ENGR404-17S2 (C) Semester Two 2017

Emerging Energy Technologies and Management

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 17 July 2017
End Date: Sunday, 19 November 2017
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Friday, 28 July 2017
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Friday, 13 October 2017

Description

This course explores various emerging technologies related to the needs for energy, including the supply of renewable energy. This includes topics such as combined heat and power systems, biomass and thermo-chemical processing, wind, geothermal and solar energy processes. This course will also discuss the applications of catalysis in the production of energy carriers, starting at a basic level, and includes sections on adsorption and surface science, catalytic kinetics, evaluation on the modern catalytic processes in oil/gas refinery and studying key characteristics of emerging nanomaterials that enable them to become an effective catalyst in energy applications.

Learning Outcomes

  • After completing this course, the students will understand the present issues and opportunities in energy and energy related sectors. Students are expected to be able to:
  • Understand the energy demand and composition.
  • Understand the environmental concerns and future energy supply issues due to heavily use of fossil fuels.
  • Understand the renewable energy resources and related technologies and systems.
  • Analyze energy systems using exergy concept.
  • Understand importance and applications of catalysis in energy conversion and development of new technologies.

    Eventually the students can make choices on energy resources and technologies in the future for increasing energy efficiency and promotion of renewable energy use.

    TOPICS

  • Overview of world energy outlook, and New Zealand energy demands and renewable energy resources (MW):
        - Issues to consider: needs, scope, time scale, global warming, the irrelevance of peak oil
        - Current energy supplies, NZ and global
        - Electricity supply and demand. The value of reducing peak power demand, the value of reducing total energy demand.
  • Demand related matters (MW)
        - Needs of transport, heating, light, machinery, industrial, commercial; Cars, freight, air; Domestic heating, commercial heating, industrial heating; Domestic lighting, other lighting; Embodied energy in goods and services
  • Energy storage (MW)
        - Time scales and capacity
        - Batteries, thermal, hydro, capacitors, compressed air, flywheels, fuels
  • Case study (MW)
  • Renewable energy supply and technologies (SSP)
        - Wind
        - Solar
        - Geothermal
        - Introduction to biomass conversion technologies.
  • Applications of exergy analysis for the selection of options (SSP)
  • Introduction to heterogeneous catalysis (SP)
  • How does a catalyst work? (SP)
  • Catalytic reactors, the kinetics and mechanisms of catalytic reactions in energy (SP)
  • Catalysis in the conversion of natural gas (SP)
        - Conversion of natural gas to syngas
        - Fischer-Tropsch synthesis
        - Methanol synthesis and methanol conversion to other products

Prerequisites

Subject to approval of the Director of Studies

Restrictions

Timetable Note

LECTURES

36 lectures: 12 lectures from each lecturer

• SSP Lectures in weeks of 17th July to 11th August.

• MW Lectures in weeks of 14th – 25th August, 11th – 22nd September.

• SP Lectures in weeks of 25th September – 20th October.

Course Coordinator / Lecturer

Shusheng Pang

Lecturers

Matt James Watson and Sean Pourazadi

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage  Description
TBA (Matt Watson) 20% Due date and Assessment type is unknown at this stage
Wind/ Solar/ Geothermal (SSP) 20% Due 11 August 2017
Final Exam 60%

Textbooks / Resources

RECOMMENDED READING

David JC MacKay, Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air. Available at www.withouthotair.com

Mark E Davis, Robert J Davis, Fundamentals of Chemical Reaction Engineering, McGraw-Hill, 2003 international ed. (available at library)

See Learn for more resources

Notes

There are no prerequisites for this subjects

Additional Course Outline Information

Other specific requirements

CONCERNS

Students with concerns about the course should contact any of the lecturers listed above, the 2nd Pro Director of Studies, or the Head of Department.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $919.00

International fee $5,000.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Chemical and Process Engineering .

All ENGR404 Occurrences

  • ENGR404-17S2 (C) Semester Two 2017