 TWh/y in 2000s) in the past decades could also directly contribute to the increased iodine concentration in the atmosphere, which was estimated to be 5000 tons/y in 2005. 42,43 Records of human nuclear activities in the tree rings. The distribution of 129 I/ 127 I atomic ratios 267 ( Fig.…”

“…The oceanic emission of molecular iodine (I 2 ) was observed to increase with the tropospheric ozone (O 3 ) content, which increased by a factor of 2 from the 1950s to early 1990s due to the elevated global combustion of fossil fuel. , The oceanic emission iodine was reported to be enhanced by the subice phytoplankton production that was associated with the recent thinning of sea ice . Meanwhile, the increased consumption of fossil fuels (from 1000 TWh/y in the 1980s to 3200 TWh/y in the 2000s) in the past decades could also directly contribute to the increased iodine concentration in the atmosphere, which was estimated to be 5000 tons/y in 2005. , …”

“…3 Meanwhile, the increased consumption of fossil fuels (from 1000 TWh/y in the 1980s to 3200 TWh/y in the 2000s) in the past decades could also directly contribute to the increased iodine concentration in the atmosphere, which was estimated to be 5000 tons/y in 2005. 42,43 Records of Human Nuclear Activities in the Tree Rings. The distribution of 129 I/ 127 I atomic ratios (Figure 3a and b) in the two tree rings shows a similar variation trend, e.g., the 129 I/ 127 I peaks in 1962, 1964−1968, 1976, 1996, and 2003 occurring in both tree rings, as well as the peaks in 1972/ 1973, (1986−1988)/(1986−1987), 1992/1991, 1998, and 2000/1999 occurring in PC1/PC2, respectively.…”

Thermodynamics analysis and performance optimization of a reheat – Regenerative steam turbine power plant with feed water heaters

“…Improvements in thermal efficiency through the incorporation of more advanced technologies as well as improved plant configurations can certainly decrease the carbon footprint of electricity generation on a per megawatt basis [19,20]. Based on this fact, analyses of power generation systems are of scientific interest and also essential for the efficient utilization of energy resources [21].…”