Foundations of Energy

Course code B51ET

Foundations of Energy
Course code B51ET

Course aims
This module aims to give a very broad overview into the range of issues relevant to
energy as a commodity. Given the vast range of topics and disciplines this covers, it
will miss out many important aspects but the aim is to equip the reader with enough
background information the engage fully with the more detailed modules which
follow in the course, and to provide enough information and pointers to be able to
join the current debate on energy with some confidence. The expected learning
objectives are:

 You will revive the basic engineering sciences underpinning all aspects of Energy,
namely thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, and electrical power
generation, and put those into context of basic energy conversion technologies.
 You will acquire an overview over current energy resources, including fossil fuels
and renewable resources.
 You will gain a broad appreciation of the global and national patterns of energy
use.
 The impacts of energy use on society and the environment will be introduced.
 Issues of appropriate energy use, energy saving and energy efficiency will be
addressed.
 The main current activities to formulate and implement global and national
policies will be addressed.

With the insight gained, you will be able to assess critically, and contribute
constructively to, the ongoing debates and strategies for a sustainable energy
production.

ii
Course material
This course is based on material supplied by us, some of which is contained in this
booklet and some of which is available from the web-based Virtual Learning
Environment, https://canvas.hw.ac.uk/, in the following referred to as VLE. Take your
time to familiarise yourself with the online material, as it not only contains material
to be learned but also links to online resources, as well as places where you have to
complete course work. Other material is gathered by you during your studies for this
module. It is expected that you use the following resources in your research as much
as possible:

 this booklet
 the online notes
 standard text books on Energy, Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics, and other
engineering topics relevant to Energy. A list of some basic text books is given
below and in the ‘Library and Resources’ section in the online module.
 Professional and scientific journals, as available in your library or work place
 Online library resources provided to you from Heriot Watt Library through
internet connection and Athens Authentication, in particular:
o The Encyclopedia of Energy. C. C. Cleveland, Elsevier, 2004
o ISI World of Knowledge, probably the most comprehensive citation index for
engineering, science, and other research journal publications
o Electronic scientific journals
o The websites of organisations, e.g the International Energy Agency.

Textbooks
The last few years have seen the publication or revision of a good number of
textbooks on various aspects energy, and any recommendation will be based on
personal preference. Books I have used include
J. Andrews and N. Jelley. Energy Science: Principles, technologies, and impacts.
Oxford University Press, 2007
G. Boyle, B. Everett and J. Ramage (Editors) (2003). Energy systems and
sustainability. Open University. David JC Mackay. Sustainable Energy – without the
hot air. http://www.withouthotair.com
J. Ramage. Energy: a guidebook. Oxford University Press, 1997, 2nd edition.
G. J. Aubrecht. Energy. Prentice-Hall, 1995, 2nd edition, and

iii
E. S. Cassedy and P. Z. Grossman. Introduction to Energy – Resources, Technology,
and Society.
Cambridge University Press, 1998, 2 nd edition.
James A McGovern: The essence of Engineering Thermodynamics, Prentice Hall
Y. A. Çengel and R. H. Turner (2001). Introduction to Thermal-Fluid Sciences,
McGraw-Hill
B. S. Massey (now B.S. Massey and Ward-Smith). Mechanics of Fluids, Chapman&Hall
or Stanley Thornes, now 7th or 8th edition.
Edward Hughes (2002). Hughes electrical and electronic technology. Prentice Hall,
8th edition
Frank P Incropera, David P DeWitt (2007), Fundamentals of Heat and Mass
Transfer, John Wiley and Sons.

iv
v
Contents

The energy challenge 11

1.1 Why bother with ‘Energy’? 11

1.2 Energy use, now and projected 12
1.3 What is ‘energy’ and ‘power’ 15
Energy units and conversions 15
What is ‘power’ 16
Types of energy and power 17
Quality of energy 20
Efficiency 21
Load factor, Capacity factor 22
Capacity credit 23
1.4 ‘Energy’ as a commodity 24
The flow of energy 24
Efficient use of energy 24
Energy in the supply-and-demand chain 26

Energy Resources 29

2.1 What are energy resources 29

2.2 Our ultimate energy sources 30
2.3 Finite and Renewable energy sources 30
Definition of Finite Energy Resources 31
Definition of Renewable Energy Resources 32
2.4 A simple model of finite energy reserves 33
2.5 Some energy currents and accumulated energy amounts 36
Sun light 36
Wind 37

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2.6 Fuels 38
Biomass 39
2.7 Coal 40
Hydrocarbons (Oil and Gas) 43
Nuclear fuel 45

Thermodynamics 47

3.1 Thermodynamic laws 47

Zeroth thermodynamic law 48
First thermodynamic law 48
Second thermodynamic law 49
Third thermodynamic law 50
3.2 Types of systems 51
Closed systems or non-flow systems 51
Open systems or flow systems 52
3.3 Ideal gas 52
The ideal gas equation for real gases 53
Alternative forms of the ideal gas equation 54
Energy and enthalpy of an ideal gas 55
3.4 Types of thermodynamic processes 55
The p-v diagram and the T-s diagram 56
Isobaric, isochoric, and isothermal expansion and compression of an ideal
gas 56
Isentropic expansion and compression of an ideal gas 57
Summary of ideal gas processes 57

Thermal engines and turbines 60

4.1 Basics for thermodynamic cycles 60

Efficiency 61
Open and closed cycles 61
The most ideal thermodynamic cycle: the Carnot cycle 62
4.2 Closed systems: internal combustion engines 63
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 The spark-ignition engine: the Otto cycle 63
The compression-ignition engine: the Diesel cycle 66
4.3 Turbines: Open systems 67
Steam turbines: the Rankine cycle 67
Gas turbines: the Brayton cycle 70

Refrigerators and Heat Pumps 75

5.1 Refrigeration and heat pump principles 75

5.2 Coefficient of Performance 76

Heat Transfer 79

6.1 What is heat transfer and why bother? 79

6.2 Heat conduction 80
Simple conduction and Fourier’s law 80
6.3 Thermal Resistance and U-value 82
6.4 Convection 82
6.5 Radiation 83
View factor for a sphere 83
View factor for radiation between two parallel grey plates 84
6.6 Combined heat transfer through several layers 84

Fluid mechanics 89

7.1 Basic Fluid Mechanic principles 89

The control volume 89
Continuity equation 90
Momentum equation 90
Energy, energy per unit volume, and head 91
Bernoulli's equation 92
Mechanical and Fluid power 93
Dimensional analysis 93

Fluid machines 97

8.1 Definition of fluid machines 97

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 Dimensional Analysis for fluid machines 98
Specific Speed 99
8.2 Types of turbines 100
Reaction turbines 100
Impulse turbines 101
Turbine types according to their specific speed 101
Controlling the output 104
Propellers and wind turbines 105
Actuator disk theory 106
Wind turbine 107
Propeller 108
Some remarks on wind turbines 109

Electricity generation and transmission 112

9.1 Generation 112

Faraday’s law 112
Power transformers 113
Losses in transmission 113

Energy statistics 115

10.1 Energy statistics 115

Data and information reliability and use 115
Data collation and presentation 116
10.2 Primary energy 117
10.3 Energy consumption 119
10.4 Production and consumption 121
10.5 Change over time 122
10.6 Energy data in relation to other statistics 123
Per caput consumption 123
Energy and GDP 124
Energy and standard of living 124

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 Energy and Climate 126

Outlook 131

11.1 Energy and sustainable development 131

11.2 Energy saving and energy efficiency 132
11.3 Technological, behavioural, and attitudinal solutions 132
11.4 Is Renewable Energy always good? 132
11.5 Energy and climate 133
11.6 Costing energy 134

Appendices 135

Appendix A: Energy units and conversions 135

Appendix B: Answers to selected questions 138
Appendix C: Example exam 141
Appendix D: Solutions to the example exam 148

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1 The energy challenge

The energy challenge

Introduction
The aim of the chapter is to give a very brief, and broad-brush, overview of the role
energy plays in life and how energy is generated and consumed. While we will require
increasing amounts of energy to sustain the world's population, the demand must be
met in a way which can be sustained by the world, not only in economic but also social
and environmental terms.

1.1 Why bother with ‘Energy’?

A very succinct summary of why it is worthwhile to study energy can be found in the
first paragraph of Energy, a guidebook:

Energy matters. Many of us pay good money for it, and many more of us walk
for miles every day to find it. Some of us become very cross when we can’t
get it, and some of us even got to war over it. None of us could survive
without it.

J. Ramage. Energy, a guidebook, p. 3

There is not much more to say about the importance of energy.
Just a few illustrations from recent history may underline these statements:

 The fuel bill is the second-largest item on an average UK resident’s monthly bill
after their mortgage or rent. Gas and electricity prices have roughly doubled
between July 2007 and September 2008.
 Farmers and lorry drivers in the UK managed to affect seriously daily life when
they protested in 2000 over what they felt were excessive fuel prices.
 Life and the economy in California were seriously affected when the energy
industry was unable to supply uninterrupted electricity to its customers in 2001.

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1 The energy challenge

 While countries tried to avoid military action in many parts of the world, swift
action was taken, especially by the USA and UK, when Kuwait was invaded by
Iraq, which obviously had serious implications on global oil supplies.
 Following the conflict between Georgia and Russia in August 2008, about the
region of South Ossetia, Russia is using not only the threat of retaliation but also
the threat to disrupt gas exports to those countries which Russia perceives as
interfering in that conflict. Amidst some outrage expressed by some European
politicians others have said the Europe would also suffer if they were to provoke
Russia (see press reports end August/beginning September 2008)
Serious interest in energy as global ‘problem’ first resulted from the oil crisis in the
1970s, and many textbooks were written in the late 70s or early 80s. At that time
many predictions of doom were published and discussed – fuel running out within the
lifetime of the current generation etc., but life did not stop and many returned to life
as usual, putting energy on the backburner. More recently, it has returned to the
headlines, this time in connection with its impact on our environment. Opinions to the
severity (or existence) of the problems, or which actions should be taken, are as
divided as ever. All the time, however, it is an integral part of international and global
politics, sometimes overtly so, sometimes not, going back at least to the Hitler’s
‘Lebensraum im Osten’ and continuing in regular involvement of the Developed World
in resource-rich regions of the developing world, be that through overt or covert
support of one party over another, or in direct military actions.

1.2 Energy use, now and projected

Before we go into the details of what energy is, and how it is produced and consumed,
it is worth looking at the global perspective of energy in today’s and tomorrow’s
world. During the 20th century, humans have consumed ten times more energy than
in the preceding millennium. This trend is due to both the dramatic increase in the
world's population and the increased per-capita energy consumption in the
industrialised world. Also, the forms of energy used has been extended tremendously.
Before the invention and widespread use of powered transport and before
industrialisation, most energy was used in the form of heating, cooking, and lighting.
Now, however, energy is used in a much wider variety, from the traditional heat and
light generation to transport and many domestic and industrial applications of
electricity. The per-capita use varies accordingly between the different continents. The
typical power consumption per person is largest in the US with 10kW, while in Europe it
is about 4kW per person. At the other end of the spectrum, in poor developing
countries the power consumption is as low as 0.1kW per person. The vast difference

12
1 The energy challenge

in the energy demand could suggest that there might be a large potential for using
energy much more efficiently in highly industrial countries. Textbox 1 illustrates a
'back of the envelope' calculation of energy demand in terms of population and
energy efficiency.
Textbox 1: Calculation of Energy Demand for population:
While the average energy demand per person varies, one can probably relate it roughly to
the standard of living of a person living in a specific country. Using such an estimate,
together with the total population will give an estimate for the total energy demand,
either for a country or the whole world.
Symbols used: R Total energy required for population
N Number of people in population
E Per capita energy demand
S Standard of living
f coefficient to relate per capita energy demand to standard of living
The total annual energy requirement is linked to the population and the per-capita
requirement by
R = E N.
The standard of living and the per-capita energy requirement are related by the empirical
factor f, S = f E.
The factor f might be interpreted as an efficiency of how much energy consumption
contributes to the standard of living. Combining these two equations gives
R = S N / f.
Currently the world’s population is roughly N 0= 6 billion (6×109), and the energy
consumption in 1997 was approximately 9500Mtoe. With this, the per capita
consumption was E0= 1.58toe. This equals the ratio S/f.
Current predictions are that the population grows by 2 to 3% per year, and that the
standard of living increases by 2 to 5%.
Let us normalise the measure of the standard of living, S, such that f=1toe–1 in 1997. Then,
the standard of living in 1997 was S0= 1.58. If we assume 2% for both quantities, then the
population by 2020 will be N = N0×1.0223= 9.5×109, and the standard of living will be S=
2.49. If there is no increase in the efficiency of the energy used, then f will remain
constant, and the total energy demand for 2020 will be R= SN/f= 23,700Mtoe!
Exercise:
Assume a population increase of 2% per year, but an increase in the standard of living by
4%. Advances in technology, however, have quadrupled the efficiency of energy conversion
to f= 4toe-4. Calculate the energy requirement for the year 2020. Could today’s energy
production satisfy the demand?

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1 The energy challenge

Figure 1.1: Energy supply by fuel from 1971 to 2008 (Source: IEA)

Table 1: Energy statistics for the USA, UK, Norway, India, China, and Zambia for 1997.

Total
TPES/
Popu- Primary
pop Hydro Coal/Peat Oil Gas Nuclear Renewable
lation Energy
Country and waste
Supply
(toe/cap % % % % % %
(Mio) (TPES) )
(Mtoe)

USA 304.55 2,284 7.5 1 23.9 37.3 23.8 9.6 4.4

UK 61.35 208 3.4 0.2 17.3 32.6 40.7 6.6 2.5

Norway 4.77 29.7 6.22 38.9 2.5 38.1 15.7 0 4.8

India 1,139.97 621 0.54 1.6 42.1 23.3 5.7 0.6 26.6

China 1,325.64 2,116 1.6 2.4 66.5 17.2 3.2 0.8 9.9

Zambia 12.62 7.4 0.58 11.3 0 7.5 0 0 81.2

Bahrain 0.77 9.2 12.03 0 0 15.8 84.2 0 0

UAE 4.48 58.4 13.03 0 0 17.6 82.4 0 0

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1 The energy challenge

Figure 1.2: Energy supply by fuel outlook for 2030 (Source: IEA)

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimated the world total primary energy
supply in 2008 to be 12,267 Mtoe (Mega tonnes oil equivalent), compared to 6,115
Mtoe in 1973. An estimate of total primary energy supply for 2030 is between 14,389
Mtoe and 16,790 Mtoe (depending on the scenario), see Figure 1.2 and Figure 1.2 for
a few selected countries are shown in Table 1.

1.3 What is ‘energy’ and ‘power’

The Oxford English Dictionary defines energy in the following way:

‘Energy: … 6. Physics. The power of ‘doing work’ possessed at any

instant by a body or system of bodies,…’ (Oxford English Dictionary)

Energy units and conversions

The basic SI unit of energy is joule (J), although kilojoule (kJ= 1000J) is more common
among engineers. When considering national or global amounts of energy, the
kilojoule is far too small to be useful, and Megajoule (106J), Gigajoule (109J), Terajoule
(1012J), Petajoule (1015J), and even Exajoule (1018J) are used1.
For electricity production which must balance the demand minute by minute, the
instantaneous load, or rate of energy consumption, is more relevant than the
accumulated energy supplied or used. The rate of change of energy is measured in

1
All these names and powers of ten, as well as conversions between commonly used energy and
power units, are summarised in Appendix A

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1 The energy challenge

joule/second = watt (W), or kW. For accounting purposes, the accumulated energy is
then calculated in kWh (1kWh= 3600kJ= 3.6MJ).
Since the vast majority of our energy consumption is based on the burning of fossil
fuels, it is customary to base energy on the energy released by that fuel. A major
difficulty with this is that in the quality of fuels from different mines or reservoirs
varies substantially. Hence, it is not possible to give a fixed figure of the energy
contained in a tonne of coal or oil but one has to agree on the energy contained in a
tonne of coal or oil from a ‘typical’ reservoir. In the past, the unit of a ‘tonne of coal
equivalent’ was used but these days, it is the tonne of oil equivalent (toe) or Mtoe (a
million toe), with 1 toe = 42 GJ. The corresponding energy content of electricity is
given as 1TWh (= 109kWh)= 0.086Mtoe (Source: IEA).

