Shale Oil and Gas
Author | : Vikram Rao |
Publisher | : RTI Press |
Total Pages | : 184 |
Release | : 2015-08-09 |
Genre | : Technology & Engineering |
ISBN | : 1934831077 |
The Promise and the Peril
Thirst for Power
Author | : Michael E. Webber |
Publisher | : Yale University Press |
Total Pages | : 246 |
Release | : 2016-04-26 |
Genre | : Science |
ISBN | : 0300221061 |
Although it is widely understood that energy and water are the world’s two most critical resources, their vital interconnections and vulnerabilities are less often recognized. This farsighted book offers a new, holistic way of thinking about energy and water—a big picture approach that reveals the interdependence of the two resources, identifies the seriousness of the challenges, and lays out an optimistic approach with an array of solutions to ensure the continuing sustainability of both. Michael Webber, a leader and teacher in the field of energy technology and policy, explains how energy and water supplies are linked and how problems in either can be crippling for the other. He shows that current population growth, economic growth, climate change, and short-sighted policies are likely to make things worse. Yet, Webber asserts, more integrated planning with long-term sustainability in mind can avert such a daunting future. Combining anecdotes and personal stories with insights into the latest science of energy and water, he identifies a hopeful path toward wise long-range water-energy decisions and a more reliable and abundant future for humanity.
Energy and Civilization
Author | : Vaclav Smil |
Publisher | : MIT Press |
Total Pages | : 564 |
Release | : 2018-11-13 |
Genre | : Science |
ISBN | : 0262536161 |
A comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society throughout history, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel–driven civilization. "I wait for new Smil books the way some people wait for the next 'Star Wars' movie. In his latest book, Energy and Civilization: A History, he goes deep and broad to explain how innovations in humans' ability to turn energy into heat, light, and motion have been a driving force behind our cultural and economic progress over the past 10,000 years. —Bill Gates, Gates Notes, Best Books of the Year Energy is the only universal currency; it is necessary for getting anything done. The conversion of energy on Earth ranges from terra-forming forces of plate tectonics to cumulative erosive effects of raindrops. Life on Earth depends on the photosynthetic conversion of solar energy into plant biomass. Humans have come to rely on many more energy flows—ranging from fossil fuels to photovoltaic generation of electricity—for their civilized existence. In this monumental history, Vaclav Smil provides a comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel–driven civilization. Humans are the only species that can systematically harness energies outside their bodies, using the power of their intellect and an enormous variety of artifacts—from the simplest tools to internal combustion engines and nuclear reactors. The epochal transition to fossil fuels affected everything: agriculture, industry, transportation, weapons, communication, economics, urbanization, quality of life, politics, and the environment. Smil describes humanity's energy eras in panoramic and interdisciplinary fashion, offering readers a magisterial overview. This book is an extensively updated and expanded version of Smil's Energy in World History (1994). Smil has incorporated an enormous amount of new material, reflecting the dramatic developments in energy studies over the last two decades and his own research over that time.
Up to Heaven and Down to Hell
Author | : Colin Jerolmack |
Publisher | : Princeton University Press |
Total Pages | : 336 |
Release | : 2021-04-20 |
Genre | : Social Science |
ISBN | : 0691220263 |
A riveting portrait of a rural Pennsylvania town at the center of the fracking controversy Shale gas extraction—commonly known as fracking—is often portrayed as an energy revolution that will transform the American economy and geopolitics. But in greater Williamsport, Pennsylvania, fracking is personal. Up to Heaven and Down to Hell is a vivid and sometimes heartbreaking account of what happens when one of the most momentous decisions about the well-being of our communities and our planet—whether or not to extract shale gas and oil from the very land beneath our feet—is largely a private choice that millions of ordinary people make without the public's consent. The United States is the only country in the world where property rights commonly extend "up to heaven and down to hell," which means that landowners have the exclusive right to lease their subsurface mineral estates to petroleum companies. Colin Jerolmack spent eight months living with rural communities outside of Williamsport as they confronted the tension between property rights and the commonwealth. In this deeply intimate book, he reveals how the decision to lease brings financial rewards but can also cause irreparable harm to neighbors, to communal resources like air and water, and even to oneself. Up to Heaven and Down to Hell casts America’s ideas about freedom and property rights in a troubling new light, revealing how your personal choices can undermine your neighbors’ liberty, and how the exercise of individual rights can bring unintended environmental consequences for us all.
