Oil, Gas, and Energy Commons^™

The Effectiveness Of The Colby College Electricity Competition On Promoting Electricity Conservation To Students, Jeff Vaz

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

This paper examines the effectiveness of the Colby College electricity reduction competition in altering students’ behavior to conserve electricity. The Colby College electricity reduction competition is an information-based policy that Colby implemented to promote the conservation of electricity, which are a major contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the United States. The study analyzes if different residence halls reduce electricity consumption by different amounts during the competition period. Results indicate that only 4 of 22 residence halls reduced electricity usage during competition periods in a statistically significant manner. The study concludes that the electricity competition at Colby College is …

Invited Introduction To Jerec, Matthew Kotchen

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

No abstract provided.

Welcome By The Editor, Nathan W. Chan

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

No abstract provided.

Cost Minimization Of Supplying Biomass For Ethanol Biorefineries, Yayuan Jin, Prabodh Illukpitiya

Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Faculty Research

A major hurdle facing commercial biofuel production is the cost of producing the feedstock. Since biofuel feedstock is bulky in nature, a large proportion of cost needed to be allocated for harvesting and transportation of feedstock. Economic viability of ethanol production from cellulosic feedstock depends in part of the cost to produce, harvest and deliver feedstock to the ethanol production facilities. A well-developed harvesting and transportation system does not exist for most feedstock. Hence to determine accurate estimation of the harvest, transportation and storage costs is important in ethanol production. The objectives of the study are to determine the optimal …

Methane Emissions As Energy Reservoir: Context, Scope, Causes And Mitigation Strategies, Xiaoli Chai, David J. Tonjes, Devinder Mahajan

Technology & Society Faculty Publications

Methane (CH4) is now considered a bridge fuel between present fossil (carbon) economy and desired renewables and this energy molecule is projected to play an important role in the global energy mix well beyond 2035. The atmospheric warming potential of CH4 is 28-36 times, when averaged over a 100-year period, that of carbon dioxide (CO2) and this necessitates a close scrutiny of global CH4 emissions inventory. As the second most abundant greenhouse gas (GHG), the annual global CH4 emissions were 645 million metric tons (MMT), accounting for 14.3% of the global anthropogenic GHG emissions. Of this, five key anthropogenic sources: …

First Outdoor Characterisation Of A Pv Powered Suspended Particle Device Switchable Glazing, Aritra Ghosh, Brian Norton, Aidan Duffy

Articles

Suspended particle device (SPD) switchable glazing is a candidate intervention to adaptively control solar heat gain. A high voltage low alternating current (AC) to operate a large area SPD applications, can be provided by a photovoltaic (PV) array. The first outdoor characterisation of side-by-side comparison of PV-powered SPD glazing has been conducted. Using an inverter to convert direct current (DC) power from PV to AC a 40 Wp PV device continuously powered a 0.07 W SPD glazing. High inverter power losses were found due to high PV inverter sizing ratio, inverter high self-consumption, and low solar radiation. Low sizing ratio …

Case Studies Of Cavity And External Wall Insulation Retrofitted Under The Irish Home Energy Saving Scheme: Technical Analysis And Occupant Perspectives, Aimee Byrne, Gerard Byrne, Garrett O'Donnell, Anthony Robinson

Articles

The residential sector represents 27% of primary energy consumption in Ireland. This paper examines the case study of the Irish government’s national grant scheme to encourage energy efficiency retrofit in private housing. That is the Home Energy Saving (HES) Scheme, later rebranded the Better Energy: Homes (BEH) Scheme. The methodology involved monitoring several homes immediately before and after retrofit alongside discussions with occupants. The examination focused on specific measures commonly introduced through the HES/BEH programme − cavity and external wall insulation. It has been found that a significant decrease in heat loss through the walls was measured in all cases. …

Compliance Calendar/Logbook For Bulk Gasoline Plants: Less Than 19,999 Gallons/Day Throughput, Iowa Waste Reduction Center

Iowa Waste Reduction Center Book Gallery

EPA has new requirements for Gasoline Distribution Bulk Terminals, Bulk Gasoline Plants and Pipeline Facilities under 40 CFR Part 63 Subpart BBBBBB (NESHAP 6B) to reduce air pollution. This calendar has been developed to assist Bulk Gasoline Plants in complying with NESHAP 6B. Additional Iowa specific NESHAP 6B rules are discussed later.

