UID:
almahu_9949880752602882
Umfang:
1 online resource (252 pages)
ISBN:
9781351402910
,
1351402919
,
9780203733073
,
020373307X
,
9781351402927
,
1351402927
,
9781351402903
,
1351402900
Inhalt:
Dwindling global supplies of conventional energy and materials resources are widely thought to severely constrain, or even render impossible, a "first-world" lifestyle for the bulk of Earth's inhabitants. This bleak prospect, however, is wrong. Current energy resources are used grotesquely inefficiently as heat ("fuels," after all, are "burned"), so that well over half of the energy is simply dissipated into the environment. In turn, conventional materials resources, particularly of metals, are geologically anomalous deposits that also are typically processed by the prodigious application of raw heat. Simultaneously, rising levels of pollution worldwide are a challenge to remediate as they require the extraction of pollutants at low concentration. Nanotechnology, the structuring of matter at near-molecular scales, offers the prospect of solving all these problems at a stroke. Non-thermal use of energy, in broad emulation of what organisms do already, will not only lead to more efficient use but make practical diffuse sources such as sunlight. Pollution control and resource extraction become two aspects of the same fundamental problem, the low-energy extraction of particular substances from an arbitrary background of other substances, and this also is in emulation of what biosystems carry out already. This book sketches out approaches both for the efficient, non-thermal use of energy and the molecular extraction of solutes, primarily from aqueous solution, for purification, pollution control, and resource extraction. Some long-term implications for resource demand are also noted. In particular, defect-free fabrication at the molecular level is ultimately likely to make structural metals obsolete.
Anmerkung:
Catalysis and syngas.
,
Intro; Halftitle Page; Title Page; Copyright; Table of Contents; Acknowledgments; 1 Introduction: The global resource predicament; The paleotechnical era; The biological inspiration; Nanotechnology and resources; Vastly Improved Efficiency of Energy Usage; Information-intensive energy extraction; Solid-state energy generation; Molecular separation of elements and molecules; Change of materials mix; 2 The Heat Crisis; Energy, Free and Otherwise; The Promethean Paradigm; Heat Engines; Work Smarter, Not Hotter; Conventional Energy Sources: The Numbers and the Problem; Primary Sources of Energy.
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Renewable Energy SourcesBiomass; Hydropower and wind; Direct solar energy; Tidal energy; Geothermal energy; Nonrenewable Sources: Fossil Fuels; Oil: the global thirst; Oil consumption; Natural gas; Coal; Nuclear fission energy; A Note on Electricity; The Alternatives: A Brief Survey; Efficiency; Better catalysts; Molecular separation technologies; Minimization of waste heat; Superstrong materials; Smart materials; Distributed fabrication; Electricity storage; Information technologies: getting more out of matter; New Energy Sources; Unconventional fossil fuels; Better oil recovery; Oil "shale."
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Tar ("oil") sandsClathrates ("gas hydrates"); Solar energy; Solar energy, indirect use (the solar heat engine); Solar energy, direct use; Nuclear fusion; 3 Matter Matters; Agriculture; Minerals and Ores; Separation: A Fundamental Technological Problem; The Biological Example; Fundamental Costs of Element Extraction; Sulfide ores; The Promethean Paradigm, Revisited: Pyrometallurgy and Phase Separation; Non-thermal Extractive Processes; Electrolysis; Separation from fluid media; Non-phase separation techniques; Hydrometallurgy; Solute selectivity; Oil as Non-fuel; 4 Nanotechnology.
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The biological inspirationNanotechnology and resources; Nanotechnology; Nanotechnological fabrication; Bottom-Up Approaches; Conventional chemical synthesis: making molecules; Self-organization; Biomimetic crystallization; Nanoparticles, nanocrystals, and colloids; Molecular self-assembly (SA); Two-dimensional structures; Ordering by electric fields; Modification processes; Chemical modification; Vapor deposition; Physical modification; Lithography; 5 Nanotechnology and Energy; Nanotechnology vs. Prometheus: Efficiency; Catalysis; Non-thermal engines; Fuel cells; Fuel cell catalysts.
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Fuel cell electrolyteSuperstrength Materials; Passive Energy Handling; Smart Materials; High-Temperature Superconductors; Ubiquitous Sensing; Energy storage; Portable Power Sources; Batteries; Capacitors; Double-layer capacitors; Fuel cells; EIectrosynthesis; Hydrogen Storage; Nanofabrication and Custom Fabrication; Distributed Fabrication: The Demise of Bulk Transportation; Diffuse Resources; Nanotechnology and Solid-State Energy Generation; Heat Engines: Thermoelectric Power; Thermoelectric materials; Piezoelectric Power; Piezoelectric "stacks"; New Energy Sources; Fossil Fuels and Biomass.
Weitere Ausg.:
Print version: Gillett, Stephen L. Nanotechnology and the Resource Fallacy. Milton : Pan Stanford Publishing, ©2018 ISBN 9789814303873
Sprache:
Englisch
URL:
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780203733073
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