What is ‘power’
According to the definition, energy represents the potential to do something. To
actually do something, one has to use energy of one form and convert it to another
form. The ‘doing’ implies a time dimension, but potential has no time associated
with it – you could have the potential of being a genius, but if you don’t do anything
about it, it won’t ever happen; but if you do something about it, the result not only
depends on your potential but also on the rate or effort at which you do something
about it. The same applies to energy and power, and this can be used do define
power as:

Power is the rate of doing work.

Mathematically, the rate involves the differentiation with respect to time of one
energy quantity. If the rate is constant through a time period then the differentiation
simplifies to the ratio of the energy difference over the time interval over which it
has changed. In many practical applications, a time-averaged rate of change is used
to be able to just divide rather than differentiate.
𝑑𝐸
𝑃=
𝑑𝑡
or, if dE/dt constant:
∆𝐸
𝑃=
∆𝑡
or to work out an average power
∆𝐸
𝑃̅ =
∆𝑡

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1 The energy challenge

The basic unit of power is the watt: 1 W= 1 J/s= 1 kg m2 s-3

This is usually used in 1 kW= 1000 W; 1 MW= 106 W and higher powers.
In physical terms, the ‘rate’ can be a rate of increasing or decreasing a store of energy,
e.g. burning a fuel at a certain rate, or it can be the rate at which a certain energy flows
through a system or meter, e.g. electricity flowing through a circuit or mechanical
power being transmitted from the engine of a vehicle to the wheel.
NB: Never, ever mix up energy and power, not in concept, terminology, or units!!!

Examples:
1 To accelerate a car for overtaking, you may need to use all available power of
the engine, e.g. 85 kW (i.e. power), at that time, but over a typical 100 km
journey (during which you accelerate, keep the speed constant, break, etc.) you
may have used up 10 litres of petrol (about 430 MJ – ie energy)
4 Switching on all light bulbs and appliances in your house will cause you to need at
that time a power of, say 10 kW – and the electricity generator must be able to
generate that (power), but in a year (= 365 days * 24 h = 8760 h) that only happens
occasionally. So, you only buy, for example 5000 kWh from the electricity company
(energy). As a result, the electricity company must make money on the energy (5000
kWh) but, at any time, its generators must respond to your demand which will
change between very little (when only the red light on the TV and your alarm clock
are on, e.g. 1 W – well, you should have remembered to turn the TV off properly
anyway…) and the maximum you can want (10 kW).
5 It is possible, to work out from the annual consumption what the average power is:
Pav = 5000 kWh / 8760 h = 570 W. This is a power unit, but is it a very meaningful or
useful power value? The answer to that will depend on the question you ask

Types of energy and power

Energy comes in many forms, ranging from potential energy of an object sitting
somewhere high up and having the potential to fall down – converting the potential
energy to motion – ‘kinetic energy’, to electric and electromagnetic energy. This is
only a brief list to illustrate types of energy:

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1 The energy challenge

Heat

𝑄 = 𝑚 ∙ 𝑐𝑝 ∙ ∆𝑇 𝑜𝑟 𝑄 = 𝑚 ∙ 𝑐𝑣 ∙ ∆𝑇

Heat = mass  specific heat  temperature difference

The heat flow rate or heat flux (units W) can either be

𝑑𝑇
 how fast a fixed mass of material is heated up or cooled down: 𝑄̇ = 𝑚 ∙ 𝐶 ∙ 𝑑𝑡 d
 how much heat some material can pick up from another material at a different t
temperature as it flows past the other material: 𝑄̇ = 𝑚̇ ∙ 𝐶 ∙ ∆𝑇
 how much a material must be heated (e.g. using an electric heater) to maintain
it at a different temperature from another material with which it is in contact,
e.g. 𝑄̇ = ℎ ∙ 𝐴 ∙ ∆𝑇 where A is the area of contact between the materials and h
is the heat transfer coefficient in units W/ (kg m2).
Potential energy

𝐸𝑝 = 𝑚 ∙ 𝑔 ∙ ℎ

Potential energy = mass  gravitational acceleration  height.

𝑑ℎ
The rate of change of this is either how fast the height changes, 𝑃 = 𝑚 ∙ 𝑔 ∙ , or at
𝑑𝑡 d
what rate material flows from a height h down to the ground (h=0), 𝑃 = 𝑚̇ ∙ 𝑔 ∙ ℎ t
Kinetic energy

1
𝐸𝑘 = ∙ 𝑚 ∙ 𝑣2
2
Kinetic energy = half  mass  velocity squared.
The rate of change of kinetic energy is either the acceleration of the mass,
1 𝑑 1 𝑑𝑣 𝑑 1 𝑑𝑣
𝑃 = 2 ∙ 𝑚 ∙ 𝑑𝑡 (𝑣 2 ) = 2 ∙ 𝑚 ∙ 𝑑𝑡 ∙ 𝑑𝑣 (𝑣 2 ) = 2 ∙ 𝑚 ∙ 𝑑𝑡 ∙ 2 ∙ 𝑣 = 𝑚𝑣𝑎, or at what rate
2 d 1
material of a certain speed flows through, 𝑃 = 2 ∙ 𝑚̇ ∙ 𝑣 2
t
Work

W= F d = force  distance
The power associated with work done by moving an object under a force along a
distance x is
𝑑𝑥
𝑃 = 𝐹 ∙ 𝑑𝑡 = 𝐹𝑣, where v is the object’s velocity.

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1 The energy challenge

Pressure work

Wp= p V= pressure  Volume

This is the same as applying a pressure force, F= pA, on an area A, and moving it by a
distance d, changing the volume by 𝐴 ∙ 𝑑: 𝑊 = 𝐹 ∙ 𝑑 = 𝑝 ∙ 𝐴 ∙ 𝑑 = 𝑝 ∙ 𝑉
𝑑𝑉
The power in changing a volume is 𝑃 = which can either be the rate at which the
𝑑𝑡
volume of a given material increases or decreases, or at which a certain volume of
material flows through the system.
Electrical energy

Eel= V Q= volt  charge.

The rate of change of electrical energy is given by the rate of change of charge, which is
𝑑𝑄
the electric current, 𝑑𝑡
= 𝐼 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑃 = 𝐼 ∙ 𝑉.

Since the unit of the electric current is Ampere (A), electric power is also sometimes
identified by the unit ‘Volt-Ampere’. However, since it is a power unit, the unit VA is
the same as W. (there are some differences in the usage for the units of VA and W,
however). For the same reason, the capacity of batteries (i.e. the energy stored in
them) is often quantified as Vah (Volt- Ampere-hours = joule).
Radiation

Energy of a photon: Eph = h  h c / ,

with Planck's constant, h= 6.625 10  34 J s, and the frequency, , or the speed of light, c,
and wavelength, .
Chemical' energy

The heat released in a chemical reaction. This is specific to each reaction and is usually
given as energy unit mass (e.g. kJ/kg) or number of molecules (e.g. kJ/mol)
Atomic energy

E= m c2
Atomic energy = mass  speed of light squared, with c= 3  108 m/s
The energy obtained in nuclear fission comes from the tiny difference in mass
between the starting product of the fission process and the end products

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1 The energy challenge

Quality of energy
While the first law of thermodynamics states that all forms of energy are equal (in
numeric terms), the second law states that some forms are 'more equal than others'.
By insisting that the entropy—a quantity related to temperature—cannot decrease
during processes in thermodynamic equilibrium, the second law implies that any
energy conversion leads to generation of waste heat. It is thus much harder to convert
heat to mechanical energy than the other way round. To gain a measure of the
difference between the different forms of energy, the concept of quality is defined:

Quality is defined as the proportion of an energy source than can be

converted to mechanical work.

Energy supplies can be broadly divided into three divisions by quality:

1 Mechanical supplies are those energy sources, which provide directly work from
potential or kinetic energy for extraction. Examples of mechanical supplies are
hydropower, wind, waves, and tides. The conversion of the kinetic or potential
energy into electricity is usually quite high, and so is the proportion of the
energy extracted from the available energy current. Typical proportions for wind
are 30% and hydropower 60%.
2 Heat supplies are those which in the first instance provide heat—either for
direct consumption or further conversion into work or electricity. Examples are
all the fossil fuels and nuclear energy, together with biomass combustion and
solar heating. Even in ideal situations, the conversion of the heat to other forms
is limited by the second law of thermodynamics, and in practice the efficiency of
conversion processes is about half of the ideal maximum. For example, for
thermal boiler heat engines, a realistic maximum quality is about 0.35 or 35%.
3 Photon processes convert the solar radiation into other forms of energy.
Examples are photosynthesis and photochemistry used for the production of
biofuels and photovoltaic conversion to electricity. In theory, a photovoltaic cell
matched to a single photon frequency can convert the solar radiation by
absorption into electricity at very high efficiencies. Because the sunlight is not at
a single frequency, it is difficult to optimise a PV cell for the solar frequency
range, and current typical conversion efficiencies are of the order of 10 to 20%.

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1 The energy challenge

Example:
Based on the second law statement above we can expect that a particular but
common use of fossil fuels is a very inefficient use of the current energy flow chain:
Heating of water or buildings by electricity generated by burning of fossil fuels or
nuclear fission. These types of electricity generation convert heat to electricity in
turbines. Since the conversion of heat to mechanical energy requires substantial waste
heat, much heat is usually lost (a typical efficiency is of the order of 30%). Therefore,
most of the energy potentially available in heat has been lost already at the first stage.
An improvement of practice becomes immediately obvious: Combined Heat and
Power (CHP) generation.
The typical efficiency of illumination by incandescent ('normal') light bulbs is even
more dramatic: a generation efficiency of 30%, distribution efficiency of 90%, and
lighting by generating black body radiation due to Ohmic heating of the light bulb's
filament (5%) lead to an overall efficiency of 1.4%! Using more efficiently generated
electricity (80%, e.g. in a CHP plant) and using modern energy saving lighting (20%),
increases the efficiency tenfold to 14%.

Efficiency
The fact that we can never get out the same amount of energy in the form of motion
or electricity as we feed into an energy converting device leads to the concept and
mathematical definition of efficiency as

Efficiency is the ratio of the useful output over the required input.

In other words: ‘What you get out, compared to what you pay’
The symbol usually used for the efficiency is  (lower case Greek eta). Because it is a
ratio of two numbers with the same units, it is a dimensionless quantity.
This ratio is always less than one (or equals one in the very best ideal world) but it is
often given in percentage rather than the ratio, for example


 The typical efficiency of a petrol engine is about 25%
 The typical efficiency of a hydropower turbine is about 85%.

21
1 The energy challenge

Load factor, Capacity factor

The quantity efficiency measure how much power is made available at any instant in
useful form in a conversion from one type to another. Going back to the illustration of
the relationship between power and energy it becomes apparent that for many
practical purposes, this only tells half the story of making energy available to a user.
While the conversion of the heat released the burning of coal to electricity may be
known to by 30%, it does not tell us how much electricity (energy) a power plant has
generated in a year.
As we have seen above, in §1.3.b, the costumer may only have consumed 5000 kWh
in a year but for a few times in that year, that costumer demanded a power of 10kW
from that customer. To satisfy that customer, the electricity producer needed a
generator capable of generating 10 kW. If that 10 kW generator were to run at full
capacity or full load all year round, it would generate
E= 10 kW * 8760 h = 87,600 kWh.
Since it was only required and able to generate 5000 kWh during that year, the
generator was not used to its full capacity or it was not operated at full load all year
round. Instead, it only generated 5000 kWh out of the maximum possible of 87600
kWh. This leads to the definition of the capacity factor or load factor of a generating
installation as the ratio of the actual electricity output over the maximum possible. It
is therefore a ratio of two energy terms, in contrast to the definition of efficiency,
which is a ratio of two power terms. However, since a generator is specified by the
power it can produce (one does not install a 8760 MWh turbine but a 1 MW
turbine), it is sometimes custom to calculate the ratio of the average power output to
the installed power (though that is no licence for you to mix up energy and power in
your mind!).
Load factor and Capacity factor are the same quantity but seen from two different
points of view: The capacity factor measures to what proportion of its capacity, a
generator could deliver electricity, whereas the load factor measures what load was
put on a generator. For wind turbines, for example, where the wind determines how
much electricity it can produce, the output is dependent on the environment and not
on the demand of the customer – in that case it is a capacity factor. In a fossil-fuel
power station, the output is varied according to the consumer’s demand – ie what
load the customers are putting on the supplier. In that case, it is a load factor.
A typical capacity factor for a well-sited large wind turbine is around 30%.
A typical capacity factor for a small, building-mounted wind turbine may be between 3
and 8%.

22
1 The energy challenge

Those capacity factors only depend on the wind.

The load factors of conventional power generation depends on the demand and how
the different types can respond to varying demand; nuclear power generation does not
want to change much at all; coal-fired steam turbines react quite slowly to changing in
the operating parameters (many hours from full stop to full generation), gas turbines
respond much faster (less than an hour from stop to full), hydropower turbines are
very fast (a minute or two from stop to full generation).
As a result, the slow generators are best run at constant load, leading to preferentially
high load factors, 80 to over 90% for nuclear and coal, while gas and hydro have lower
load factors.

Capacity credit
Due to the difference in fundamental meaning of capacity factor and load factor, it is
not straightforward to replace a conventional power generating unit of one
generating capacity with a wind turbine of the same capacity. Since a wind turbine
installation may have a capacity factor of 30%, one needs to install installations of a
much higher capacity than a conventional plant. This has given rise to the term
‘capacity credit’. This measures the potential for electricity generation from one
generation type over another. A wind farm has a capacity credit of about 30%. That
means that a 100 MW wind farm could replace a 30 MW gas or coal power plant. It
looks similar to the load and capacity factor but while a gas power plant will have a
lower load factor than a coal power plant, it will have a similar capacity credit, since a
gas power plant could be run at a similar load as a coal power plant – whereas a wind
farm can never be told to run at capacity.

23
1 The energy challenge

1.4 ‘Energy’ as a commodity

Heat

Figure 1.3. Schematic diagram of the ‘energy world’ with the flow of energy from the
resource to the consumer embedded in the wider issue of society and the environment.

The flow of energy

A useful way of illustrating the flow from energy from the primary sources via
conversions to the end use is that of a 'spaghetti' diagram. A relatively simple flow is
found for Norway, as can be seen in Figure 1.4

Efficient use of energy

The following strategies will help to meet projected energy targets by using the
supplied energy—from whatever source—more efficiently, rather than by increasing
the demand on the primary energy supply. In terms of the calculation in Textbox 1,
these strategies aim to increase the conversion factor, f, rather than just E or N.

24
1 The energy challenge

Figure 1.4: Spaghetti diagram for the flow of energy from primary source to end use (taken
from Twidell and Weir, 19).