New Approaches To Chalcogenide Materials For Thermoelectrics: Lead Telluride-Based Nanostructures And Facile Synthesis Of Tetrahedrite And Doped Derivatives, Derak Justin James

Wayne State University Dissertations

The overall purpose of this work is to address several of the roadblocks to use of thermoelectric materials for generation of electricity, namely inefficient processing of materials and low performance, commonly rated by the figure of merit, ZT=T2/tot. The ZT includes  as the Seebeck coefficient,  as electrical resistivity, T as the average temperature, and tot as total thermal conductivity. tot is the sum of electronic charge carrier (C) and lattice (L) contributions to thermal conductivity. Attempts to increase ZT in the literature to values >1 have focused on decreasing the thermal conductivity via nanostructuring or optimizing the electrical …

Nano-Structured Electrocatalysts For High Performance Lithium Sulfur Batteries, Negar Mosavati

Wayne State University Dissertations

Ni nanoparticles has been investigated as a carbon-free cathode material for dissolved polysulfide Li-S battery. A series of Ni nanoparticles with nominal particle size of 20, 40, and 100 nm have been used as electrocatalysts, and the effect of particle size on Li-S battery performance has been investigated. In addition, graphene has been chosen as a support to anchor the Ni nanoparticles, and the synergetic effect of carbon material and Ni nanoparticles on Li-S battery electrochemical performance has been studied. The results indicated there is a strong particle size effect. Ni/graphene electrode exhibits a capacity of 753 mAh g-1 sulfur …

Novel Design And Synthesis Of Structured Iron Oxides For Battery Applications, Jian Zhu

Wayne State University Dissertations

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are currently the dominant powder source for personal computers and portable electronics. LIBs also play important roles in larger-scale applications, including electric drive vehicles (EVs, HEVs) and grid-energy storage. To meet the increasing demand for energy storage, it is very urgent and crucial to develop next-generation LIBs using alternative electrode materials. For example, carbon is still exclusively used as anode materials in current LIBs. However, the theoretical capacity of graphite (372 mA h g–1 based on LiC6) has almost been achieved, and it becomes one of the bottlenecks to further increase the energy density of LIBs based …

Energy And Economy: Recognizing High-Energy Modernity As A Historical Period, Thomas Love, Cindy Isenhour

Faculty Publications

This introduction to Economic Anthropology’s special issue on “Energy and Economy” argues that we might find inspiration for a much more engaged and public anthropology in an unlikely place—19th century evolutionist thought. In addition to studying the particularities of energy transitions, which anthropology does so well, a more engaged anthropology might also broaden its temporal horizons to consider the nature of the future “stage” into which humanity is hurtling in an era of resource depletion and climate change. Net energy (EROEI), or the energy “surplus” on which we build and maintain our complex societal arrangements, is a key tool …

Touch And Step Potential Analysis At 23.9kv To 4.16kv & 13.8kv To 4.16kv Distribution Substations With Pad-Mounted Transformers, Floating Grounds, And Other Exposed Ungrounded Metal Bodies Using Winigs, David Guillermo Guzman

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

An electrical substation is composed of various subsystems that allow for the effective and safe operation of the power grid. One of the subsystems integrating a conventional substation is defined as the ground grid system. This system allows for the effective operation of the power grid and all the electrical equipment connected to it by providing a ground potential reference, commonly known as the system ground. In addition, the ground grid system provides safety to the workers and the public transiting inside or living nearby a substation by reducing the step and touch potential (or voltage) levels present during a …

