Geophysics And The Energy Transition

Geophysics and the Energy Transition involves four sections: What is the Energy Transition and why storage so important; selecting sites for storage; advanced monitoring technology; and moving forward to integrating Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) within the Energy Transition. Geophysics will also play a role in finding and developing alternatives to fossil fuels such as natural hydrogen and geothermal using much of the knowledge gained from the CO2 storage industry. To provide the public and others with the confidence to move forward with a structured and cost-effective energy transition, this book provides the necessary evidence that we can store CO2 safely and effectively and use this as a significant component of the energy transition. We can also find and store new energy sources. Geophysics and the Energy Transition is written by experts in the field who have practiced the science and engineering associated with the subsurface for years. CCS is an integral component of the new energy transition but the application of Geophysics in the future will extend well beyond CCS if we are going to transition successfully to a carbon neutral environment. Science, engineering, and technology applications are important for site selection, characterization and monitoring to assure safe storage in the subsurface and energy sustainability in the future.

This thoroughly revised and updated third edition focuses on the utilization of sustainable energy and mitigating climate change, serving as an introduction to physics in the context of societal problems. A distinguishing feature of the text is the discussion of spectroscopy and spectroscopic methods as a crucial means to quantitatively analyze and monitor the condition of the environment, the factors determining climate change, and all aspects of energy conversion. This textbook will be invaluable to students in physics and related subjects, and supplementary materials are available on a companion website http://www.nat.vu.nl/environmentalphysics Instructor support material is available at http://booksupport.wiley.com

Energy at the Surface of the Earth: An Introduction to the Energetics of Ecosystems presents way of looking at the manner in which the biological, physical, and cultural systems that mantle the landmasses of our planet receive, transform, and give off energy, which is an essential condition of existence that takes many forms. Energy conversions establish the climate in which these systems operate. The principal forms of energy that are converted at the ecosystem scale include radiant, latent, mechanical, chemical and fossil, and thermal. The book begins with radiant energy absorbed by ecosystems—a phenomenon that is independent of their surface temperature and that can be looked on as a burden or a gift, depending on circumstances. An increase in such absorption raises surface temperature, as described in the fulcrum chapter of the book, Chapter VIII. This increase in turn sets into action outflows of energy that by the first law of thermodynamics are equal in energy units, although not necessarily equal in quality to the inflows. The final chapters deal with vertical stratification and areal contrasts in energy budgets, the augmented energy budget of the city, and the responses that serve to keep the budget balanced.

Since nearly 50 % of Europe's energy demand is in the heating and cooling sector, it is expected that geothermal energy will play an important role in the transition to a decarbonized energy system. However, deep geothermal energy is currently harvested mainly from areas with very favorable geothermal conditions. As these areas are geographically limited, the use of geothermal energy in less favorable regions is essential for unleashing the full potential of geothermal energy, since they make up the majority of the total geothermal potential in Central Europe. Motivated by the growing interest in deep geothermal energy among, e.g., energy companies and communities, this text reviews the state of the art in deep geothermal energy with focus on direct heating in geothermally less favorable regions. It provides an overview of technologies used to generate heat from the deep underground and discusses main technical and non-technical risks associated with deep geothermal projects. The text addresses readers with an interest in geothermal energy but does not require a background in geoscience or engineering sciences. It is suitable as textbook for Geothermal Energy courses for undergraduate students from different disciplines.

This textbook on geophysics is a translated and revised editon from its third German edition Einführung in die Geophysik - Globale physikalische Felder und Prozesse in der Erde. Explaining the technical terminology, it introduces students and the interested scientific public to the physics of the Earth at an intermediate level. In doing so, it goes far beyond a purely phenomenological description, but systematically explains the physical principles of the processes and fields which affect the entire Earth: Its position in space; its internal structure; its age and that of its rocks; earthquakes and how they are used in exploring Earth’s structure; its shape, tides, and isostatic equilibrium; Earth's magnetic field, the geodynamo that generates it, and the interaction between the Earth's magnetosphere and the solar wind's plasma flow; the Earth's temperature field and heat transport processes in the core, mantle, and crust of the Earth and their role in driving the geodynamo and plate tectonics. All chapters begin with a brief historical outline describing the development of each branch of geophysics up to the recent past. Selected biographies illustrate the personal and social conditions under which groundbreaking results were achieved. Detailed mathematical derivations facilitate understanding. Exercises with worked-out results allow readers to test the gained understanding. A detailed appendix contains a wealth of useful additional information such as a geological time table, general reference data, conversion factors, the latest values of the natural constants, vector and tensor calculus, and two chapters on the basic equations of hydrodynamics and hydrothermics. The book addresses bachelor and master students of geophysics and general earth science, as well as students of physics, engineering, and environmental sciences with geophysics as a minor subject.

Physics and the Environment directly connects the physical world to environmental issues that the world is facing today and will face in the future. It shows how the first and second laws of thermodynamics limit the efficiencies of fossil fuel energy conversions to less than 100%, while also discussing how clever technologies can enhance overall performance. It also extensively discusses renewable forms of energy, their physical constraints and how we must use science and engineering as tools to solve problems instead of opinion and politics. Dr. Kyle Forinash takes you on a journey of understanding our mature and well developed technologies for using fossil fuel resources and how we are unlikely to see huge gains in their efficiency as well as why their role in climate change ought to be an argument for their replacement sooner rather than later. He also discusses the newest technologies in employing renewable resources and how it is important to understand their physical constrains in order to make a smooth transition to them. An entire chapter is dedicated to energy storage, a core question in renewable energy as well as another chapter on the technical issues of nuclear energy. The book ends with a discussion on how no environmental solution, no matter how clever from a technical aspect, will succeed if there are cheaper alternative, even if those alternatives have undesirable features associated with them.

Many text books have been written on the subject "Exploration Geophysics". The majority of these texts focus on the theory and the mathematical treatment of the subject matter but lack treatment of practical aspects of geophysical exploration. This text is written in simple English to explain the physical meaning of jargon, or terms used in the industry. It describes how seismic data is acquired in 2-D and 3-D, how they are processed to convert the raw data to seismic vertical and horizontal cross sections, that are geologically meaningful, and how these and other data are interpreted to delineate a prospect. Workshops are included after each chapter and are designed to reinforce learning of the concepts presented. Key Features: Written in simple easy to understand language Heavily illustrated to aid in understanding the text End of chapter "Key words and workshop" The text includes several appendices and answers for the selected workshop problems

A comprehensive, systematic, analytically unified, and interdisciplinary treatment of energy in nature and society, from solar radiation and photosynthesis to our fossil fueled civilization and its environmental consequences.