Use of appropriate form of energy

From the arguments in section 1.3.a it becomes obvious that different energy sources
are most efficiently used for different purposes. Fossil fuels, nuclear, biomass, and
solar are best used for a final purpose of heat generation, while the mechanical
sources are ideal for electricity generation. A potential for more efficient use the
energy products of combustion in a thermal boiler heat engine, namely heat and
work, is explored in the development of CHP (combined heat and power) plant,
currently promoted, for example, by the EU and the UK government.
Minimisation of losses
It is obvious that energy savings could contribute to meeting the increasing demand. A
very obvious and practical approach is to insulate buildings adequately against heat
loss (in cold weather) or overheating (in hot weather). Examples of bad practice are
excessive use of heating in poorly built houses, or the excessive use of air
conditioning.
A more problematic source of losses lies in the distribution of energy. Substantial
amounts of electrical energy are lost in the distribution network of national grid.
Solutions to this problems are far from easy, and might require new technology as
well as some radical changes in the way energy is distributed to customers.
Maximum conversion of energy
This strategy aims at improving the actual energy generating plant, such as using CGP
plant, or by improving current technology used in the energy extraction. Examples
might be more efficient turbine designs. At the consumer end, optimisation of
industrial processes, for example, or the development of new more efficient production

25
1 The energy challenge

or reaction technology could yield substantial energy savings without affecting the
amount usefully consumed energy or the quality of the product. This strategy is called
Process intensification.

Energy in the supply-and-demand chain

The planning of energy generation and distribution has to be carried out within an
integrated view of its eventual consumption. In an ideal world the generation exactly
balances consumption. Several factors, however, prevent this ideal situation. The
demand is highly fluctuating, where the fluctuation is of the same order of magnitude
as the mean demand. Many renewable sources, such as wind or solar, cannot be
scheduled, and even fossil fuel (which in principle could be burned to schedule)
cannot react to fluctuating demand at the time scale required. A typical fossil-fuel
burning power station may need up to a few hours to substantially alter its output,
while the demand may rise from average to peak within a few minutes.

26
1 The energy challenge

Summary
In this chapter, the concept of energy as a topic has been introduced. After basic
definitions of energy and power, with a list of some types of energy, the various
subtopics within energy, from resources to end-use, have been identified and linked
to life and society.

Task
Follow the media (newspapers, television, radio) and identify which items are

 explicitly energy-related and what their impact on other aspects of life are,
 directly related to energy issues but not explicitly identified as such, and
 indirectly linked to energy issues,
and think about what the impact of the various items on other aspects of life are.

Reading
Main textbook

 J. Ramage. Energy: a guidebook. Oxford University Press, 1997, 2nd edition.

Other textbooks

 G. J. Aubrecht. Energy. Prentice-Hall, 1995, 2nd edition.

 E. S. Cassedy and P. Z. Grossman. Introduction to Energy – Resources,
Technology, and Society. Cambridge University Press, 1998, 2nd edition.
International organisations

 International Energy Agency: http://www.iea.org

 Monthly Oil Market Report; Biannual World Energy Outlook;
 Global and national Statistics; Country Studies
 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD):
http://www.oecd.org
 Commission of the European Union http://www.europa.eu.int/
 e.g.: COM(95) 862: White Paper: An Energy Policy for the European Union
 http://www.europa.eu.int/en/comm/dg17/whitepap.htm
UK organisations

27
1 The energy challenge

 Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) (formerly

knows as the Department of Trade and Industry or DTI) :
http://www.berr.gov.uk
 Energy at BERR : http://www.berr.gov.uk/energy/index.html
 provides government reports such as the Energy Review Report 2006
 and statistical information, such as the Energy Digest 2000 ; Energy in Brief;
Statistics; Policies
 Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution: http://www.rcep.org.uk
 Energy—The Changing Climate . Report and Summary, 2000
 Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions:
http://www.detr.gov.uk

28
 Energy Resources
Introduction
The aim of this section is to provide a definition of ‘energy resource’ and ‘fuel’ and to
give a very brief overview over the main fuels and some other energy resources.
Once you have read this section and the online notes, you are ready to complete the
corresponding set of exercises

2.1 What are energy resources

Energy resources are either stores of energy which can be accessed for use when they
are needed, or they are currents of energy occurring naturally which can be converted
to more useful forms of energy.
Energy stores are fuels, such as wood, coal, oil and gas but also nuclear fuel.
Energy currents can be found in sun light, flowing rivers, the wind, or in the sea, such
as waves or tides. All these, apart from the tides are energy currents which are
ultimately driven by the sun; the sun drives the hydrological cycle by evaporating
water to be transported from sea levels to higher levels in the mountains; the sun
drives the atmospheric circulation, ie the winds; and the winds in turn generate ocean
waves. Another energy current is the flow of heat from the Earth’s interior to the
Earth’s surface. This ‘geothermal energy’ is a remnant of energy stored during the
formation of the Earth.
If you look at all these resources closely, you will see that the distinction between
stores and currents is a bit fuzzy: wood (and other biomass) is a store in that you can
harvest and store, but it is formed in a continuous way on an annual basis.
Geothermal energy is really a store of energy deep within the planet’s interior
deposited during the planet’s formation (from the gravitational collapse of galactic
matter into a planet), but we can only access it through the current of heat from the
hot interior to the surface as the planet is gradually cooling down. As you can see, our
distinction is made on the way we can access the particular form of energy.

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2 Energy Resources

As energy stores can be seen as ‘lying around and waiting to be used’, they are always
quantified in terms of the energy content, i.e. in units of joule, million tonnes of oil
equivalent, quad, or other energy units.
As energy currents are naturally occurring fluxes of energy, they are quantified in
terms of the energy flux or power, i.e. in units of watt or similar.

2.2 Our ultimate energy sources

The energy potentially available for use comes ultimately from four sources,
1 Energy stored in the Earth crust during the formation of the Earth,
2 Energy released by the gradual cooling of the Earth’s interior,
3 Energy released from gravitational potential by the orbits of the Earth and
Moon,
4 Energy emitted by the sun and absorbed the Earth’s atmosphere and surface.
If we look at this list critically, we see that the most common sources for our daily
energy consumption, namely oil, gas, and coal do not seem to be included here. All
three resources are the remains of prehistoric vegetation which grew using primarily
the fourth energy category, sun light. During geological process, involving to a larger
or lesser degree all energy sources, this solar energy stored in the plants was then
concentrated in the deposits of coal, oil, and gas.
In a most pedantic definition, all energy sources are finite but the time scales
associated with the consumption of some of the energy sources is so much larger than
even the evolution of humans, that they can be regarded as effectively infinite. In the
following section a practical differentiation between finite and infinite energy
resources will be developed.

2.3 Finite and Renewable energy sources

In this section, we are developing working definitions for the two contrasting types of
energy resources, which will be termed ‘finite’ and ‘renewable’, respectively. Before
the definitions, the ultimate origin of energy sources will be discussed, and the
definitions will be followed by an estimate of the renewable energy potentially
available for exploitation. The flow of energy available for renewable energy
exploitation will finally be divided into the forms in which they occur.

30
2 Energy Resources

The resources, which we would intuitively classify as finite, are the fossil fuels and
nuclear fuels. The nuclear fuel reserves date back to the formation of the Earth and
belong to the first source, while the fossil fuels, namely coal, oil, and gas, derive from
the last category, as they are the remains of plants which grew using solar radiation.
These stores of energy are obviously of finite size, even if they ultimately originated
from the infinite source of solar radiation. However, the time scale it took to create
them is again very large, so that it will be impossible to renew these stores on a
human time scale.
Renewable resources, on the other hand, are usually associated with something that
happens anyway in the environment. The naturally occurring energy current is merely
accessed to extract a small portion of it for conversion to useful energy. Examples are
placing wind turbines in windy places, or covering roofs with photovoltaic cells.

Definition of Finite Energy Resources

From the previous paragraphs it is becoming obvious that the common character of
the ‘finite’ energy resources is that they are stores laid down sometime in the past,
and that they are accessed by some form of extraction. From this, we can now
formulate a definition for finite energy:

Finite Energy is energy obtained from stores of energy that remain bound
unless released by human activity.

In contrast to the definition of Twidell and Weir, I have changed ‘stores of static
energy’ to ‘stores of energy’. The distinction lies in the difference between
hydrocarbons and radioactive stores. While hydrocarbon reserves are indeed static
stores, the radioactive elements do decay naturally while they remain in storage. The
common factors are that they both a laid down in reserves in the Earth’s crust, and
that they are mined and transported to a convenient locationbefore the conversion of
the chemical or nuclear energy to heat, work, or electricity is initiated.
A clear advantage of such stores is that the energy resource can be traded and
transported to arbitrary locations, such as power stations or petrol tanks in cars,
before its energy potential is realised.

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2 Energy Resources

Definition of Renewable Energy Resources

From intuition, we know that renewable energy comes from sources such as sun light
(solar heating, photovoltaic cells), winds (wind turbines), or rivers and lakes (hydro).
This immediately leads to the picture of renewable energy an energy which flows
anyway, and which cannot be transported to a convenient location. Instead of
bringing the fuel to the power station or car, we have to take the power station (or car)
to the source of energy. This is indeed the picture given by Twidell and Weir, as
demonstrated in their comparison of renewable and finite energy in Figure 2.1. The
route of renewable energy flowing from A to C via B in the left diagram represents the
naturally occurring energy flow. The extraction, by human intervention, is realised by
placing a device in the flow, which extracts a (small) portion of the energy flow to the
path via D-E-F, where the energy is converted and delivered it to the end user, who
dumps any waste energy back into the systems (probably in a different form from the
initial energy). In contrast to this, the finite energy flow occurs by accessing the finite
source, or reservoir, as indicated by the switch D, followed by its conversion and use,
before dumping waste energy into the system, from where the original energy has not
originated (at least not on a human time scale).

Figure 2.1: Comparison of Renewable Energy Resource use with Finite Energy Resource
use (taken from Twidell and Weir).

There is one awkward energy resource, which does not seem to fit easily into either
category of energy, namely biomass. Biomass is a fuel, which can be stored, traded,
and transported to a convenient location, and thus does not really occur as a naturally
occurring flow of energy. On the other hand, the store of biomass is such that it is
created in a very short time scale, and is therefore not limited. Also, if one does a
energy and product balance over the time scale of the renewal of a biomass store, the

32
2 Energy Resources

main energy derives from the sun, and the waste product, e.g. CO2, is released into the
atmosphere during use but then re- absorbed by the next season of biomass
generation. Because biomass is renewable on a human time scale, and because the
effect on the sink could theoretically be balanced in the source, biomass should clearly
be classified as a renewable. Another way of justifying this classification is to use the
sun light as the ‘source’, the biomass creation as the ‘device’, and the combustion and
further use as the ‘use’ in Figure 2.1.
The definition of renewable energy proposed here is then

Renewable Energy is energy which is obtained from naturally occurring

currents of energy or from energy which can be regenerated by naturally
occurring energy currents on the time scale of a human life.

Apart from the case of biomass, all other current renewable energy resources are in
the form of naturally occurring energy currents. This obviously implies that one cannot
use, for example, the common way of producing electricity, which is the generation at
relatively few, very large power station, from where the electricity is distributed by a
grid. Electricity from renewable sources comes necessarily from a much larger number
of much smaller generators which are located where the energy is available.
Furthermore, as is immediately obvious from the nature of the winds, the energy
current itself is often not steady or even predictable. Two of the main problems faced
nowadays by renewable electricity generation are the integration of the many
generators into a stable grid, and the management of supply and demand when the
supply cannot be influenced (at least not to react to increased demand). The problem
of integration is a severe one, and a long-term solution has not been found yet. The
management of supply and demand requires additional devices, either to store excess
energy, or to actually control the supply not merely on a demand basis, but on a
prioritised demand basis where priority networks are guaranteed a steady supply but
where other networks are only supplied if the supply exceeds the demand of the
priority network.

2.4 A simple model of finite energy reserves

From Figure 1.1 and Figure 1.2 in chapter 1 we saw that we continue to use more and
more fossil fuels to meet the energy demand. At the same time we know that there a
finite amount of those fuels was created during geological time scales. Several
questions could be useful here;

33
2 Energy Resources

 How much was ever created? This would give us an absolute limit of energy
available from those sources, the ’ultimate resource’.
 How much of the total resource is actually recoverable? The ‘ultimate
recoverable resource’, Q.
 How much of the resource have we used by now? The ‘cumulative production’,
Qp.
 How much is left in the ground and recoverable? The ‘remaining recoverable
resource’, Q–Qp.
 How much do we know is left in the ground? The ‘reserves’, Qr.
 How much do we know is left in the ground and is accessible (both
technologically and economically)?
While we may have a fairly good idea of the reserves we know about and how much it
would cost to extract them, we cannot know about the total resource or even the
remaining recoverable resource. We do, however, have to acknowledge that we
continue to find new reserves on a regular basis. To predict our energy balance based
on the reserves alone would therefore be unrealistically pessimistic. A simple model is
now widely used to estimate the ultimate recoverable resource for any finite energy
resource.
This model, which was initially proposed by Hubbert2 based on a simple statistical
curve, the normal curve or Gaussian curve, for the rate of production, and its
cumulative form, the logistic curve, for the accumulated production. The normal curve
is a smooth curve with a maximum production rate in the middle of the curve and
starting with a zero production rate at the beginning before the resource was seriously
exploited. As the resource becomes an established and reliable source of energy, the
production will increase rapidly while the reserves are abundant. As the resource
becomes scarce, it will become harder and more expensive to extract it and
consequently the production rate and consumption reduces again until virtually
nothing is left. The accumulated production is an S-shaped curve which also starts at
zero before industrial use and increases sharply if the production rate is large,
becomes less steep if the production rate falls, and eventually levels off at the ultimate
recoverable resource, Qp, when the production rate has dropped to virtually zero
again.3

2
M.K. Hubbert, U.S. Energy Resources, a Review as of 1972, U.S. Senate Committee on Interior and
Insular Affairs report, Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1974. M.K. Hubbert, Am. J. Phys. 49, 1007 (1981). M.K.
Hubbert, Chapter 8 in Resources and Man. Freeman, San Francisco, 1969
3

34
2 Energy Resources

Textbox 1: Hubbert’s model of reserves:

𝑑𝑄𝑝
The production rate, 𝑃 = , is the amount of resource extracted in a given time interval.
𝑑𝑡
The assumptions that the curve describing this is the normal curve, or logistic equation, are

- If the past production has been successful, we expect that the demand is high and
therefore the production rate; in a simple model, the production rate is proportional to
the cumulative production, Qp.
- If the resource becomes scarce, it will be harder to extract the resource; the production
rate is proportional to the remaining fraction of recoverable resource, (Q–Qp)/ Q or (1 –
Qp /Q).
𝑑𝑄𝑝 𝑄𝑝
This gives us 𝑃 = 𝑑𝑡
= 𝑟𝑄𝑝 (1 − 𝑄 ). The factor r measures the potential for increase.
∞
𝑄
Dividing the equation by the ultimate resource, 𝑞 = 𝑄 𝑝 , we can rewrite this equation as a
∞
𝑑𝑞
relatively simple ordinary differential equation, = 𝑟𝑞(1 − 𝑞) , or, after separation of
𝑑𝑡
𝑑𝑞
variables, 𝑞(1−𝑞) = 𝑟𝑑𝑡 ,

which can easily be integrated by

referring to standard
mathematical handbooks3 to
give the fraction of the extracted
resource, q, at time t, which
depends on the factor r, and the
fraction q0 at time t0:
𝑞−1 𝑞0
𝑙𝑛 ( 𝑞 𝑞0 −1
) = 𝑟(𝑡 − 𝑡0 ). If we
take our reference time, t0, to be
the time of peak production, we
recognise that the production is
symmetric around this time with Figure 2.2: Production rate and cumulative production
the result that we have as derived from the logistic equation

recovered half of the ultimate recoverable resource, i.e. q0= 1/2. Rearranging the solution
then gives
𝑒 −𝑟𝑡
𝑄𝑝 = 1+𝑒 −𝑟𝑡 𝑄∞ .

