Books about Biomass from Amazon.com

The coming energy crisis caused by a peak in global oil and natural gas production will profoundly affect the lives of all North Americans As the price of these vital fuels rises, homeowners will scramble to cut their fuel bills. Two options for meeting the upcoming challenge are dramatic improvements in home energy efficiency and efforts to tap into clean, affordable, renewable energy resources to heat and cool homes, to provide hot water and electricity, and even to cook. These measures can result in huge savings and a level of energy independence.

The Homeowner's Guide to Renewable Energy tells you how. It starts by outlining the likely impacts of fossil fuel shortages and some basic facts about energy. It then discusses energy conservation to slash energy bills and prepare for renewable energy options. Focusing carefully on specific strategies needed to replace specific fuels, the book then examines each practical energy option available to homeowners:

Solar hot water, cooking, and water purification
Space heat: passive and active solar retrofits
Wood heat
Passive cooling
Solar electricity
Wind-generated electricity
Electricity from microhydropower sources
Emerging technologies-hydrogen, fuel cells, methane digesters, and biodiesel

The Homeowner's Guide to Renewable Energy gives readers sufficient knowledge to hire and communicate effectively with contractors and, for those wanting do installations themselves, it recommends more detailed manuals. With a complete resource listing, this well-illustrated and accessible guide is a perfect companion for illuminating the coming dark age.

Dan Chiras has studied renewable energy and energy efficiency for three decades and has installed several renewable energy systems. He lives in a self-designed passive solar/solar electric home. An award-winning author of over 20 books, he is a sustainability design consultant who teaches courses on renewable energy, green building, and sustainability at Colorado College.

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Price: $16.98 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In this user-friendly and informative book, prolific author and academic Vaclav Smil provides an introduction to this far-reaching term and gives the reader a greater understanding of energy's place in both past and present society. Starting with an explanation of the concept, he goes on to cover such exciting topics as the inner workings of the human body, and the race for more efficient and environmentally friendly fuels. Whether you're after insight or dinner table conversation, Energy: A Beginner's Guide will amaze and inform, uncovering the science behind one of the most important concepts in our universe..
Price: $4.22 [Notify me when price goes down.]

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Price: $8.62 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Sustainable Ethanol goes beyond the headlines, uncovering the benefits and limitations of North America's fuel ethanol industry. Ethanol production and use are becoming more efficient and less reliant on fossil fuel inputs. Learn about the technologies making ethanol make sense for our environment, economy, and security. Discover how the end of cheap oil is providing an opening for biofuels; how some cars get better fuel economy on 10% ethanol compared to ethanol-free gasoline; how the next generation of flex-fuel and hybrid electric vehicles could be optimized to get much better fuel economy on ethanol; how North America can produce significant quantities of biofuels without damaging our food production capacity; how sustainable farming methods are reducing ethanol's reliance on fossil fuels; and how cellulosic ethanol can be made from waste materials and soil-restoring perennial crops..
Price: $15.30 [Notify me when price goes down.]

With shortages of fossil energy, especially oil and natural gas, and heavy biomass energy use occurring in both developed and developing countries, a major focus has developed worldwide on renewable energy systems. Renewable energy systems include wind power, biomass, photovoltaics, hydropower, solar thermal, thermal ponds, and biogas.

Currently, a heavy focus is on biofuels made from crops, such as corn, sugarcane, and soybeans, for use as renewable energy sources. Wood and crop residues also are being used as fuel. Though it may seem beneficial to use renewable plant materials for biofuel, the use of crop residues and other biomass for biofuels raises many concerns about major environmental problems, including food shortages and serious destruction of vital soil resources.

All renewable energy systems need to be investigated because humankind has only about 40 years of oil and gas reserves remaining. There is a 50 to 100 year supply of coal resources in the ground, but coal will become increasingly difficult to extract and will greatly increase the global warming threat.

Serious energy conservation and research on viable renewable energy technologies are needed. This book considers the effectiveness and economics of several renewable energy technologies of current interest, including biofuels, solar and wind.

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Price: $60.27 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The theory, design, construction, and operation of microbial fuel cells

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs), devices in which bacteria create electrical power by oxidizing simple compounds such as glucose or complex organic matter in wastewater, represent a new and promising approach for generating power. Not only do MFCs clean wastewater, but they also convert organics in these wastewaters into usable energy. Given the world's limited supply of fossil fuels and fossil fuels' impact on climate change, MFC technology's ability to create renewable, carbon-neutral energy has generated tremendous interest around the world.

This timely book is the first dedicated to MFCs. It not only serves as an introduction to the theory underlying the development and functioning of MFCs, it also serves as a manual for ongoing research. In addition, author Bruce Logan, a leading pioneer in MFC research and development, provides practical guidance for the effective design and operation of MFCs based on his own firsthand experience.

