The second edition of Energy Conversion is an excellent resource, as there is growing interest in the substitution of renewable energy sources for fossil fuels. The book is divided into two sections— "Energy Resources" and "Energy Conversion." The first section presents a good review of current energy sources such as fossil fuels, biomass, municipal solid waste, nuclear, solar, wind, and geothermal. Under each topic, the availability of the resources, production, transportation, and environmental features are discussed. The second section covers energy conversion from different technologies to power/work. Some of the topics covered in this section include gas turbines, internal combustion engines, hydraulic turbines, advanced fossil fuel power systems, nuclear fusion, energy storage technologies, solar thermal energy conversion, wind energy conversion, biomass conversion process, waste-to-energy combustion, fuel cells, and direct energy conversion. Each chapter offers a general review of the topic and relevant scientific fundamentals, followed by technology applications.—CHOICE, March 2018
This handbook surveys the range of methods and fuel types used in generating energy for industry, transportation, and heating and cooling of buildings. Solar, wind, biomass, nuclear, geothermal, ocean and fossil fuels are discussed and compared, and the thermodynamics of energy conversion is explained. Appendices are provided with fully updated data. Thoroughly revised, this second edition surveys the latest advances in energy conversion from a wide variety of currently available energy sources. It describes energy sources such as fossil fuels, biomass (including refuse-derived biomass fuels), nuclear, solar radiation, wind, geothermal, and ocean, then provides the terminology and units used for each energy resource and their equivalence. It includes an overview of the steam power cycles, gas turbines, internal combustion engines, hydraulic turbines, Stirling engines, advanced fossil fuel power systems, and combined-cycle power plants. It outlines the development, current use, and future of nuclear power.