As a final step, we want to express the production curve as a function of time rather than of
the cumulative production. So, we need to take our solution and insert it into the logistic
𝑒 −𝑟𝑡
equation to get 𝑃 = (1+𝑒 −𝑟𝑡 )2 𝑟𝑄∞ . These two curves are illustrated in

35
2 Energy Resources

2.5 Some energy currents and accumulated energy amounts

This section illustrates energy currents and how they accumulate into energy using
two common energy currents: sun light and wind.
The principle of accumulating the current into energy is analogous to electricity
consumption: your electrical appliances are rated in their consumption in watt but
your electricity bill calculates your electricity consumption over a period in kilowatt-
hours, kWh.
Example:
You switch on a 100W light bulb: you are consuming electricity at a rate of
100W. If you leave the light on for 100s, then you have used 100W×100s=
10,000Ws= 10,000J= 10kJ. If you leave the light on for 10 hours, then you have
used 100W×36000s= 3,600,000J= 3.6MJ. Since these are rather large numbers,
electricity is usually charged by the kWh: 100W×36000s= 100W×10h= 1,000Wh=
1kWh.
In short, if you consume or receive energy at a constant rate, then the accumulated
energy is equal to the product of the rate and the time. If the rate changes, then this
turns into the integral of the instantaneous power over the time interval of interest:

E  P dt

Sun light
The most significant supply of energy to the Earth is in the form of radiation from the
sun, which is largely radiation in the visible part of the spectrum. Overall, a 1m2
section at the top of our atmosphere facing the sun receives 1367W. This number, GS=
1367Wm–2, is known as the solar constant. Considering that about 30% is reflected
straight back to space, we can expect that 1m2 of ground on a clear day, with the sun
directly overhead receives about 1kW. When the sun is at an angle to the ground (i.e.
at higher latitudes and/or not at noon), that number is reduced by the cosine of that
angle.
Example: One square meter on the equator during equinox, the sun is directly
overhead at 12 noon, and the length of the day is 12 hours. At other times, the
surface make an angle between the sun of 90 or  at 6am, 45 at 9am, and so
on, giving a projected area (multiplied by the cosine) of cos[2×(time–
12noon)/24h]:

36
2 Energy Resources

𝜋
6𝑝𝑚
𝑡 − 12ℎ 2
𝐸 = ∫ 𝑃𝑑𝑡 = ∫ 1 𝑘𝑊𝑐𝑜𝑠 (2𝜋 ) 𝑑𝑡 = 1𝑘𝑊 ∗ 12ℎ ∗ ∫ cos 𝜃 𝑑𝜃
6𝑎𝑚 24ℎ −
𝜋
2
𝜋
24ℎ 24ℎ
= 1𝑘𝑊ℎ ∗ ∗ |sin 𝜃| 2 𝜋 = 1𝑘𝑊ℎ ∗ ∗2
2𝜋 −
2 2𝜋
≅ 7.6 𝑘𝑊ℎ
This estimate compares well with the measured annual average of solar
insolation of about 6.2 kWh m–2 day–1 for Al-Khartoum near the equator.
For a location at a higher latitude, this value is again reduced by the fact that
there is always a higher angle between the surface and the sun. We can
estimate the average clear day energy received per day on a latitude of 56 by
multiplying the equator value by the cosine of the latitude. This gives about
4.3kWh per metre-square per day. As you can imagine, the sun does not always
shine in Scotland (not even in Edinburgh), and the actual value is about
2.3 kWh m–2 day–1.

Wind
Wind is a very tricky energy resource as it is never constant. However, one can
measure an annual average wind speed. Taking this average wind speed, we know
that the energy flux through an area, A, facing the wind is given by
1
𝑃 = 𝜌𝐴𝑈 3
2
where = 1.225kg m–3 is the air density.
2
One can then estimate the energy going through that area in a year by multiplying.
However, as the wind is fluctuating, this estimate has to be reduced by what is called
the capacity factor, which is about 30% (= 0.3) for wind power. Furthermore, no wind
turbine can extract 100% of the power flowing through the rotor, and the power going
through the rotor has to be multiplied by the efficiency or performance factor of the
turbine. Very good modern turbines reach a performance factor of about 50% at their
design point.
Example:
For Bremen in northern Germany, the average wind speed is 5.3m s–1. Using a
capacity factor of CC=0.3, a performance factor of CP=0.5, and a year of
365.25 days of 24 hours = 8766 hours per year, we can estimate a typical energy
flux of

𝑃 = 2 𝜌𝐴𝑈 3 = 96 𝑊⁄𝑚2
1

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2 Energy Resources

and an energy yield per annum of

1
𝐸= 𝜌𝐴𝑈 3 𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑝 ∗ 8766 ℎ = 127000 𝑊ℎ⁄𝑚2 = 127 𝑘𝑊ℎ⁄𝑚2
2
For a location in Scotland with an average wind speed of 7 m s –1, we get
210 W m–2 and 276 kWh m–2, respectively.

2.6 Fuels

This section summarises the most common type of energy resource, namely fuels. For
the purpose of this course, I use the word in the following meaning:

A fuel is a matter which releases heat by combustion (burning) in a

chemical reaction.

The only primary form of energy extracted from such a resource is heat which can then
be used either directly or converted to other forms, such as work in an engine or
electricity in a generator. This section includes both finite and renewable fuels in a
somewhat unorthodox order, starting with biomass, then moving on to coal before
arriving at the two giants, oil and gas.
Fuels are all energy stores. That means that they store energy as chemical energy
(except for nuclear fuel). This energy is then usually released in the form of heat by
combustion, and the fuel is characterised by how much heat is released in the quantity
called calorific value or heat content. Its base unit is J kg–1 but it is usually given in
MJ/kg or GJ/tonne (1000 J kg–1 = 1 MJ/kg = 1 GJ/tonne).
The resulting heat can then be used in all sorts of ways:

 Directly for heating; either to head a space, such as a building, or to provide heat
for a manufacturing process, such as making steel or paper.
 For transport, for example in internal combustion engines or jet engines
 For electricity generation
For all common fuels, such as wood, coal, oil, and gas, the combustion involves turning
a molecule which contains one or more carbon atoms into carbon dioxide (and usually
water) and energy. The very simplest fuel is coal.

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Biomass
As the name suggests, this is fuel which is derived from living organisms, and it
includes a vast variety of fuels, ranging from cow dung (used in Africa and India for
heating and cooking) and chicken litter (used in Scotland in a power plant4), wood,
straw (used in England in a power plant5) to biogas (mainly methane) being produced in
farming and landfill sites. This wide range brings with it obviously a wide range of
energy contents and techniques of burning the stuff.
While biomass has been used as a fuel more many tens of thousands of years and is
still for many people the primary fuel supply (currently estimated to be between 10
and 20% of the world’s energy consumption), it is also becoming increasingly used as
an alternative to the fossil fuels introduced above in commercial applications. In the
UK alone, there are many power stations using a range of biofuels, such as straw or
poultry litter. Another by-product of human waste generation is the gas generated by
microbial activities in landfill sites. This biogas can be collected and used in the same
way as natural gas. Biodiesel as a renewable alternative to vehicle fuel from petroleum
oil is also increasingly used. Since biofuels cover such a vast range of origins it is
impossible to do anything other than a few sweeping statements about them as
energy resources.
The vast majority of biofuels are of the solid kind, and range from waste products of
human activity (eg the straw and poultry litter mentioned already) to energy crops
which are planted specifically for the purpose of energy production. Willow, for
example is a plant which grows fast enough to produce enough fuel at a reasonable
rate. All biofuels have the potential to be renewable resources. Since the generation of
these fuels depends on human activity or intervention, the actual ‘renewability’ (if that
is a word) depends on proper planning of the production and consumption of these
fuels.
All solid biofuels are based on plant material and thus come in a broad range of
chemical compositions. The main useful component of plants, the sugars, starch,
cellulose etc., are more complex molecules than the hydrocarbons. A good
representative of the fuel molecules are carbohydrates, which are long chains
containing carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms with the generic chemical
composition of Cx(H2O)y. It is sufficient to just look at one unit of such a chain to
appreciate what is going on:
CH2O + O2  CO2 + H2O + energy.

4
http://www.william-siemens.co.uk/powgen_westfield.htm and http://www.eprl.co.uk/west1.htm
5
http://www.eprl.co.uk/ely1.htm

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Because the actual composition for different biofuels is very different, the energy
released by burning 1kg of biofuel also varies greatly as can be seen in the few
examples given in Table 2.

Table 2: Selection of biofuels and their energy content.

Fuel MJ/kg Fuel – Wood MJ/kg
Straw 15 freshly cut 11
Corn (cob & stalk) 15 air dried 16
Dung 16 oven dried 20
Domestic refuse 9 charcoal 29

We can estimate the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by
burning 1kg of a carbohydrate of the formula [C(H2O)]x but considering the reaction
outlined above and the molecular weight of the constituents (C: 12, H: 1, O: 16). The
carbohydrate unit on the left side of the reaction has a total molecular weight of 30
while the carbon dioxide molecule has a molecular weight of 44. Therefore, using up
30kg of carbohydrate releases 44kg of carbon dioxide, or 1.47kg of carbon dioxide per
kg of carbohydrate fuel. To appreciate why biofuels can be truly renewable and
carbon-friendly energy resources, it is useful to see, how plants make the
carbohydrates when they are growing in the process called photosynthesis,
CO2 + H2O + energy  CH2O + O2,
which is exactly the reverse reaction from the combustion. The energy supply for
photosynthesis is the sun’s light.
Therefore, each carbon dioxide molecule released by the burning is used exactly to
make the fuel again. This obviously does not take into account energy used in the
growing process, transporting it to the point of consumption, or any prior treatment
required.

2.7 Coal

Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel, with estimates of reserves to last us over
another millennium, and the entire industrial revolution and industrialisation of the
world was largely built on coal as the primary energy source, and it is still a relatively
cheap resource. Yet it has become very unpopular for several reasons. It comes in
solid bits – much less easy to burn than a liquid or gaseous fuel, it is dirty – ‘a large
coal-fired power-station can produce enough ash in a year to cover an acre of ground

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to the height of a six-storey building’ (Ramage, p.71), its combustion releases lots of
unpleasant and toxic substances as by-products, its extraction leads to unsightly open-
cast mines or deep mines which cause subsidence. In short, it is a very dirty energy
resource.
Coal is a dirty resource because it has a complex chemical composition — after all, it
has derived from decayed plants. No easy chemical formula can be given for coal, but
it is the carbon within coal which provides the energy. One of the major elements of
coal are rings of 6 carbon atom which also incorporate hydrogen, oxygen, and
nitrogen, with about equal numbers of carbon and hydrogen atoms. Up to ten percent
of coal may be other material which does not burn but remains as ash. The release of
energy occurs by oxidising the carbon to CO2. Therefore, whatever one does, using
coal generates CO2, whose presence in the atmosphere the world is trying to limit. The
actual combustion is not a simple of process of taking the carbon atoms burning them
to get carbon dioxide and energy but, because of the complex composition of coal,
involves several steps:

 First all moisture from the coal must be removed (up to 10%). This obviously
requires energy in the form of heat.
 As it heats up, several gases are released from the solid piece of coal, the so-
called volatile matter. This removes most of the hydrogen and oxygen, together
with carbon monoxide (CO) and some hydrocarbons. The hydrocarbons are fuels
and release energy in their combustion, up to half of the energy content of the
coal
 The remainder consists to the largest part of the so-called fixed carbon, which
does the direct chemical conversion of
 C + O2
 Anything that cannot burn remains as ash.
Coal comes in a variety of qualities, depending on their age and environmental
conditions. The first stage in the coal formation is peat. A common type of low- grade
coal is lignite, also known as brown coal, with about equal proportions of fixed carbon,
volatile matter, and moisture. Sub-bituminous and bituminous coals, and some forms
of anthracite, are widely used for energy production. Some anthracite, however, is a
poor fuel despite its high carbon content due to the large amount of ash produced.
Natural graphite (with about 90% fixed carbon) is not used as an energy reserve. The
types of coal and their typical energy content are listed in

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Table 3

Type Energy fixed carbon volatile Moisture Ash

content matter
(%) (%) (%)
(MJ/kg) (%)
Type Energy fixed carbon volatile Moisture Ash
Wood content
~20 ~10 matter
~40 ~45 ~5
(%) (%) (%)
Peat (MJ/kg)
~20 ~10 (%)
~20 ~65 ~5
Wood
Lignite ~20
<20 ~10
~30 ~40
~30 ~45
~35 ~5
Peat
Sub- ~20
19–27 ~10
~40 ~20
~25 ~65
~25 ~5
bituminous
Lignite <20 ~30 ~30 ~35 ~5
Bituminous
Sub- 25–33
19–27 50–80
~40 10–30
~25 5–10
~25 ~5
~5
bituminous
Anthracite ~30 >75 ~5 ~5 ~15
Bituminous
Graphite 25–33
~35 50–80
~90 10–30
<5 5–10
<5 ~5
Anthracite ~30 >75 ~5 ~5 ~15
Graphite ~35 ~90 <5 <5 ~5

Table 3: Comparison of energy content and composition of different types of coal. A

representative sample of wood is included for comparison.

The coal with the highest calorific value contains about 90% of carbon and has a
calorific value of 34MJ/kg (or 34GJ/tonne); taking this into account, we have about
34/0.9= 38MJ/(kg of C), this then can be represented as
Mass and heat balance:
12kg + 32kg  44kg + 38MJ/kg×12kg /12
1 + 2.67  3.67 + 38MJ/KG
We can see that a natural result of burning coal is the release of carbon dioxide to the
amount of about 0.1kg CO2 per MJ converted.
Considering that the efficiency of coal-fired power stations is about 33%, we produce
about 0.3kg CO2 per MJ electricity generated. Converting this to kWh (ie multiplying by
3.6), gives us about 1kg of CO2 emitted per kWh generated – ie leaving your 100W
light bulb on for 10 hours adds 1kg of carbon dioxide to the air.
A large but typical coal-fired power station of generation capacity of 600MW
therefore emits 14400 tonnes of CO2 each day.

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(600,000×24 kWh per day= 600,000×24 kg CO2= 600×24 tonnes of CO2)

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Hydrocarbons (Oil and Gas)

Oil and gas are very much easier and cleaner to burn and to use than coal. While these
two substances appear to be very different and are used for very different
applications, they are all part of the hydrocarbons and usually found together in
reservoirs. Hydrocarbons are a family of organic molecules which consist of chains of
carbon atoms to which hydrogen atoms are attached.
The simplest hydrocarbon is methane, CH4. Longer examples of simple chains can be
written as H3C–CH2–…–CH2–CH3 , or shortened to CnH2n+2.
The combustion and mass and heat balance of methane with a calorific value of
55 MJ/kg can be written as
CH4 + 2O2  CO2 + 2H2O + heat
12+1×4 + 2×16×2  12+16×2 + 2×(1×2+16) + heat
16 + 64  44 + 36 + 55MJ/kg × 16
Because methane has a much higher heat content or calorific value than coal, we get
55 MJ/kg heat and only 0.05 kg per MJ converted.
Considering that gas-fired power stations
have a typical efficiency of about 50%, we
can reduce the carbon dioxide emissions
from 1kg/kWh to about 0.3kg/kWh,
reduction of 60-70%! Not surprisingly, many
nations have heavily invested in gas-fired
power stations as opposed to coal-fired
power stations – and this is only one
advantage. Other advantages over coal are Figure 2.3: A methane and an
that there is virtually no ash produced, and octane molecule. The dark circles
that gas turbines can react to changing represent carbon atoms and the
demand much quicker. light circles hydrogen atoms

The oil-based products, such as petrol and diesel are still the dominant fuel for
transport. The petrol can be reasonably well described by octane, C8H18, and diesel by
cetane, C16H34, both with a calorific value of about 48 MJ/kg or about 35 MJ per litre
(with a density of 0.7 kg per litre for octane and 0.75 kg per litre for cetane). The
chemical structure of methane and octane are shown in Figure 2.3.
We can extend the combustion equation for methane to the generic chain
CnH2n+2 + (1.5n+0.5) O2  n CO2 + (n+1) H2O + heat
14n+2 + (1.5n+0.5)32  44n + (n+1)18 + 48MJ/kg × (14n+2)

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This gives us 22n/(7n+1) kg of carbon dioxide per kg of fuel and 22n/([7n+1]×48) of

carbon dioxide per MJ of energy converted. If n is sufficiently large, the ‘+2’ in the fuel
can be ignored, and we approximate these numbers to
3.01 kg CO2 per kg petrol and 3.12 kg CO2 per kg diesel
2.5 kg CO2 per litre petrol and 2.7 kg CO2 per litre diesel
~ 0.064 kg CO2 per MJ of heat released
The actual energy released by the different hydrocarbons is listed in
Table 4

Name Composition Molecular Energy Mass of CO2 Mass of CO2

weight content released per released per
Name Composition Molecular Energy Mass of CO2 Mass of CO2
(MJ / kg) kg fuel (kg) energyper
weight content released per released
(kg/MJ)
(MJ / kg) kg fuel (kg) energy
Methane CH4 16 55 (kg/MJ)
Methane
Ethane CH4
C2H6 16
30 55
51
Ethane
Propane C2H6
C3H8 30
44 51
50
Propane
Butane CC3H8
4H10 44
58 50
46
Butane
Pentane C5H
C4 H10
12 58
72 46
48
Pentane
Hexane C5
6H12
14 72
86 48

Hexane
Heptane C7H
C6 H14
16 86
100 48
48
Heptane
Octane C8H
C7 H16
18 100
114 48
48
Octane
Cetane CC16
8HH18
34 114
226 48
48
Cetane C16H34 226 48

Table 4: Energy content and carbon dioxide emission for different hydrocarbons.