Oil & Gas Produced Water Management
Author | : Eric M.V. Hoek |
Publisher | : Morgan & Claypool Publishers |
Total Pages | : 93 |
Release | : 2021-05-10 |
Genre | : Technology & Engineering |
ISBN | : 1681738287 |
This book outlines the technologies and techniques used in the oil & gas industry’s shift from treating produced water as a “waste stream” to an integrated water management approach. Produced water is formed underground and brought to the surface during oil & gas (O&G) production and exploration and production (E&P) operations. It is usually a complex mixture of inorganics and organics and contributes to the largest volume waste stream of O&G and E&P operations. Traditionally, produced water has been considered a waste and conventional management strategies include disposal (typically by injection into depleted wells or permitted disposal wells), recycling (direct reuse within the E&P operation) and reuse (treatment and reuse offsite for food crop irrigation, livestock watering or industrial use). The O&G industry is going through a paradigm shift where scarcity of water, economics of water management, declining oil costs, and increasing focus on environmental and ecological stewardship are shifting the focus toward integrated water management in E&P operations. Water is no longer a problem to be delegated to a third-party disposal or treatment vendor, but is becoming a cornerstone of O&G production. This is a summary of produced water characteristics, regulations and management options, produced water treatment fundamentals, and a detailed discussion of process equipment and advantages/disadvantages of currently available treatment processes. It provides a guide for selecting appropriate technologies for the desired application and points toward the optimization of current technologies and the use of combined treatment processes to meet reuse and discharge limits and critically, more stringent environmental regulations.
Nanocomposite Membranes for Water and Gas Separation
Author | : Mohtada Sadrzadeh |
Publisher | : Elsevier |
Total Pages | : 526 |
Release | : 2019-11-13 |
Genre | : Technology & Engineering |
ISBN | : 0128168811 |
Nanocomposite Membranes for Water and Gas Separation presents an introduction to the application of nanocomposite membranes in both water and gas separation processes. This in-depth literature review and discussion focuses on state-of-the-art nanocomposite membranes, current challenges and future progress, including helpful guidelines for the further improvement of these materials for water and gas separation processes. Chapters address material development, synthesis protocols, and the numerical simulation of nanocomposite membranes, along with current challenges and future trends in the areas of water and gas separation. - Explains the development of nanocomposite membranes through bio-mimicking nanomaterials - Discusses the surface modification of nanomaterials to fabricate robust nanocomposite membranes - Outlines the environmental and operational challenges for the application of nanocomposite membranes
Why Nations Fail
Author | : Daron Acemoglu |
Publisher | : Currency |
Total Pages | : 546 |
Release | : 2013-09-17 |
Genre | : Business & Economics |
ISBN | : 0307719227 |
Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine? Is it culture, the weather, geography? Perhaps ignorance of what the right policies are? Simply, no. None of these factors is either definitive or destiny. Otherwise, how to explain why Botswana has become one of the fastest growing countries in the world, while other African nations, such as Zimbabwe, the Congo, and Sierra Leone, are mired in poverty and violence? Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson conclusively show that it is man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or lack of it). Korea, to take just one of their fascinating examples, is a remarkably homogeneous nation, yet the people of North Korea are among the poorest on earth while their brothers and sisters in South Korea are among the richest. The south forged a society that created incentives, rewarded innovation, and allowed everyone to participate in economic opportunities. The economic success thus spurred was sustained because the government became accountable and responsive to citizens and the great mass of people. Sadly, the people of the north have endured decades of famine, political repression, and very different economic institutions—with no end in sight. The differences between the Koreas is due to the politics that created these completely different institutional trajectories. Based on fifteen years of original research Acemoglu and Robinson marshall extraordinary historical evidence from the Roman Empire, the Mayan city-states, medieval Venice, the Soviet Union, Latin America, England, Europe, the United States, and Africa to build a new theory of political economy with great relevance for the big questions of today, including: - China has built an authoritarian growth machine. Will it continue to grow at such high speed and overwhelm the West? - Are America’s best days behind it? Are we moving from a virtuous circle in which efforts by elites to aggrandize power are resisted to a vicious one that enriches and empowers a small minority? - What is the most effective way to help move billions of people from the rut of poverty to prosperity? More philanthropy from the wealthy nations of the West? Or learning the hard-won lessons of Acemoglu and Robinson’s breakthrough ideas on the interplay between inclusive political and economic institutions? Why Nations Fail will change the way you look at—and understand—the world.