Energy Flows, Material Cycles and Global Development A Process Engin
The book deals with the global flows of energy and materials, and changes caused by human activities. Based on these facts, the limitations of anthropogenic energy and material flows and the resulting consequences for the development of human societies ar
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For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/7487
Georg Schaub Thomas Turek
Energy Flows, Material Cycles and Global Development A Process Engineering Approach to the Earth System
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Prof. Dr.-Ing. Georg Schaub Karlsruher Institut für Technologie Engler-Bunte-Institut Engler-Bunte-Ring 1 76131 Karlsruhe Germany [email protected]
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thomas Turek TU Clausthal Institut für Chemische Verfahrenstechnik Leibnizstraße 17 38678 Clausthal-Zellerfeld Germany [email protected]
ISSN 1863-5520 ISBN 978-3-642-12735-9 e-ISBN 978-3-642-12736-6 DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-12736-6 Springer Heidelberg Dordrecht London New York © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover design: deblik, Berlin Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
Why a Process Engineering Approach to the Earth System? Engineers involved in the handling, processing, and utilizing of materials and energy are constantly faced with the environmental and economic effects of their activities. These include environmental changes on local, regional and global scales, as well as the depletion of resources and the search for new raw materials and energy sources. This has been the experience of the authors during their professional activities as chemical engineers in industrial research and development, and in academic research and teaching in various areas of fuel chemistry and reaction engineering. This book is based on a course that has been held for engineering students for more than 10 years. In writing this book, the authors were motivated by the following questions: a) What are the factors determining macroscopic material and energy flows in the Earth’s biogeosphere? What is the appropriate approach to understand potential perturbations of natural cycles, caused by human activities and to assess significant anthropogenic terms? b) When using materials and energy, are human societies today and for the foreseeable future limited by the depletion of resources or more so by global environmental changes? As an example, discovery of large usable gas hydrate resources as a fossil energy source, would it be fortunate or more like a curs
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