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Again, looking at the CO2 release of this process, we can see that each carbon atom
ends up in a CO2 molecule with a molecular weight of 44. With methane as the
example, the complete combustion of 16kg of methane releases 44kg of carbon
dioxide, or each kg of methane releases 44/16= 2.75 kg of CO2.
Exercise:
Complete Table 4, and show in a graph how the carbon dioxide emission varies for the
different hydrocarbons in terms of amount of fuel (kg CO2/kg fuel) and in terms of the
energy released by that fuel (kg CO2 / MJ). Compare the results with the corresponding
figures for burning coal.

Nuclear fuel
Nuclear fuel does not release chemical energy by changing chemical bonds between
atoms but by changing the atoms themselves. There are two types of reaction
possible, nuclear fission, where an atom breaks into several parts, and nuclear fusion
where two or more atoms combine to make a new one. Obviously, the starting
products for nuclear fission will be large, heavy atoms, such as Uranium (with an
atomic weight of 235), while the starting points for nuclear fusion will be small atoms,
such as the three varieties of hydrogen, standard hydrogen with a single proton,
deuterium with a proton and a neutron, and tritium with a proton and two neutrons.
Nuclear fission is a well-developed technology albeit, the disposal of its waste
products is not yet as well developed as most people would like to see…. The
attraction of nuclear fission is that the reaction itself does not release carbon dioxide,
and that the fuel has a very high heat content: the energy release of uranium-235,
U235, is 82 TJ/kg (= 82 million MJ/kg). This obviously has to be seen in the context that
natural uranium only contains about 0.72% of U235 and enriched uranium between 2%
and 5%. Taking these numbers, we get an energy content of the base material, natural
uranium of 600,000 MJ/kg – still a factor of over 10,000 higher than the carbon-based
fuels –, and between 1.6 and 4 million MJ/kg of enriched fuel. The actual output of a
nuclear reactor can be about twice that amount, which is caused by the fact that the
products of the uranium fission themselves are radioactive and release further energy
as they undergo fission. This fact also result in the highly radioactive waste a nuclear
reactor produces… Nuclear fusion, on the other hand, has been hailed as one of the
‘holy grails’ of energy supply: its fuel, deuterium and tritium (the two heavy isotopes of
hydrogen) can be isolated from ordinary water, and its reaction products, hydrogen
and helium in an ideal life, are not only harmless but also useful – hydrogen is the
other ‘holy grail’ if one is allowed to have two... Real life is not as simple: in reality
there is usually some radioactive material produced in fusion reactions due to the
interaction of the released energy in the form of neutrons and the material of which the

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reaction chamber is made, and nobody has as yet achieved a sustained and effective
fusion in a practical version.

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2 Energy Resources

Summary
This chapter introduced the various energy resources, either as energy stores or
power currents. It discussed a generic life cycle of finite resources, and then
introduced the various resources and how to quantify their energy content.

Exercises
 Comparison of energy amounts:
 Calculate the amount of fuel (in kg) required to release 40 GJ of heat for
anthracite (use 80% carbon and 30 MJ/kg), lignite, air-dried wood, dung, octane,
natural gas (50% by mass methane, 25% ethane, 25% CO2), enriched Uranium
(4% by mass).
 For carbon-based fuels, estimate the amount of air required for complete
combustion and the amount of carbon dioxide and water released.
 Calculate the area through which that amount of energy passes for sun light at

 Calculate the area through which that amount of wind energy passes over 24
hours at a wind velocity of 6 m/s.
 Reflect on your findings and discuss them.
 Comparisons of power currents.
 Calculate the fuel consumption rate of the same fuels as in Exercise 1 to release
a power of 5 MW.
 Calculate the air mass flow rate required for complete combustion.
 Calculate the are required for sun light if the area faces the sun directly, and the
area for wind power at a velocity of 6 m/s.

Reading
This section is largely based on the books by Ramage, by Boyle et al., and by Andrews &
Jelley.

48
 Thermodynamics
Introduction
The aim of this section is to provide the very basic concepts of thermodynamics which
will then be applied in the next following two chapters to thermodynamic cycles for
converting heat to work or for moving heat from one place to another. The basic
thermodynamic laws and common, idealised processes, such as isentropic expansion
are briefly revised here.
This section should be read in conjunction with the following three sections on Heat
Transfer, on Heat Engines, and on Heat Pumps. Once you have worked through the
section on heat transfer, you will ready to complete the associated set of online
exercises, and likewise with the following two sections.

3.1 Thermodynamic laws

The thermodynamic laws provide fundamental statements about heat and work. At
first sight, they often seem very abstract and useless but they do have far- reaching
implications. Even though they form much of the basis of natural sciences, it is
impossible to provide a firm proof of their correctness. There is no single ‘approved’
definition of the laws but a collection of different versions trying to say the same.
Currently, there are four laws postulated but, as their history was not simple (the
second law was the first to be formulated), the numbering starts at zero, since the
zeroth law was formulated after the second and first had found their way into text
books but it was felt that the zeroth law is even more fundamental than the others –
hence the number zero.
In brief, the different laws talk about:
0: the concept of thermodynamic equilibrium
1: the fact that all forms are quantitatively the same, and that the sum-total of
energy is conserved
2: the fact that deviation from thermal equilibrium will result in heat transfer from
the hotter to the cooler object

49
3 Thermodynamics

3: the fact that there is an absolute zero temperature at which the energy is at a
minimum and the entropy is zero.

Zeroth thermodynamic law

The zeroth law of thermodynamics is a generalized statement about thermal
equilibrium between bodies in contact, first stated by R.H. Fowler in 1931. Without
going into the definition or property of ‘temperature’, we know the following:

 if we have to objects at different temperature and put them into contact with
each other, the warmer will cool down and the cooler will warm up until they
have the same temperature. When they have the same temperature, nothing
further happens, at least to their temperature. We can also phrase this the other
way round: if no heat flow occurs, the two objects have the same temperature,
and the two objects are in thermodynamic equilibrium with each other. We can
then generalise this experience about objects not in contact: if they have the
same temperature, we know that they are in ‘equilibrium’ – i.e. if we put them
in contact, nothing will happen to them temperature-wise.
This basic principle is stated in the zeroth law of thermodynamics:
If two thermodynamic systems are in thermal equilibrium with a third, they are also in
thermal equilibrium with each other.

First thermodynamic law

The first law, was formulated in several ways by 19th-century scientists, most notable,
William Rankine, Rudolph Clausius and Lord Kelvin. Lord Kelvin was the first to use the
phrase ‘first law of thermodynamics’ in 1849, and the first textbook on
thermodynamics was published by William Rankine in 1859. In all its various forms, it
states that energy is a thermodynamic property, and that it is a conserved quantity. This
has made it a particularly important law for practical uses, since on this law all the
energy equations are based which deal with thermodynamic and fluid dynamic
processes.
The most succinct statement of this law states that
In any process, the total energy of the universe remains the same.
One can make this statement a bit more useful by recognising that process can
transfer energy from one form (e.g. heat) to another (e.g. work). This now implies that
the quantity of work done by converting a certain amount of heat to work is exactly
the same as the amount of heat used for that process. In other words, it provides a

50
3 Thermodynamics

way of equating different forms of energy quantitatively. A common formulation of

this is
For a thermodynamic cycle the sum of net heat supplied to the system and the net
work done by the system is equal to zero.
One consequence is that it is impossible to make a perpetual motion machine of the
first kind: it is never possible to get energy for free! (many have tried, even Lord Kelvin
but none has succeeded; I still get propositions by inventors having ideas to build
perpetual motion machines).
In fact, the statement by the first law that energy is conserved leads to many
conservation laws in thermodynamics and fluid dynamics (e.g. Bernoulli’s equation,
also known by Fluid Mechanics people simply as the ‘energy equation’). Below, in
section 3.2, we present two versions of the energy equation, depending on whether
the processes occur in a closed system or an open system

Second thermodynamic law

Whereas the first law was concerned with the quantity of energy,
(1) All energy is equal (and can be converted from one form to another),
the second law addresses the quality of energy
(2) Some energy is more equal (and it is easier to convert other energy forms to that
form of energy than vice versa).
Since it only works when talking about converting energy from one form to another,
rather than just having a balance sheet of different forms of energy floating about,
and making sure the accounts are correct, the second law only deals with systems that
are not in thermal equilibrium. Reading the zeroth law again, we recall that
equilibrium implies that they have the same temperature. If they are not in
equilibrium, they do not have the same temperature, and a consequence is that heat
flows from the hotter system to the colder until they have the same temperature. The
first law stated that all energy is equal and can be converted from one form to another
but it has not given any clues as to how or when such a conversion happens, or
whether it is easier for energy to be turned into heat or into other forms. The second
law, which was formulated at the same time as the first law, introduces this aspect,
and it does so be defining a new quantity, the entropy.
The entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time,
approaching a maximum value at equilibrium.
Other canonic formulations are

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3 Thermodynamics

It is impossible to construct a device that operates in a cycle and produces no effect

other than the transfer of heat from a lower- temperature body to a higher-
temperature body.
(Rudolf Clausius)
and
It is impossible for any device that operates on a cycle to receive heat from a single
reservoir and produce a net amount of work.
(Lord Kelvin and Max Planck)
One could also state these versions as
Heat cannot be moved from cold warm without waste heat Work cannot be done
without waste heat
Perpetual motion machines of the second kind are those which may satisfy the first
law but violate the second law. A famous example is Maxwell’s demon.

Third thermodynamic law

As it is the result of the definition and properties of temperature, the concept of
temperature is reviewed here:
On the microscopic scale, temperature is defined as the average energy of microscopic
motions of a single particle in the system per degree of freedom, which results in the
relationship between energy and temperature as E  kT, where k = 1.38 J K–1 is the
Boltzmann constant.
On the macroscopic scale, temperature is the physical property that determines the
direction of heat flow between two objects placed in thermal contact. If no heat flow
occurs, the two objects have the same temperature, and the two objects are in
thermodynamic equilibrium with each other, as was stated in the zeroth law of
thermodynamics:
A consequence of the zeroth law and the definition of temperature is that there exists
a minimum temperature at which all particles have minimum energy. This is reflected
in the Kelvin scale which has an absolute minimum at T = 0 K. The third law of
thermodynamics addresses what happens to a system if it approaches this minimum
temperature:
The third law of thermodynamics is a statistical law of nature regarding entropy and
the impossibility of reaching absolute zero of temperature. The most common
enunciation of third law of thermodynamics is:

52
3 Thermodynamics

As a system approaches absolute zero, all processes cease and the entropy of the
system approaches a minimum value.
From that, one can conclude two things:

 'If T=0K then S=0

 It is impossible to actually reach T= 0K.

3.2 Types of systems

Thermodynamic systems can be classified according to the nature of their boundaries,

whether they are completely sealed off, can transfer energy but not material, or can
transfer energy and material.
Isolated systems have a completely sealed boundary – nothing, no heat, no work, no
fluid, can escape or enter the system. An example is an insulated, rigid and closed
cylinder filled with gas: it is closed: the gas can not escape, it is rigid: the gas cannot do
work by expanding the cylinder, it is insulated: the gas cannot cool down or heat up by
exchange of heat with the surrounding
Closed systems have impermeable boundaries, such that no fluid can enter or leave
the system. However, they can pick up or dump heat through the walls and/or they
can do work by moving the boundaries. An example is a cylinder in an engine during
the part of the cycle when all valves are closed: the gas can not escape but it can do
work by pushing the piston out (following the combustion) or it can receive work as
the piston is pushed in (during the compression).
Open systems have inlets and outlets through which fluid can enter and leave the
system. An example is a gas turbine: Air is continuously entering the system, where it
is first compressed, then (after addition of fuel) combusted leading to a high-pressure
hot gas, after which it does work in the turbine bit, and finally it leaves the entire
system.

Closed systems or non-flow systems

These systems work in a closed box. That means that no fluid enters the system or
leaves it during the process. One can also say that all the stages of the process take
place in the same container. The energy equation is the first law for the internal
energy of the fluid:

U = Qin – Qout + Win –

Wout
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3 Thermodynamics

Taking standard forms of the change of heat in a fluid as a change in temperature dQ=
TdS (this uses the concept of entropy and the second law) and the work done as the
change in the volume within a cylinder dW= – pdV, this turns into
dU = T dS – p dV.
If we apply this to a thermodynamic cycle, such as in a petrol or Diesel internal
combustion engine, the internal energy of the fluid in the cylinder at the start of the
new cycle must be the same as it was at the start of the old cycle (otherwise it
wouldn’t be a cycle). Therefore, the change of internal energy must be zero, and the
energy equation for a cycle becomes:
U = Qin – Qout + Win – Wout = 0.

Open systems or flow systems

In these systems, the working fluid flows through them as it operates. This also implies
that the different stages take place in different equipment, and the change from one
part of the cycle to another takes place by the fluid moving from one part of the engine
or turbine to another. That means that fluid brings with it some energy and takes it
away during the process. The equation to be used describes the rate of change of
energy in terms of the enthalpy, h = u + p v, kinetic energy and potential energy of the
fluid passing through:
Q' + W' = m' ( ½ v2 + gz + h ) = m' [ ½ (v22 – v12) + g(z2–z1) + h2–h1 ] ,
where the dash ' denotes the rate of change (usually denoted by a dot over the
symbol), v the fluid velocity, and z the vertical position of the fluid. Because they are
open, they don't really operate on a 'cycle' but one can close the loop if the outlet
conditions and inlet conditions are the same. Examples of flow system cycles are the
steam turbine (Rankine cycle) and the Gas turbine (Brayton cycle)

3.3 Ideal gas

To apply the thermodynamic laws to actual processes, one needs two more bits of
information, an equation of state and a description of the process by which a system
moves from one state to another.
The equation of state provides a quantitative link between the various
thermodynamic quantities, such as pressure, volume, and temperature for any
particular state in which the material (gas, liquid, solid) finds itself. Since most of the

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3 Thermodynamics

matter relevant for thermodynamic processes are gases or liquids, it is useful to have
an idealised description for both.
Liquids are (almost) always characterised as incompressible, which means that the
volume or density does not depend on the pressure applied, but it still may be function
of temperature.
Many real gases or gas mixtures are well described as an Ideal Gas.
The ideal gas law first stated by Benoît Paul Émile Clapeyron in 1834, is the equation
of state of a hypothetical ideal gas, which links its pressure, volume, and temperature
according to the equation:
p=  R T,
where p is the pressure,  the density, T the absolute temperature (in K) and R the
specific gas constant which is specific to each particular gas. In fact, the specific gas
constant can be expressed as the product of a universal gas constant,
Ru = 8.4133 KJ kmol– 1 K– 1, and its molar mass (in kg kmol– 1).