This reference covers everything you need to fully understand MFCs, including:
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Key topics such as voltage and power generation, MFC materials and architecture, mass transfer to bacteria and biofilms, bioreactor design, and fundamentals of electron transfer
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Applications across a wide variety of scales, from power generation in the laboratory to approaches for using MFCs for wastewater treatment
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The role of MFCs in the climate change debate
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Detailed illustrations of bacterial and electrochemical concepts
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Charts, graphs, and tables summarizing key design and operation variables
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Practice problems and step-by-step examples

Microbial Fuel Cells, with its easy-to-follow explanations, is recommended as both a textbook for students and professionals interested in entering the field and as a complete reference for more experienced practitioners..
Price: $67.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

* A unique global assessment of the potential opportunities and risks of biofuels

* A comprehensive analysis, that takes the reader from an introduction to specific biofuels, through the prospects for technology and agriculture, to the economic, social and environmental implications

* Explores and analyzes the debates surrounding biofuels, offering authoritative conclusions

The world is on the verge of an unprecedented increase in the production and use of biofuels for transport. The combination of rising oil prices, issues of security, climate instability and pollution, deepening poverty in rural and agricultural areas, and a host of improved technologies, is propelling governments to enact powerful incentives for the use of these fuels, which is in turn sparking investment.

Biofuels for Transport is a unique and comprehensive assessment of the opportunities and risks of the large-scale production of biofuels, which demystifies complex questions and concerns, such as the “food v. fuel” debate. Global in scope, it is further informed by five country studies from Brazil, China, Germany, India and Tanzania. The authors conclude that biofuels will play a significant role in our energy future, but warn that the large-scale use of biofuels carries risks that require focused and immediate policy initiatives..
Price: $68.39 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In contrast to traditional combustion, gasification technologies offer the potential for converting coal and low or negative-value feedstocks, such as petroleum coke and various waste materials into usable energy sources or chemicals. With a growing number of companies operating and marketing systems based on gasification concepts worldwide, this book combines the latest information and real-world experience in developing gasification technologies.

Gasification Technologies: A Primer for Engineers and Scientists discusses gasification techniques and the benefits of each technology, including gas clean-up technologies and those used in hybrid systems and fuel cells. It also accounts for the primary products that are recovered and explains how these products are purified and can be used as fuel or for applications in petrochemical processes. The book describes the conditions in which optimal value intermediate products can be recovered, focusing on key factors such as oxygen or air blown reactor, operating temperature, internal and external heating, and reactor design. The authors also establish how gasification can help meet renewable energy targets, address concerns about global warming, and contribute to a better carbon management or achieving Kyoto Protocol commitments.

Gasification Technologies provide a multidimensional and well-rounded examination of current technology, research, applications, and development challenges for the commercialization of this increasingly popular technology..
Price: $100.76 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Prepared under the auspices of the IEA Bioenergy Research Programme, this unique handbook presents both the theory and applications of biomass combustion and cofiring, from basic principles to industrial combustion and environmental impact, in a clear and comprehensive manner. It offers a solid grounding on biomass combustion and advice on improving combustion systems. Written by leading international academics and industrial experts, it is an essential resource for anyone interested in biomass combustion and co-firing technologies varying from domestic woodstoves to utility scale power generation.

The book covers subjects including biomass fuel pre-treatment and logistics, modelling the combustion process, concepts for co-firing biomass with coal and includes an overview of the current R&D needs regarding biomass combustion.
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Price: $118.34 [Notify me when price goes down.]

New Process Technology for Developing Low-Cost, Environmentally Safe Biofuels

Rising fuel prices have created a surge in the worldwide demand for biofuels made from plant and animal feedstocks. Filled with a wealth of illustrations, Biofuels Engineering Process Technology fully explains the concepts, systems, and technology now being used to produce biofuels on both an industrial and small scale.

Written by a team of leading biofuels experts, this lucid guide presents a complete introduction to biofuels and biorefining processes…state-of-the-art information on biofuels processed from fermentations of ethanol, hydrogen, microbial oils, and methane…new material on the production of biodiesel from plant and algal oils…and the use of microbial fuel cells to produce bioelectricity. Biofuels Engineering Process Technology takes readers step by step through:

• The key concepts, systems, and technology of biofuels
• A review of the basic concepts of fermentation pathways and kinetic modeling of bioreactors
• Biofuels produced from fermentations of agricultural feedstocks and biomass-ethanol, hydrogen, microbial oils, and methane
• Biodiesel fuels processed from the chemical conversion of microbial and plant oils
• Bioelectricity produced from microbial fuel cells
• The latest sustainable biorefinery concepts and methods

Inside This Cutting-Edge Biofuels Engineering Guide

• Introduction • Fuels from Fermentations: Ethanol • Hydrogen • Microbial Oils • Methane • Fuel from Chemical Conversion of Plant and Algal Oils: Biodiesel • Microbial Fuel Cells • Technical Resources.
Price: $93.05 [Notify me when price goes down.]