There is a mounting consensus that human behavior is changing the global climate and its consequence could be catastrophic. Reducing the 24 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions from stationary and mobile sources is a gigantic task involving both technological challenges and monumental financial and societal costs. The pursuit of sustainable energy resources, environment, and economy has become a complex issue of global scale that affects the daily life of every citizen of the world. The present mitigation activities range from energy conservation, carbon-neutral energy conversions, carbon advanced combustion process that produce no greenhouse gases and that enable carbon capture and sequestion, to other advanced technologies. From its causes and impacts to its solutions, the issues surrounding climate change involve multidisciplinary science and technology. This handbook will provide a single source of this information. The book will be divided into the following sections: Scientific Evidence of Climate Change and Societal Issues, Impacts of Climate Change, Energy Conservation, Alternative Energies, Advanced Combustion, Advanced Technologies, and Education and Outreach.
Dr. Wei-Yin Chen is a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Mississippi. He has been investigating fossil fuel conversions and emissions control since 1975. His recent research interests include advanced combustion and emissions control for stationary and mobile sources. Four patent applications are pending. He organized a climate change study group that has been offering courses, developing outreach programs and collaborating on research projects. He has been a panelist of the National Science Foundation, US Department of Energy, US Environmental Protection Agency, and Chang-Jiang Scholar Program of China. Dr. Chen has received both the outstanding teaching and the outstanding research awards from the School of Engineering, the University of Mississippi.
Dr. John M. Seiner is Director of the National Center for Physical Acoustics and Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of Mississippi.
Dr. Maximilian Lackner received his PhD in technical chemistry from the Vienna University of Technology/Austria in 2003 and his habilitation in chemical engineering in 2009. He has authored 80 publications and edited several books. Dr. Lackner is lecturing at Vienna University of Technology on combustion and ignition. He serves on the advisory board of the Association of German Engineers (VDI) in Eastern Austria and is a reviewer for the US DOE. After working 2 years in China, he has returned to Europe to run a startup company for anti-microbial surfaces. The technology, which is based on the acid protection mantle of the human skin, can avoid infections in hospitals and bring substantial energy savings in industry, e.g. in cooling towers and hot water systems, to contribute to the mitigation of climate change.
Dr. Toshio Suzuki is a research scientist for the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Nagoya, Japan, working on the development of micro tubular SOFCs. Before joining AIST, he worked as an Assistant Research Professor at the University of Missouri - Rolla (now Missouri University of Science and Technology), on single chamber SOFCs and low temperature ceramic processing for SOFC components. He earned his M.S. in Applied Physics at Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, and his Ph.D. in Ceramic Engineering from the University of Missouri - Rolla.