The ideal gas equation for real gases

Since a mole is defined as NA= 6.022×1023 molecules of that gas, where NA is the
Avogadro constant, the molar mass (in g) is the same as the molecular mass (in atomic
units as defined by the mass of a proton), the gas constant for a real gas can be found
from the periodic table, where the subscript is the number of protons and the
superscript the most common number of protons and neutrons: (remember to count
the number of atoms in the molecule to calculate the molecular mass).

Gas Molecules Atomic Molecular R Cp CV 

symbol mass kJ/(kgK) kJ/(kgK) kJ/(kgK Cp/ CV
)
Hydrogen H2 1H1 2.0160 4.124 14.307 10.183 1.405

Helium He 2He4 4.003 2.0769 5.1926 3.1156 1.667

Nitrogen N2 7N14 28.013 0.2968 1.039 0.743 1.400

Oxygen O2 8O16 31.999 0.2598 0.918 0.658 1.395

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3 Thermodynamics

Air ~70% N2, 28.97 0.287 1.005 0.718 1.400

~20% O2
Water H2 O 18.015 0.4615 1.8723 1.4108 1.327
(steam)
Carbon C O2 44.01 0.1889 0.846 0.657 1.289
dioxide
Methane CH4 16.043 0.5182 2.2537 1.7354 1.299
Ethane C2H6 30.070 0.2765 1.7662 1.4897 1.186
Butane C4H10 58.124 0.1430 1.7164 1.5734 1.091

Octane C8H18 114.05 0.0729 1.7113 1.6385 1.044

Table 5 lists the molar masses, the specific gas constant and the specific heat for a
number of common gases.
Since it neglects both molecular size and intermolecular attractions, the ideal gas law is
most accurate for mono-atomic gases at high temperatures and low pressures. The
neglect of molecular size becomes less important for larger volumes, i.e., for lower
pressures. The relative importance of intermolecular attractions diminishes with
increasing thermal kinetic energy that is with increasing temperatures. More
sophisticated equations of state, such as the van- der-Waals equation, allow deviations
from ideality caused by molecular size and intermolecular forces to be taken into
account.

Gas Molecules Atomic Molecular R Cp CV 

symbol mass kJ/(kgK) kJ/(kgK) kJ/(kgK Cp/ CV
)
Hydrogen H2 1H1 2.0160 4.124 14.307 10.183 1.405

Helium He 2He4 4.003 2.0769 5.1926 3.1156 1.667

Nitrogen N2 7N14 28.013 0.2968 1.039 0.743 1.400

Oxygen O2 8O16 31.999 0.2598 0.918 0.658 1.395

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3 Thermodynamics

Air ~70% N2, 28.97 0.287 1.005 0.718 1.400

~20% O2
Water H2 O 18.015 0.4615 1.8723 1.4108 1.327
(steam)
Carbon C O2 44.01 0.1889 0.846 0.657 1.289
dioxide
Methane CH4 16.043 0.5182 2.2537 1.7354 1.299
Ethane C2H6 30.070 0.2765 1.7662 1.4897 1.186
Butane C4H10 58.124 0.1430 1.7164 1.5734 1.091

Octane C8H18 114.05 0.0729 1.7113 1.6385 1.044

Table 5: List of molar masses, gas constant, and specific heats for various gases
(carbon atom: 12C24)

Alternative forms of the ideal gas equation

Since the density of the gas is defined as ρ= m/ V, the ideal gas equation can also be
written as
pV= m R T.
Defining the specific volume as the volume per unit mass, v= V/m (using the lower case
symbol as the standard convention to denote the ‘specific’ quantity), it can also be
written as
pv = R T,
Sometimes the amount of substance is given in moles instead of mass. The number of
moles, n, is equal to the mass, m, divided by the molar mass M. The molar mass then
combines with the specific gas constant to the universal gas constant, defined above:
pV= n Ru T.

Energy and enthalpy of an ideal gas

The change of the internal energy of an ideal gas is given by
U = m cV ( T2 – T1 )

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3 Thermodynamics

or, if we divide by the mass involved:

u = cV ( T2 – T1 ) .
The change of the enthalpy of an ideal gas is given by
h = cp ( T2 – T1 ).
The factors cV and cp are the specific heat capacities of the gas at constant volume and
pressure, respectively. The ratio of those two values is usually denoted by the symbol
: = cp/cV
One can also see that R= cp – cV

3.4 Types of thermodynamic processes

Paths through the space of thermodynamic variables are often specified by holding
certain thermodynamic variables constant. It is useful to group these processes into
pairs, in which each variable held constant is one member of a conjugate pair.
A conjugate pair is a pair of quantities whose product forms a particular type of
energy. One conjugate pair is pressure and volume where pV represents work, and
another pair is temperature and entropy where TS represents heat. In all conjugate
pairs, one quantity is an intensive quantity and the other an extensive. Using pressure
and volume as an example, taking one system of volume V1 at pressure p1 and
combining it with another of volume V2 at pressure p2 , then the resulting volume adds
up to V= V1+V2 but the pressure does not add up. In fact, if both systems have the
same V and p, then the combined system has 2V but still the same p. The quantity
volume describes the extent of the system and is extensive, whereas the quantity
pressure describes the intensity of the fluid or energy in the system.

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3 Thermodynamics

The p-v diagram and the T-s diagram

Since work is defined as the integral  p dv, it makes sense to draw the pressure of a
cycle against the volume (or specific volume if everything is considered per unit mass).
The integral of a function going round in a closed loop is the area enclosed by that
function. If we therefore draw the pressure against the volume for each point in a
cycle, we can work out what the work output is by measuring the area enclosed by the
circle.
Since heat is defined as the integral  T ds, the heat input is the area enclosed by the
graph of the temperature against the entropy.
The pressure-volume conjugate pair is concerned with the transfer of mechanical or
dynamic energy as the result of work. Keeping the pressure constant while changing
the volume is an isobaric process; an example would be a cylinder with a piston free to
move so that the pressure inside the cylinder is always atmospheric. An isochoric (or
isovolumetric or isometric) process is one in which the volume is held constant,
meaning that the work done by the system will be zero; an example is a closed tin
filled with a gas.
The temperature-entropy conjugate pair is concerned with the transfer of thermal
energy as the result of heating. Keeping the temperature constant is an isothermal
process; an example would be to have a system immersed in a large constant-
temperature bath. Any work energy performed by the system will be lost to the bath,
but its temperature will remain constant. An isentropic process occurs at a constant
entropy. For a reversible process this is identical to an adiabatic process.
An adiabatic process is a process in which there is no energy added or subtracted from
the system by heating or cooling. For a reversible process, this is identical to an
isentropic process. We may say that the system is thermally insulated from its
environment and that its boundary is a thermal insulator. If a system has an entropy
which has not yet reached its maximum equilibrium value, the entropy will increase
even though the system is thermally insulated.

Isobaric, isochoric, and isothermal expansion and compression

of an ideal gas
If an ideal gas is expanded or compressed such that one of the variables in the ideal
gas equation is held constant (i.e. pressure, volume or density, temperature) and if the
ratio of one of the other quantities between the initial and final state is known, then
the ratio of the third quantity is also known. Taking an isobaric process (constant
pressure) and a known compression ratio (known volume ratio r= V2/V1, then the ratio

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3 Thermodynamics

of p1V1=mRT1 and p2V2=mRT2 make p1 / p2 V1 / V2= m/m R/R T1 / T2. Since the mass,
the specific gas constant, and the pressures are the same at state 1 and 2, they all
cancel out, leaving V1 / V2= T1 / T2 . Since the compression ratio is known, we can
write
T2= (V1 / V2) T1 or T2= r T1.
The same principle applies to the isochoric and isothermal processes and other pairs
of known and unknown quantities.

Isentropic expansion and compression of an ideal gas

If an ideal gas expands without exchanging heat with the environment in an isentropic
way, that process is neither isobaric nor isochoric nor isothermal but all three
quantities (pressure, volume or density, temperature) adjust in a way which still
satisfies the relationship pV/T = constant.
To cut a long story short, the pressure, density, or temperature of the gas change as
p2 / p1 = ( V1 / V2 )γ
V2 / V1 = ( p1 / p2 )1 / γ
T2 / T1 = ( V1 / V2 ) γ - 1

T2 / T1 = ( p2 / p1 )( γ - 1 ) / γ

where  = cp/cV is the specific heat ratio introduced above.

Summary of ideal gas processes

Table 6 shows a summary of ideal gas processes. All these processes are based on the
ideal gas equation
pV / T= m R or p1V1 / T1 = p2/V2 / T2
If any one of them is kept constant and another one is changed in a known way, the
third is easily calculated.
If one is changed in a known way but the other two are allowed to respond
simultaneously, they must do so in a specific way which still satisfies the ideal gas
equation. If it is furthermore specified that entropy is kept fixed, then we have
isentropic processes

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3 Thermodynamics

Table 6: Summary of ideal gas processes

Known
Process Constant p2 V2 T2
ratio
Isobaric Pressure V2/V1 T2 = T1 (V2/V1)

" " T2/T1 V2 = V1 (T2/T1)

Isochoric Volume p2/p1 T2 = T1 (V2/V1)

" " T2/T1 p2 = p1 (T2/T1)

Isothermal Temp. p2/p1 V2 = V1 / (p2/p1)

" " V2/V1 p2 = p1 / (V2/V1)

Isentropic
or (γ-1)/γ
V2 = V1 (p2/p1)-1/g T2 = T1 (p2/p1)
Reversible Entropy p2/p1
adiabatic
" " V2/V1 p2 = p1 (V2/V1) -γ T2 = T1 (V2/V1)1-γ
γ/(γ-1) 1/(1-γ)
" " T2/T1 p2=p1(T2/T1) V2 = V1 (T2/T1)

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3 Thermodynamics

Summary
Chapter 3 introduced the foundations of Thermodynamics:

 The laws of thermodynamics

 The concept of closed and open systems, and the basic formulation of the
energy equations for those systems
 The ideal gas equation
 Processes undergone by ideal gases

Exercise
Treat air, octane, and carbon dioxide as an ideal gas with properties as given in Table
5. Initially, the gases are at a temperature of 300 K and a pressure of 10 5 Pa.

 Calculate the temperature and pressure of air, and of a 98% air – 2% octane
mixture, after an isentropic compression by V1/V2= 8.
 Discuss whether it is acceptable to approximate the air-octane mixture as pure
air in this process.
 After a combustion at constant volume, the temperature has increased by a
factor of 3. Calculate the pressure of the gases.
 Calculate the temperature and pressure of air, and of a 80% air – 20% carbon
dioxide mixture, after expansion by V4/V3= 8 from the temperature and
pressure found in (c).
 Again, discuss whether it is acceptable to approximate the air – CO2 mixture as
pure air.

Reading
Y. A. Çengel and R. H. Turner (2001). Introduction to Thermal-Fluid Sciences,
McGraw- Hill
James A McGovern: The essence of Engineering Thermodynamics, Prentice Hall

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4 Thermal engines and turbines

Thermal engines and turbines

Introduction
The aim of this section is to provide the very basic principles of the common types of
engines and turbines which operate by combusting fuel. To provide the required basic
thermodynamic concepts, the basic processes, such as isentropic expansion are briefly
revised. These are then applied to the range of engines and turbines from the internal
combustion engine to gas turbines.
Once you have worked through the different cycles and worked examples, you are
ready to complete those questions in the associated tutorial which concern engines or
turbines. The full material for this tutorial is only covered once you have completed the
following section on heat pumps.

4.1 Basics for thermodynamic cycles

All machines turning heat into motion, for example to provide transport or drive an
electric generator, work on power cycles based on the first and second law of
thermodynamics:
1 the energy in heat is equivalent to the energy in work but
2 one cannot convert heat completely into work, i.e. there is always some waste heat
returned by the process.
All cycles consist of
1 the heat input (the fuel), Qin,
2 some work input (to get the fuel into the combustible state), Win,
3 the work output (what we want to get out), Wout, and
4 the waste heat or rejected heat, Qout.

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4 Thermal engines and turbines

Efficiency
Because of the required work input and the waste heat, we never get as much energy
out as we put in. In other words, the efficiency, , is always less than 1 (or 100%). The
basic definition is the ratio of the net useful work output over the required heat input:

 = ( Wout - Win ) / Qin

Since over a cycle Qin - Qout + Win - Wout= 0, we can write the definition of efficiency also
as:
 = ( Qin - Qout ) / Qin

Open and closed cycles

The cycles to describe engines split into two major types, closed systems and open
systems:
Closed systems or non-flow systems
These systems work in a closed box. That means that no fluid enters the engine or
leaves it during the process. One can also say that all the stages take place in the same
container. The energy equation is the first law for the internal energy of the fluid:
u = Qin – Qout + Win – Wout = 0.
We have the zero on the right because we are looking at a cycle: the fluid returns at
the end of the process to its original state, and therefore must have the same internal
energy.
Examples are the Otto and Diesel engines, where the fluid throughput and the
combustion are two separate processes: they open some valves to take in the fuel but
then close the valves, do the compression, combustion and expansion while the
cylinder is closed.
Open systems or flow systems
These systems work have the working fluid flowing through them as it operates. This
also implies that the different stages take place in different equipment, and the
change from one part of the cycle to another takes place by the fluid moving from one
part of the engine to another. That means that fluid brings with it some energy and
takes it away during the process. The equation to be used describes the rate of change
of energy in terms of the enthalpy, h = u + p v, kinetic energy and potential energy of
the fluid passing through:
Q' + W' = m' ( ½ v2 + gz + h ) = m' [ ½ (v22 – v12) + g(z2–z1) + h2–h1 ] ,

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4 Thermal engines and turbines

where the dash ' denotes the rate of change (usually denoted by a dot over the
symbol), v the fluid velocity, and z the vertical position of the fluid. Because they are
open, they don't really operate on a 'cycle' but one can close the loop if the outlet
conditions and inlet conditions are the same. Examples of flow system cycles are the
steam turbine (Rankine cycle) and the Gas turbine (Brayton cycle)

The most ideal thermodynamic cycle: the Carnot cycle

The Carnot cycle is thermodynamically the simplest cycle of all. It consists of

 an adiabatic temperature increase (where work is done to get things going)

 an isothermal heat input (where energy is added in the form of heat)
 an adiabatic temperature decrease (where the cycle does the work)
 an isothermal heat rejection (where the waste heat is dumped to return the
system to the beginning of the cycle)
Since this description is described in terms of heat and temperature, based on
adiabatic (no heat exchange) and isothermal (constant temperature), it is very
easily drawn in a T-s diagram (see Figure 4.1):

Figure 4.1: T-s diagram for the Carnot cycle

The cycle starts at point A with addition of energy to the system at the higher
temperature TH. The original heat input is then QH = TH(sB–sA).
The heat QC = TC (sB–sA) must be taken out of the system again to close the cycle. This
heat has to be dumped somewhere, and is therefore lost, or ‘waste heat’.
The area enclosed by this cycle is the area actually available as net work done by the
system W= QH – QC.: The area under the line at the higher temperature: TH (sB–sA),
minus the area under the lower line, TC (sB–sA). The net heat added is (TH–TC) (sB–sA).
Therefore, we have an efficiency of the Carnot cycle of

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4 Thermal engines and turbines

 = Net heat / Heat input = (T2–T1) / T2 = 1 – T1/T2.

