Authors:
Surveys the inventory of energy alternatives, examining whether they can replace or supplement fossil fuels
Provides up to date research on the overlooked role of fossil fuels in industry and the challenges to the decarbonization of manufacturing
Features an overview of the myriad roles fossil energy plays in society beyond electricity generation
Includes a detailed look at the ways we could try to grow more crops to increase biofuels
Emphasizes that there is limited time left to find alternative energy resources to replace fossils before they begin to decline
Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Energy (LNEN, volume 81)
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Table of contents (33 chapters)
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Front Matter
About this book
This book is a reality check of where energy will come from in the future. Today, our economy is utterly dependent on fossil fuels. They are essential to transportation, manufacturing, farming, electricity, and to make fertilizers, cement, steel, roads, cars, and half a million other products.
One day, sooner or later, fossil fuels will no longer be abundant and affordable. Inevitably, one day, global oil production will decline. That time may be nearer than we realize. Some experts predict oil shortages as soon as 2022 to 2030. What then are our options for replacing the fossil fuels that turn the great wheel of civilization?
Surveying the arsenal of alternatives – wind, solar, hydrogen, geothermal, nuclear, batteries, catenary systems, fusion, methane hydrates, power2gas, wave, tidal power and biomass – this book examines whether they can replace or supplement fossil fuels.
The book also looks at substitute energy sources from the standpoint of the energy users. Manufacturing, which uses half of fossil fuels, often requires very high heat, which in many cases electricity can't provide. Industry uses fossil fuels as a feedstock for countless products, and must find substitutes. And, as detailed in the author's previous book, "When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation," ships, locomotives, and heavy-duty trucks are fueled by diesel. What can replace diesel?
Taking off the rose-colored glasses, author Alice Friedemann analyzes our options. What alternatives should we deploy right now? Which technologies merit further research and development? Which are mere wishful thinking that, upon careful scrutiny, dematerialize before our eyes?
Fossil fuels have allowed billions of us to live like kings. Fueled by oil, coal, and natural gas, we changed the equation constraining the carrying capacity of our planet. As fossil fuels peak and then decline, will we fall back to Earth? Are there viable alternatives?
Keywords
- Biofuels
- Biomass
- Fossil fuels
- Peak oil
- Transportation
- Manufacturing
- Renewables
- Soil erosion
- Aquifer depletion
- Fertilizer
- Limits to growth
- Hydrogen
- Ethanol
- Biodiesel
- Nuclear
- Fusion
Authors and Affiliations
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Oakland, USA
Alice J. Friedemann
About the author
Alice J. Friedemann is the creator of energyskeptic.com. Ms. Friedemann is perhaps best known for her book "When Trucks Stop Running – Energy and the Future of Transportation" published by Springer, and "Peak Soil", which was edited by David Pimentel at Cornell, Tad Patzek at U.C. Berkeley, and Walter Youngquist (author of "Geodestinies").
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Life after Fossil Fuels
Book Subtitle: A Reality Check on Alternative Energy
Authors: Alice J. Friedemann
Series Title: Lecture Notes in Energy
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70335-6
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Energy, Energy (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-70334-9Published: 30 March 2021
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-70337-0Published: 31 March 2022
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-70335-6Published: 29 March 2021
Series ISSN: 2195-1284
Series E-ISSN: 2195-1292
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIV, 207
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations, 12 illustrations in colour
Topics: Renewable Energy, Fossil Fuel, Political Economy of Energy