An Effective And Optimal Quality Control Approach For Green Energy Manufacturing Using Design Of Experiments Framework And Evolutionary Algorithm, Juan Alejandro Saavedra

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Quality Control (QC) and Quality Assurance (QA) strategies vary significantly across industries in the manufacturing sector depending on the product being built. Such strategies range from simple statistical analysis and process controls, decision-making process of reworking, repairing, or scraping defective product. This study proposes an optimal QC methodology in order to include rework stations during the manufacturing process by identifying the amount and location of these workstations. The factors that are considered to optimize these stations are cost, cycle time, reworkability and rework benefit. The goal is to minimize the cost and cycle time of the process, but increase the …

Heavy-Oil And Bitumen Resources Of The Western Kentucky Tar Sands, J. Richard Bowersox

Report of Investigations--KGS

Heavy-oil and bitumen resources in western Kentucky are present in the Upper Mississippian Big Clifty and Hardinsburg Sandstones and Lower Pennsylvanian Kyrock and Bee Spring Sandstone Members of the Caseyville Formation in a belt extending from Logan County on the south to Breckinridge and Hardin Counties on the north.

Net oil-saturated intervals in the tar sands range from 2.5 to 4.7 m thick, largely in downthrown fault blocks in and bounding the Rough Creek Graben. Records from 1,500 wells, analysis of reservoir properties from 3,769 plugs from 135 coreholes, and bulk volume of hydrocarbon calculated in 139 surface samples were …

White-Rot Fungi As Pretreatment Agents For Wood Destined For Biofuel Applications, Ryan M. Kalinoski

Masters Theses

Efficient and economical conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to biofuels is often hampered by the chemical recalcitrance of the material. Inexpensive and environmentally-friendly pretreatment processes are therefore desirable in order to lower the cost of biofuel production and minimize negative environmental impacts. To that end, we have explored the use of a naturally occurring white-rot fungus, Trametes versicolor, as a direct pretreatment agent for hardwood destined for biofuel applications. Specifically, we examined the pretreatment effects on the hardwood mixture after treatment with the wild-type strain of T. versicolor (52J) compared with those from a cellobiose dehydrogenase (CDH)-deficient strain (m4D) , …

Electric Power And The Global Economy: Advances In Database Construction And Sector Representation, Jeffrey C. Peters

Open Access Dissertations

The electricity sector plays a crucial role in the global economy. The sector is a major consumer of fossil fuel resources, producer of greenhouse gas emissions, and an important indicator and correlate of economic development. As such, the sector is a primary target for policy-makers seeking to address these issues. The sector is also experiencing rapid technological change in generation (e.g. renewables), primary inputs (e.g. horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing), and end-use efficiency. This dissertation seeks to further our understanding of the role of the electricity sector as part of the dynamic global energy-economy, which requires significant research advances in …

Development Of Integrated Tio₂ On Carburized Si Nanowires As A Catalyst/Support Structure For Alkaline Fuel Cells, Adam Lemke

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Due to a combination of environmental and economic motivations, there is a strong impetus to transition away from fossil fuels towards renewable sources of energy. Critical to achieving this goal will be technologies that allow for the storage and transmission of energy derived from renewable sources. Hydrogen fuel cells may play a significant role in making this a reality, allowing for the use of hydrogen as a non-carbon based fuel, in particular for vehicle applications. Hydrogen fuel cells directly convert chemical energy into electrical energy, with only water vapor and heat as waste products.

Environmental Ethics And The Electric Power Grid: A Case For Technological Momentum, Paul A. Povlock

Ph.D. Dissertations (Open Access)

This qualitative analysis examines the effects of a growing environmental ethic on the electric power grid in southeastern New England from the late nineteenth century to the start of the new millennia. The increased awareness of the environment evolved into a new belief system of the population and altered the methods of construction, operation and maintenance of the advanced technology system of the electric power grid. The manner in which this occurred suggests that technological momentum is a better concept than technological determinism with which to examine the development of technological systems in the modern world.