No real machine actually simulates the Carnot cycle but some get fairly close. In a
sense, this is the ultimate yard stick for heat-power cycles, whereas each real engine
has its own ideal cycle.
Example:
In a spark-ignition internal combustion engine, the temperature of the inlet
gases may be around 30 degree or 303 K, and the temperature during
combustion may be 2500 K. The efficiency of a Carnot cycle operating between
those temperatures will be  = 1 - 300/2500= 0.88 = 88%. Compare this with the
efficiency of the ideal Otto cycle further down, and with a typical real efficiency
of around 25%

4.2 Closed systems: internal combustion engines

The closed systems are identified by the fact that, at least during some of the power
cycle, the combustion chamber is physically closed. The igniting gas increases the
pressure in the chamber, and this pressure pushes a wall and increases the volume
available to the gas. The common closed system internal combustion engines are the
petrol engine and the diesel engine.

The spark-ignition engine: the Otto cycle

This is a closed system and consists of four stages as listed here and illustrated in Figure
4.2:
1 Isentropic compression as the piston moves forward (the work
input):
T2 / T1 = ( v1 / v2 )( γ – 1 ) ,
2 Constant volume heat addition in the combustion chamber
qinput= u3 – u2= cv (T3 – T2).
3 Isentropic expansion as the piston moves back the cycle does the
work:
T3 / T4 = ( v4 / v3 )( γ – 1 ) ,

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4 Thermal engines and turbines

4 Constant volume heat

rejection:
qwaste= cv (T4 – T1).
This is a bit of a fudge, since in
the real cycle, the exhaust valve
is opened, and the piston moves
forward again to expel the
exhaust gases, and then draws
in the fresh air-fuel mix. To
indicate this a horizontal line
denotes this piston movement.
Since this does not enclose any
Figure 4.2: The Otto cycle as the ideal
area, we assume that it does
cycle for a spark-ignition internal
not cost any work. In real life, the
combustion engine.
pressure in the cylinder is slightly
above atmospheric when it expels the exhaust gas and slightly below
atmospheric when it draws the new fuel in. It then will enclose an area and the
cycle goes round the loop in a counter- clockwise direction whereas the other
path form a clockwise path. This means that this expulsion and drawing in of new
fuel is in the other direction of the main cycle, i.e. it is a work input reducing the
net work output.
Since the volume is constant in stages 2 and 4, and the compression and expansion
cover the same range, we can introduce the volume ratio, r, or compression ratio. As a
result, we can write:
T1/T2 = T4/T3 = 1 / r(γ – 1 ) ,
Using this, we can write the efficiency of the Otto cycle as
 = 1 – 1/ r(γ – 1 ) .
A typical petrol engine has a compression factor of between r= 7 and r= 10. Using r= 8,
and the ideal Otto cycle gives (with γ = 1.4) an efficiency of  = 56%. A typical
efficiency of a real engine is around 25% to 30%. Some losses are:

 The compression (stage 1) and expansion (stage 3) are not isentropic.

 The combustion (stage 2) is not completed instantly, and the process is not at a
constant volume (i.e. the combustion is still going on as the piston moves back).
 The heat rejection (stage 4) is not a constant volume process. After all, the
piston needs to move forward once more to expel the combustion products and
move back to draw in the fresh air. This obviously requires energy, and the area

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4 Thermal engines and turbines

under the second part of the cycle is not zero, where as the ideal cycle assumed
it did not take any other energy besides dumping the waste heat. In Figure 4.2,
this part of the cycle is indicated as the horizontal line at the bottom, where as
in real life if will be a cycle enclosing a finite area, which needs to be subtracted
from the area encircled by the first part of the cycle (the first part in enclosed in
a clockwise direction, the second anticlockwise; hence they get subtracted).
Example
A petrol engine operating on an ideal Otto cycle has a maximum cylinder volume
of 1.6 litres, a compression ratio of 10, and a peak cycle temperature of 2500 K.
The minimum cycle temperature and pressure are 300 K and 1 bar, respectively.
The gas is an ideal gas with  = 1.4 and cv = 0.7 kJ/ (kg K) . Calculate
1 The cycle efficiency
2 The temperature at the end of the compression stage
3 The heat input
4 The temperature at the end of the expansion stage
5 The heat rejection
6 The work output
7 The net power output if the engine operates at 3000 cycles per minute
Solution
1 The cycle efficiency is  = 1 – 1/ r(γ – 1 )= 60%
2 The mass in the cylinder is m= pV / RT= 1.86 g = 1.86 * 10 – 3 kg The
temperature at the end of the compression stage is
T2 = T1 r(γ – 1 ) = 300 * 100.4= 754 K.
3 The heat input is
Qinput= m cv (T3 – T2) = 0.00186 kg * 0.7 kJ/(kg K)* (2500 K – 754 K)= 2272 J.
4 The temperature at the end of the expansion stage is
T4 = T3 / r(γ – 1 ) = 2500 / 100.4= 995 K.
5 The heat rejection is
Qout = m cv (T4 - T1) = 0.00186 kg * 0.7 kJ/(kg K)* (995 K - 300 K)= 904 J.
6 The gross work output is
woutput= m cv (T3 - T4) = 0.00186 kg * 0.7 kJ/(kg K)* (2500 K - 995 K)= 1957 J.
and the work input is

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4 Thermal engines and turbines

winput= cv (T2 - T1) = 0.00186 kg * 0.7 kJ/(kg K)* (754 K - 300 K)= 590 J.
The net work output is wnet= 2002 - 604 J = 1367 J.
7 The power output is Poutput= 3000/60 * 1367= 68 kW.

The compression-ignition engine: the Diesel cycle

This cycle is very similar to the Otto cycle.
The only difference is that one assumes
that the combustion (stage 2 in Figure 9)
happens at a constant pressure rather
than constant volume:

 Isentropic compression as the

piston moves forward (The work
input):
T2 / T1 = ( v1 / v2 ( γ – 1 ) ,
 Constant pressure heat addition in
the combustion chamber
qinput= h3 – h2= cp (T3 – T2). Figure 4.3: The ideal Diesel cycle.
 Isentropic expansion as the piston moves back the cycle does the work:
T3 / T4 = ( v4 / v3 )( γ – 1 ) ,
 Constant volume heat rejection as with the Otto cycle:
qwaste= cv (T4 – T1).
Because we have one constant pressure and one constant volume heat exchange
process, we need to define two ratios:

 The compression ratio, r= V1 / V2, which is typically between 12 and 23,

 The cut-off ratio, rc= V3 / V2, which is the ratio of the volumes at the beginning
and end of the combustion stage. This is typically between 2 and 4. A smaller
ratio indicates that the combustion completes faster.
The efficiency of the Diesel cycle is
𝛾
1 𝑟 −1
𝜂 = 1 − 𝑟 𝛾−1 [𝛾(𝑟𝑐 −1)].
𝑐

From this, we can see that the efficiency improves with a larger compression ratio and
a smaller cut-off ratio. Using r= 15 and rc= 3, we get  = 56 %. A typical efficiency of a
real Diesel engine is around 35 % to 40 %.

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4 Thermal engines and turbines

4.3 Turbines: Open systems

In open systems, the heat releasing part of the cycle does not get closed off, but the
working fluid flows through that part of the turbine. Two examples are the steam
turbine and the gas turbine. These two also serve to illustrate the difference between
‘open-cycle system’, ‘open system’, and ‘internal/external’ combustion machines:
The steam turbine is a closed system because the water/steam fluid is recycled back
from the turbine outlet to the boiler by the feed pump, but it is modelled by an open
cycle because the steam never finds itself trapped in any part of the cycle, and it is an
external combustion machines because the heat is supplied through a heat exchanger
in the boiler by an external heat source.
The gas turbine is an open system because it draws in fresh air from the environment,
does its bit to the air/fuel mixture, and then spits it out at the end. It is also an open-
cycle system but it is an internal combustion turbine because the combustion occurs
within the working fluid in the (open) combustion chamber between the compressor
and the turbine.

Steam turbines: the Rankine cycle

The steam turbine, which is modelled by the ideal Rankine cycle (see Figure 10)
attempts to reproduce the Carnot cycle. It exploits the property that the temperature
does not change during evaporation and condensation. The heat input is instead used
for the phase change from liquid to gaseous or back. If the fluid were always in a state
where it consists of both, liquid and gas, one could represent it reasonably well by the
Carnot cycle. The fact that the temperature of the fluid changes on heat input when it
is either a pure liquid or a pure gas means that the heat input stage in the boiler
actually consists of three sub-stages: first the heat input into the liquid before it starts
to boil, then the mixed-phase isothermal heat input, and finally the heating of the
pure gas ("superheated vapour"). Another point which makes the Rankine cycle look
differently from the Carnot cycle is the fact that liquids are virtually incompressible. As
a result, the work input (in the feed pump) only results in an absolutely minute
pressure or temperature increase. In fact, if the water were a completely ideal
incompressible liquid, the temperature increase would be zero.
The steam turbine consists of different parts which carry out the different parts of the
cycle of work input in the shape of a feed pump moving the fluid into the boiler, the
heat addition in the boiler, the work output in the turbine, and the heat rejection in a
condenser. As a result, we need to model the steam turbine as an open system (which

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4 Thermal engines and turbines

means that we need to look at enthalpy of the fluid, h, rather than the internal energy,
u.

Figure 4.4: The ideal Rankine cycle. The length of the pumping process 1 is
exaggerated to make it visible at all.
This can now be summarised in the same way as the Carnot cycle (keeping the same
stage numbers) as
1 The work input: a feed pump moves the water from the condenser to the boiler:
wpump = p v,
where p is the pressure difference across the pump and v the specific volume of
the liquid in the pump (i.e. 1/density).
The power requirement by the (ideal) pump can then be calculated from this
and the mass flow rate through the pump:
W'pump = m' wpump = m' p vliquid
(this corresponds to the adiabatic temperature increase of the Carnot cycle)
2 The heat input into the fluid in the boiler (and superheater)

a. Heating of the water at constant pressure:

h = cp, liquid ( Tevaporation - Tfeed )

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4 Thermal engines and turbines

constant pressure/constant temperature evaporation

b. constant pressure isentropic heating of the steam in the superheater:
T2 / T1 = ( V1 / V2 ) - 1
This is summarised by the enthalpies at the beginning and end of the total
heating stage: qinput= h3 - h2.
3 An adiabatic temperature decrease (by expansion in the turbine where the cycle
does the work):
wout = h3 - h4,
The power output can then be calculated from this and the mass flow rate
through the turbine:
W'out = m' wout = m' ( h3 - h4 ).
4 Isothermal heat rejection by condensation (where the waste heat is dumped to
return the system to the beginning of the cycle):
qwaste= h4 - h1.
The efficiency of the Rankine cycle is

 = [ (h3–h4) – (h2–h1) ] / [ h3–h2 ]

or

 = [ (h3–h4) – (p2–p1)vliquid ] / [ h3–h2 – (p2–p1)vliquid) ]

A typical efficiency of a real steam turbine is around 30% to 40%.
Since all these involve enthalpies, one has to resort to steam tables to find the
corresponding enthalpies of the working fluid at a particular pressure and
temperature.
Example
(This is very abbreviated and should be followed by referring to a
Thermodynamics book)
An ideal steam turbine operates with a boiler pressure of 5MPa and a condenser
pressure of 0.015 MPa. Steam leaves the superheater at a temperature of 400 ºC.
The mass flow rate of the steam through the turbine is 0.5 kg/s. Calculate
5 The power output
6 The power input into the pump
7 the rate of heat rejection in the condenser
8 the cycle efficiency
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4 Thermal engines and turbines

Solution:
The steam tables give us at 5 MPa and 400oC an enthalpy for the steam of h3=
3198 kJ/kg, and an entropy of s3= 6.65 kJ/ (kg K).
At 0.015 MPa we find an enthalpy for the steam-liquid mixture of h4= 2155
kJ/kg, and an entropy of s4= s3.
At 0.015 MPa we find an enthalpy for the liquid of h1= 226 kJ/kg, and an entropy
of s1= 0.755 kJ / (kg K).
1 The work output is
wout = h3 - h4= 3198 - 2154= 1044 kJ/kg.
With the mass rate, this results in a power output of
W'out = m' wout= 0.5 kg/s * 1044 kJ/kg= 522 kW.
2 The density of water is 1000kg/m3, i.e. the specific volume is 0.001 m3/kg,
and the power consumption by the pump is
W'pump = m' p vliquid = 0.5 kg/s * ( 5,000,000 Pa - 15,000 Pa ) * 0.001
m3/kg=
2.5 kW
3 The rate of heat rejection is
Q'waste= m' (h4 - h1) = 0.5 kg/s * (2155 kJ/kg - 226 kJ/kg) = 0.96 MW
4 The efficiency is

 = [ (h3-h4) - (p2-p1)vliquid ] / [ h3-h2 - (p2-p1)vliquid) ]

= [ 3198 - 2155 - 5 ] / [ 3198 - 226 - 5 ] = 1038 / 2967 = 0.35
The efficiency of this ideal steam turbine is 35%

Gas turbines: the Brayton cycle

Whereas a steam turbine usually operates in a closed cycle in which the steam in
condensed and pumped back into the boiler (but is modelled as an open system), the
gas turbine is usually a truly open system: fresh air enters the turbine and exhaust
gases leave the turbine. One still can close the thermodynamic cycle by regarding the
emission of the exhaust gases as the heat rejection stage. This ideal cycle for the gas
turbine is the Brayton cycle as illustrated in the T-s and p-v diagrams in Figure 4.5.

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4 Thermal engines and turbines

Figure 4.5: A T-s diagram and a p-v diagram of the ideal Brayton cycle.

This can now be summarised in the same way as the Carnot cycle (keeping the same
stage numbers) as
1 Isentropic compression (The work input): a compressor at the front moves the air
into the combustion chamber of the turbine:

T2 / T1 = ( p2 / p1 )(γ – 1 ) / γ ,
If the specific heat remains constant, the work input per kg of air is
win= cp (T2 – T1 )
2 Constant pressure heat addition in the combustion chamber
qinput= h3 – h2= cp (T3 – T2).
3 Isentropic expansion in the turbine where the cycle does the work:

T3 / T4 = ( p3 / p4 )( γ – 1 ) / γ ,
If the specific heat remains constant, the work output per kg of air is
wout= cp (T3 – T4 )
4 Constant pressure heat rejection by condensation (where the waste heat is
dumped in the atmosphere to return the system to the beginning of the cycle):
qwaste= h4 – h1= cp (T4 – T1).
Since the pressure is constant in stages 2 and 4, the pressure in stage 3 reduces from
p2 to p1 again. We only encounter one pressure ratio in the cycle:
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4 Thermal engines and turbines

rp= p2 / p1.
As a result, we can write:

T2/T1 = T3/T4 = rp(γ – 1 ) / γ ,

The efficiency of the Brayton cycle is

 = 1 – 1/ rp(γ – 1 ) / γ .
Gas turbines come in a great range of pressure ratios, from rp = 5 to over 30 which would
give ideal efficiencies of between 37 % to over 62 %. The efficiency of a good large real
Gas turbine (Figure 4.6) with a pressure ratio of 30 is around 40 %.

Figure 4.6: schematic of large gas turbine as used in electricity generation.

