Future Energy

Professor Trevor Letcher is an Emeritus Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and living in the United Kingdom. He was previously Professor of Chemistry, and Head of Department, at the University of the Witwatersrand, Rhodes University, and Natal, in South Africa (1969-2004). He has published over 300 papers on areas such as chemical thermodynamic and waste from landfill in peer reviewed journals, and 100 papers in popular science and education journals. Prof. Letcher has edited and/or written 32 major books, of which 22 were published by Elsevier, on topics ranging from future energy, climate change, storing energy, waste, tyre waste and recycling, wind energy, solar energy, managing global warming, plastic waste, renewable energy, and environmental disasters. He has been awarded gold medals by the South African Institute of Chemistry and the South African Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Journal of Chemical Thermodynamics honoured him with a Festschrift in 2018. He is a life member of both the Royal Society of Chemistry (London) and the South African Institute of Chemistry. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Chemical Thermodynamics, and is a Director of the Board of the International Association of Chemical Thermodynamics since 2002.

Part I Introduction 1. Introduction with a Focus on Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide and Climate Change

Part II FOSSIL FUELS (ENERGY SOURCES) 2. Coal: Past, Present and Future Sustainable Use 3. Unconventional Oil and Gas: Oilsands 4. Shale Gas, Tight Oil, Shale Oil and Hydraulic Fracturing 5. Coal bed Methane: Reserves, Production, and Future Outlook 6. Natural Gas Hydrates: Status of Potential as an Energy Resource

Part III NUCLEAR POWER (ENERGY SOURCES) 7. Nuclear Fission- new Generation Reactors 8. Small Modular Nuclear Reactors

Part IV TRANSPORT ENERGY (ENERGY SOURCES) 9. Biofuels for Transport 10. Transport Fuel: Biomass-, coal-, gas- and waste-to-liquids processes 11. The Electric Vehicle Revolution

Part V ENERGY STORAGE 12. The use of Batteries in Storing Electricity 13. The use of Flow Batteries in Storing Electricity for National Grids 14. Compressed Air Energy Storage

Part VI RENEWABLES (ENERGY SOURCES) 15. Hydroelectric Power 16. Wind Energy 17. Tidal Current Energy: Origins and challenges 18. Solar Energy – Photovoltaics, including new technologies (thin film) and a discussion on panel efficiency 19. Concentrating Solar Power 20. Geothermal Energy 21. Energy from Biomass

Part VII NEW POSSIBLE ENERGY OPTIONS 22. Hydrogen: An Energy Carrier 23. Fuel Cells: Energy Conversion Technology 24. Space Solar 25. Nuclear Fusion 26. Synthetic Fuel Development

Part VIII ENVIRONMENTAL AND RELATED ISSUES 27. Energy and the Environment 28. Sustainable Energy and Energy Efficient Technologies

Part IX THE CURRENT SITUATION AND THE TRANSITION TO THE FUTURE 29. The Life Cycle Assessment of various Energy Technologies 30. Integration of high penetrations of intermittent renewable generation in future electricity networks, using storage 31. Carbon Capture and Storage 32. Energy Options and Predictions for China 33. Metals and Elements needed to support Future Energy 34. A Global Overview of Future Energy