This dissertation examines the …

Novel Design And Synthesis Of Transition Metal Hydroxides And Oxides For Energy Storage Device Applications, Peifeng Li

Wayne State University Theses

Supercapacitors (SCs) and Li-ion batteries (LIBs) are two types of important electrical energy storage devices with high power density and high energy density respectively. However, to satisfy the increasing demand of high-performance energy storage devices, the energy density of SCs and power/energy densities of LIBs have to be further improved. The exploration, research, and development of electrode materials with high-performance for applications in SCs and LIBs are still needed to meet the ever-increasing demand on energy and power densities. Herein, the amorphous Ni-Co-Mo ternary hydroxides nanoflakes for SCs and oxides nanoflakes for LIBs with ultrathin stature, abundant open spaces, and …

Development Of Analytical Equations For Optimum Tilt Of Two-Axis And Single-Axis Rotating Solar Panels For Clear-Atmosphere Condition, Gaurav Subhash Gugale

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Solar Energy is a renewable energy source which is used widely in recent times. Photovoltaic panels collect the sun’s energy and convert it to electricity. Photovoltaic panels are being widely used in both domestic applications, commercial applications, and small-scale power generation applications. Photovoltaic panels are easy to install, they generate most of their power when electrical demands peak, prices of photovoltaic panels are dropping rapidly, photovoltaic panels require low maintenance, their operating costs are minimal, and they are highly suitable for remote applications. The amount of electricity produced by photovoltaic panels depends on the amount of sunlight the panel captures. …

Thermoelectric Transport And Energy Conversion Using Novel 2d Materials, Luke J. Wirth

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Nanomaterials hold great promise for applications in thermal management and thermoelectric power generation. Defects in these are important as they are generally inevitably introduced during fabrication or intentionally engineered to control the properties of the nanomaterials. Here, we investigate how phonon-contributed thermal conductance in narrow graphene, boron nitride (BN), and silicene nanoribbons (NRs), responds to the presence of a vacancy defect and the corresponding geometric distortion, from first principles using the non-equilibrium Green's function method. Analyses are made of the geometries, phonon conductance coefficients, and local densities of states (LDOS) of pristine and defected nanoribbons. It is found that hydrogen …

The Role Of Microbial Exopolymers In Determining The Fate Of Oil And Chemical Dispersants In The Ocean, Antonietta Quigg, Uta Passow, Wei-Chun Chin, Chen Xu, Shawn Doyle, Laura Bretherton, Manoj Kamalanathan, Alicia K. Williams, Jason B. Sylvan, Zoe V. Finkel, Anthony H. Knap, Kathleen A. Schwehr, Saijin Zhang, Luni Sun, Terry L. Wade, Wassim Obeid, Patrick G. Hatcher, Peter H. Santschi

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

The production of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) by planktonic microbes can influence the fate of oil and chemical dispersants in the ocean through emulsification, degradation, dispersion, aggregation, and/or sedimentation. In turn, microbial community structure and function, including the production and character of EPS, is influenced by the concentration and chemical composition of oil and chemical dispersants. For example, the production of marine oil snow and its sedimentation and flocculent accumulation to the seafloor were observed on an expansive scale after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Northern Gulf of Mexico in 2010, but little is known about the underlying …

Higher Ed's Carbon Addiction, Mary Finley-Brook, Alex Krass

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Each year higher education produces millions of metric tons of greenhouse gases (GHG). As research and study abroad programs span the globe, faculty and staff travel regularly to professional meetings. Colleges compete for prospective students and offer state-of-the-art technology, entertainment, food services, and other high-impact facilities. Universities that market a comfortable, stimulating campus in order to attract and retain talent may resist carbon budgeting, as combustion of dirty fossil fuels currently remains vital to the operation of most campus buildings, sport fields, and labs.

