(SUHYUN HUH)

Topic - what we can do for global warming?

Nourishing green minds in the land of oil.

Abstract:

Climate change, global warming and the increasing in oil price are issues that concern everyone lately. Renewable energy is the solution for a safe and efficient environment for the new generations. Renewable energy sources are sustainable and are zero carbon emission.

In order to deploy these sources efficiently, expertise in this field must be provided. This is accomplished by educating the young generations to all related issues regarding these sources and the related technologies. This paper describes the experience of introducing renewable energy in the curriculum for undergraduate students in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the steps taken to enhance the learning process. It only represents the first stage of implementing green energy education into an engineering technology program and highlights the impact of this experience on the students with respect to the environment and the community. Such experience is an example that can be followed in order to promote renewable energy technologies and to develop the expertise in this field in a country that has just started to embrace renewable energy.


A review of integration strategies for solid oxide fuel cells.
Abstract:

Due to increasing oil and gas demand, the depletion of fossil resources, serious global warming, efficient energy systems and new energy conversion processes are urgently needed. Fuel cells and hybrid systems have emerged as advanced thermodynamic systems with great promise in achieving high energy/power efficiency with reduced environmental loads. In particular, due to the synergistic effect of using integrated solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) and classical thermodynamic cycle technologies, the efficiency of the integrated system can be significantly improved. This paper reviews different concepts/strategies for SOFC-based integration systems, which are timely transformational energy-related technologies available to overcome the threats posed by climate change and energy security.





Plant oils as fuels for compression ignition engines: A technical review and life-cycle analysis.


Abstract:

As an alternative fuel for compression ignition engines, plant oils are in principle renewable and carbon-neutral. However, their use raises technical, economic and environmental issues. A comprehensive and up-to-date technical review of using both edible and non-edible plant oils (either pure or as blends with fossil diesel) in CI engines, based on comparisons with standard diesel fuel, has been carried out. The properties of several plant oils, and the results of engine tests using them, are reviewed based on the literature. Findings regarding engine performance, exhaust emissions and engine durability are collated. The causes of technical problems arising from the use of various oils are discussed, as are the modifications to oil and engine employed to alleviate these problems. The review shows that a number of plant oils can be used satisfactorily in CI engines, without transesterification, by preheating the oil and/or modifying the engine parameters and the maintenance schedule. As regards life-cycle energy and greenhouse gas emission analyses, these reveal considerable advantages of raw plant oils over fossil diesel and biodiesel. Typical results show that the life-cycle output-to-input energy ratio of raw plant oil is around 6 times higher than fossil diesel. Depending on either primary energy or fossil energy requirements, the life-cycle energy ratio of raw plant oil is in the range of 2-6 times higher than corresponding biodiesel. Moreover, raw plant oil has the highest potential of reducing life-cycle GHG emissions as compared to biodiesel and fossil diesel.



The essential role of state enforcement in the brave new world of greenhouse gas emission limits.

In June 2005, Governor Schwarzenegger addressed the United Nations on the topic of global warming and famously declared, "I say the debate is over. We know the science. We see the threat, and we know that the time for action is now." (1) Convinced by overwhelming scientific evidence, the California Legislature passed, and the Governor signed, a landmark law, referred to as "AB 32," which requires the State to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. (2) AB 32 poses significant, even daunting, requirements. By 2012, the California Air Resources Board will have issued extensive regulations for virtually every sector of the State's economy across all geographic regions that set forth specific actions for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. (3) The new regulations will use multiple mechanisms to achieve the reduction requirements, including the traditional command and control approach, market mechanisms, and regional targeting. (4) While the potential regulations and mechanisms have received a great deal of attention, much less attention has been given to an essential element of achieving the reductions: enforcement. We know from extensive experience that enforcement must be integrated into the process of creating regulations. Further, we must have enough regulators and prosecutors to ensure that enforcement is viable, appropriate and effective.