Universities are integral to climate science knowledge production. Nevertheless, policymakers in many academic institutions appear unaware …

Essays On Oil Price Volatility And Irreversible Investment, Daniel Joseph Pastor

Wayne State University Dissertations

In chapter 1, we provide an extensive and systematic evaluation of the relative

forecasting performance of several models for the volatility of daily spot

crude oil prices. Empirical research over the past decades has uncovered

significant gains in forecasting performance of Markov Switching GARCH

models over GARCH models for the volatility of financial assets and crude

oil futures. We find that, for spot oil price returns, non-switching models

perform better in the short run, whereas switching models tend to do better

at longer horizons.

In chapter 2, I investigate the impact of volatility on firms' irreversible investment decisions using real …

Voltage Management Of Distribution Networks With High Penetration Of Distributed Photovoltaic Generation Sources, Saeed Alyami

Wayne State University Dissertations

Installation of photovoltaic (PV) units could lead to great challenges to the existing electrical systems. Issues such as voltage rise, protection coordination, islanding detection, harmonics, increased or changed short-circuit levels, etc., need to be carefully addressed before we can see a wide adoption of this environmentally friendly technology. Voltage rise or overvoltage issues are of particular importance to be addressed for deploying more PV systems to distribution networks. This dissertation proposes a comprehensive solution to deal with the voltage violations in distribution networks, from controlling PV power outputs and electricity consumption of smart appliances in real time to optimal placement …

Exploration And Implementation Of Innovative Efficiencies/Devices In Beet Processing For Energy Production, Patrick Mcinerney

Theses

The imminent depletion of fossil fuels, as well as concerns for energy security and the obligation to respond to climate change has led to expanding worldwide popularity of Anaerobic Digestion (AD) of energy crops. Sugar beet is a popular AD feedstock due to its favourable characteristics; however it can be quite labour intensive requiring a range of specialist equipment to process the crop prior to undergoing AD. A crucial stage of this process involves the size reduction of beet by a mechanical chopper unit; this pretreatment breaks open the cellulose structure of the crop and increases the surface area available …

Computer Modeling Of A Solar Thermal System For Space Heating, Dhananjay D. Deshpande

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Most applications of flat plate, low-temperature solar thermal panels are for water heating, such as producing domestic hot water or raising the temperature of swimming pools. This is reasonable given that the large masses of water present in these systems inherently provide built-in thermal energy storage so that a separate energy storage tank does not have to be purchased. For a space heating system, extra thermal energy storage generally has to be purchased and is a detriment to the economics of these systems. Despite the economic drawbacks of solar thermal space heating, this thesis focuses on the size of thermal …

Oxidative Dehydrogenation Of Light Alkanes With Carbon Dioxide, Marktus A. Atanga

Masters Theses

”Most experts studying the global ecosystem and climate suggest that rising anthropogenic CO₂ emissions have contributed to significant global climate change in the last half-century. The development of effective strategies that convert CO₂ into energy, fuels, and chemicals are greatly preferable to oceanic or geologic sequestration options because they offer the potential to create new commercially-viable products from renewable carbon feedstock. On the other hand, the selective oxidative dehydrogenation of light alkanes (C₂-C₄) to corresponding olefins, methane reforming, and methane coupling are the major challenges for producing valuable and versatile feedstocks. The oxidative dehydrogenation …

Adaptive Switched Capacitor Voltage Boost For Thermoelectric Generation, Rene A. Brito

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Thermoelectric generators (TEG) and other forms of energy harvesting often provide voltages that are not directly usable by traditional electronics as levels are too low from the TEG. While increasing the number of thermoelectric elements can ultimately increase the power output, there is a tradeoff between size and power. By implementing charge pumps, a proposed circuit technique is described that can boost the TEG output to levels that can be used for energy harvesting applications. Current voltage boost circuits for TEGs simply boost a voltage by a set amount. The proposed circuit consists of an analog chip, to provide several …