Example:
A power plant operating on an ideal Brayton cycle has a pressure ratio of 8. The
gas temperature at the compressor is 300 K and at the turbine inlet 1300 K. The
mass flow rate is 2 kg/s, and the gas is an ideal gas with = 1.4 and cp = 1.1 kJ/
(kg K) . Calculate
1 the cycle efficiency
2 The gas temperature at the compressor exit
3 The gas temperature at the turbine exit

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4 Thermal engines and turbines

4 The heat input

5 The heat rejection
6 The power output
7 The power input into the compressor

Solution
1 The cycle efficiency is  = 1 - 1/ rp(γ - 1 ) /γ = 45 %
2 The gas temperature at the compressor exit is
T2= T1 r(γ - 1 ) / γ = 300 * 80.4/1.4= 543 K
3 The gas temperature at the turbine exit
T4= T3 / r(γ - 1 ) / γ = 1300 / 80.4/1.4= 718 K
4 The heat input is
qinput= cp (T3 - T2) = 1.1 kJ/(kg K)* (1300 K - 543 K)= 833 kJ/kg.
With a flow rate of 2 kg/s, this is a rate of heat supply of 1.67 MW.
5 The heat rejection is
qwaste= cp (T4 - T1) = 1.1kJ/(kgK)*(718K - 300K)= 460kJ/kg.
With a flow rate of 2 kg/s, this is a rate of heat supply of 920 kW.
6 The power output is
woutput= cp (T3–T4) = 1.1kJ/(kgK)*(1300K - 718K)= 640kJ/kg.
With a flow rate of 2 kg/s, this is a rate of heat supply of 1.28 MW.
7 The power input into the compressor
winput= cp (T2 – T1) = 1.1 kJ/(kg K)* (543 K – 300 K)= 267 kJ/kg.
With a flow rate of 2 kg/s, this is a rate of heat supply of 534 kW.
8 The net power output is therefore 750 kW
9 The efficiency of this ideal gas turbine is 35 %.

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4 Thermal engines and turbines

Summary
This chapter introduced the concept of thermodynamic cycles to analyse engines and
turbines which operate to convert heat energy to work. After the introduction of the
Carnot cycle as the best of all ideal cycles, the cycles introduced to approximate real
machine were
1 the Otto cycle for petrol engines,
2 the Diesel cycle for Diesel engines,
3 the Rankine cycle for steam turbines, and
4 the Brayton cycle for gas turbines.

Exercises
1 Get information about a car engine (e.g. from the web or from the technical
information booklet about your own car). Derive the ideal performance using
the appropriate cycle and compare to the actual performance.
2 The GE Energy LM6000 gas turbine is rated at 43 MW electrical output with a
pressure ratio of 30 while requiring a heat input of 8.71 MJ/kWh and an exhaust
gas flow rate of 125 kg/s. The temperature of the intake air is 30°C and the
temperature of the exhaust gases is 449°C. Derive the ideal performance
(including efficiency and fuel consumption) using the appropriate cycle and
compare to the actual performance.

Reading
This section is best revised with a standard textbook on Thermodynamics, such as the
Eastop and McConkey, or the Çengel and Turner book mentioned.

77
 Refrigerators and Heat Pumps
Introduction
The aim of this section is to provide an introduction to heat pumps used, for example,
for air conditioning, refrigeration, or heating using ground source heat pumps. This
section assumes that you have worked through the basic section on thermodynamics
and have a good understanding of the concept of thermodynamic cycles as used in the
previous section.
Once you have complete this section, and the previous section, you are ready to
complete the associated tutorial available online.

5.1 Refrigeration and heat pump principles

The function of a heat pump is to move heat from one reservoir to another. An
implicit assumption is usually that that movement is against the temperature gradient,
for example, taking heat out of a cool reservoir, such as the inside of a fridge, and
dumping it in a warmer reservoir, such as the room within which the fridge stands.
This heat transfer is usually carried out by a working fluid, such as the refrigerant R-
134a .
Having read (and sort of understood) the second law of thermodynamics, it is
immediately obvious that this process does not happen by itself but requires some
energy input. This energy input usually involves some work input into the fluid to do
three things: cool the working fluid to below the temperature of the cold reservoir,
pump it towards the warm reservoir, and heat it there to a temperature above that of
the warm reservoir. The temperature changes are often carried out by expansion or
compression of the working fluid as the mechanical pump moves the fluid through the
system.

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5 Refrigerators and Heat Pumps

Figure 5.1: Basic components of a refrigeration system

In the same way as engines and turbines, they operate by cycling the fluid through the
different stages, and they can be represented and analysed like turbine cycles in
reverse as illustrated in Figure 12. Since parts of the cycle are evaporation and
condensation, the appropriate cycle is the reverse Rankine cycle. A fundamental
difference is that there is no part of the cycle which results in work output. In the ideal
cycle, the stage between the heat rejection and the heat uptake (the expansion valve
in Figure 12) does no work. In real life, however, there are losses involved in the
expansion and the work input on the left must make up for those losses in addition to
the desired movement of the heat from the cold to the warm space.

5.2 Coefficient of Performance

Whereas the performance of engines and turbines was measured by their efficiency,
which was defined as the ratio of the network output compared to the heat input, the
performance of refrigerators and heat pumps is measured by a quantity referred to as
the coefficient of performance (COP).

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5 Refrigerators and Heat Pumps

Refrigeration and air conditioning

For a refrigerator (or fridge) or for an air conditioning the desired output is to keep a
space cool, ie the heat removal from the cold space, and the required input is the
work input. By the canonical definition of efficiency, this measure is then (using
subscript R to denote refrigeration)
COPR = QL / Win
Since energy is conserved, Win= QH – QLand the coefficient can be written as
COPR = QL / (QH – QL ) =1 / ( QH / QL – 1 )
Unlike the efficiency of turbines, the coefficient of performance can actually be
greater than one (hence the different name).
For example, a typical fridge might remove 6 kJ/s to keep the food compartment at
4ºC while the pump requires 2 kW. Hence, COPR= 3.
The lower the temperature of the cold space is compared to the warm space, the
lower the COPR tends to be: COPR ~ 3 to 4 for air conditioning,
COPR ~ 2 to 3 for fridges, and COPR ~ 1 to 1.5 for freezers.
Heat Pump
A heat pump, such as used by heating a building using Ground Source Heat Pumps, the
desired output is the heating of the building, that is the heat rejection from the cycle
to the warm space (rather than the heat removal from the cold space). In that case,
the coefficient of performance is given by the ratio of QH over Win:
COPHP = QH / Win
Using Win= QH – QL , we realise that COPHP = COPR + 1.
Typical coefficients of performance for air-source heat pumps, which use the outside
air, is around COPHP ~ 2 to 3, whereas ground-source heat pumps, which operate by
extracting heat from the ground through pipes buried below the surface, can be as
high as COPHP ~ 4.

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5 Refrigerators and Heat Pumps

Summary
This chapter introduced the very basic concepts of refrigeration and heat pumps.

Exercises
1 The food compartment of a fridge has to be maintained at 4ºC in a room at 20ºC.
The heat loss through the fridge walls is 360 kJ per minute. If the power demand
by the pump is 3 kW, determine the COP for the fridge and the rate of heat
rejection to the room (also I kJ/min).
2 An air-source heat pump is used to maintain a house at 20ºC. On a day when the
outside temperature is – 2ºC, the loss of heat from the house is estimated as 80 MJ
per hour. If the heat pump has a COP of 2.5, calculate the power consumption by
the pump and the rate at which heat is absorbed from the outside air (also in MJ
per hour).

Reading
This section is best revised with a standard textbook on Thermodynamics, such as the
Eastop and McConkey, or the Çengel and Turner book mentioned.

81
 Heat Transfer
Introduction
The aim of this section is to provide the basic concepts of heat transfer.
Once you have read this section and the online notes, you are ready to complete the
third set of online exercises

6.1 What is heat transfer and why bother?

If we put a hot object in contact with a cold object, we know that heat will move from
the hot object to the cold object until the two objects are at the same temperature.
This fundamental observation that heat is transfer from a higher temperature to a
lower temperature region is a consequence of the second law of thermodynamics –
and we can’t do anything about this fact. We may be able to reduce or increase the
heat transfer rate but we cannot stop the process altogether.
The rate of heat transfer is measured in watt, i.e. it has the unit of power.
As the process of heat transfer always involves a rate at which this is happening, there
is always the time dimension involved. Thermodynamic cycles and processes are
analysed assuming thermodynamic equilibrium at any point in the process. This
removes any time dimension and a power cycle, for example, can be analysed by using
only energy or enthalpy values at a the beginning and end of each process. This
cannot be done in heat transfer. Heat transfer occurs if and only if the system is not in
thermodynamic equilibrium – i.e. if there is a temperature difference between
different parts of the system. The analysis of the heat transfer can tell us how long it
will take to achieve thermodynamic equilibrium, or at what rate energy is being
transferred between different parts of the system if each of these parts is kept away
from thermodynamic equilibrium.
An example for the former case is: How long does it take for your hot coffee to cool
down to a drinking temperature.

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6 Heat Transfer

An example for the latter case is: What is the transfer rate through the outside wall of a
building between the room (heated to a comfortable temperature) and the cold
outside. This rate of heat transfer is equal to the power requirement on the heater in
that room to maintain the room temperature.
Space heating and transport are the two biggest energy consumers. Yet, looking at
heat losses and potential for energy savings is not a very popular subject to study.
Using very simple, and frequently cheap, insulation and heat saving measures, it is
possible to achieve substantial reductions in energy consumption. However, to
estimate the heating load for a room or building and the effectiveness of energy
efficiency and energy saving measures, one needs to have an understanding of heat
loss mechanisms. This section will briefly introduce the three main mechanisms for
heat transfer. In other applications, such as heat exchangers, you would obviously
want to maximise the heat transfer rate rather than minimise it..
The three basic forms of heat transfer are

 Conduction: heat diffuses through a solid (or stagnant fluid). This requires a
mass but no motion of the mass
 Convection: heat is physically moved by a moving fluid. The motion can either be
externally enforced, e.g., by a fan, or it can be a result of the temperature of the
fluid. Convection due to an externally imposed flow is called forced convection,
and that due to the temperature variations in the fluid is called either free
convection or natural convection.
 Radiation: Any object emits electromagnetic radiation which is a function of its
temperature. This radiation is called black-body radiation. This radiation
transport energy/heat through transparent objects as well as through vacuum.
Radiation does not require any matter or motion.
For the first and the last, we can write down a complete theory, and solve them in
principle, but convection involves fluid motion and is therefore very much harder to
describe completely.

6.2 Heat conduction

Simple conduction and Fourier’s law

Heat conduction occurs through any material (but not in vacuum) and depends on the
temperature gradient (or temperature drop over a given distance) and the ability of
the material to conduct heat (i.e. is it a thermal conductor as most metals, or is it an
insulator such as fur or foam).

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6 Heat Transfer

We can derive an expression which tells us how much heat we transfer given the
temperature drop, the type of material, its thickness, and the surface over which we
conduct the heat:

 The higher the temperature difference, the larger the heat loss 'If it is colder
outside, we need more heating'
Q  T

 The larger the area is over which we can transfer heat, the larger the heat loss
'If the window is larger, we lose more heat through it'
QA

 The thicker the material is, the less we lose heat, 'If the jumper is thicker, we
stay warmer'
Q  d–1

 If the material is better at conducting heat, the larger the heat loss, 'Aluminium
is a good thermal conductor, wool a poor conductor'
This depends on the material and is a material property called thermal
conductivity. The symbol used varies but is usually k or , and sometimes :
Qk
NB: Note that there are two conventions to denote the rate of heat transfer. One is
to use the symbol Q! with a dot over it to denote that it is a rate of change or a rate
of transfer of heat. Since prehistory, however, people have also simply used the
symbol Q without the dot to denote the heat transfer rate – because it is so much
easier to type in text. Do not confuse this with the amount of heat. The amount of
heat, also Q, has units joule, the heat transfer rate, Q, has units joule per second or
watt.
This leads us to Fourier's law of heat conduction as

Q = k A T / d
If we reduce the thickness towards an infinitesimal distance and realise that the heat
goes in the direction against the temperature gradient (ie., the temperature gradient
point to the hot place and the heat goes to the cold place), this gives

Q = – k A dT/dx

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6 Heat Transfer

6.3 Thermal Resistance and U-value

To simplify the head conduction through a layer, for example some insulation, the
concept of ‘thermal resistance’ is often used. In common with electrical resistors, the
symbol used for this is R. By convention, the inverse of the resistance is used and this is
referred to as the U-value
The only problem with this simple approach is that sometimes it is more convenient to
look at a material, and then look at the heat loss per unit surface area: Q/A = T k / d
= T / R = U T. In this case, the units of R are [ m2K/W ] of the units of U are [
W/(m2K) ].
Sometimes, however, it is more convenient to look at the heat transfer from an
overall object of given surface area: Q = T / R = U T. In this case, the units of R are [
K/W ] of the units of U are [ W/K ].

6.4 Convection

Real convection is a very complicated process which depends on the imposed or self-
excited fluid flow, the fluid properties which affect both the flow (such as viscosity)
and heat transfer (such as thermal conductivity or thermal diffusivity),but for many
practical purposes, one can express the heat transfer by convection in an equation
which is similar to the conduction equation.
Since the convection does not occur by conduction over a fixed distance, the ratio of
k/d in Fourier's law is simply replaced by an empirical factor, the heat transfer
coefficient. The symbol for that is usually h or , and has units watt per metre-
squared per Kelvin, W m 2 K 1:
Q = h A T

Table 7: Typical ranges of the heat transfer coefficient (from Çengel and Turner 2001).
Type of convection h W/m2/K
Free convection of gases 2 - 25
Free convection of liquids 10 - 1000
Forced convection of gases 25 - 250
Forced convection of liquids 50 - 20,000
Boiling and condensation 2,500 - 100,000

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6 Heat Transfer

6.5 Radiation

Radiation occurs both in vacuum and in transparent media (glass, air, etc...). Each
object emits radiation according to its temperature and surface condition. The most
radiation emitted at any particular temperature is that emitted by a black body. This
radiation occurs over a wide range of frequencies of this radiation (see Planck's
distribution law, and the total amount emitted is given by the Stefan- Boltzmann law:
Q =  A T4
where

 = 5.67  10-8 W m-2K-4 is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant,

 A the surface area of the black body, and
 T the surface temperature of the black body (in Kelvin)
Very few bodies are black, but most are 'grey', which means that the emission and
absorption are simply reduced by a factor, , called emissivity.
Sometimes, as in glass or air, the emissivity is very low at one range of frequencies (i.e.
the visible light), but very large (i.e. close to 1) at other ranges (e.g. the infrared).
The amount of heat transferred by radiation from one surface to the other does not
only depend on the surfaces and their temperatures, but also how much one surface
'can see' the other. This is expressed by the View factor: The view factor from a
surface i to a surface j, Fij is the fraction of the radiation leaving surface i that strikes
surface j directly. Everything together, then results in a net heat transfer between
surface i and surface j as
Qi j= Fi j  A (Ti4 – Tj4)
As with convection, it might be useful to reformulate the radiative heat transfer in a
form similar to Fourier’s law, using (a2–b2)= (a+b)(a–b):
Qi j= Fi j  A (Ti2+Tj2)(Ti2– Tj2) = Fi j  A (Ti2+Tj2)(Ti+Tj) T
Giving a heat transfer coefficient of h= Fi j  (Ti2+Tj2)(Ti+Tj)

View factor for a sphere

If a sphere of radius R is exposed to radiation from a source some distance away, that
source would ‘see’ the sphere as a disk. The surface of the sphere is A = 4R2 but the
source only sees a surface of Aview = R2. Hence the view factor is ¼.

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6 Heat Transfer

Exercise:
The Sun can be approximated as a sphere of radius RS = 6.96 x 105 km with an
apparent temperature of 5778 K.
The Earth can be approximated as a sphere of radius RE = 6371 km and has a
distance to the sun of 149.6 x 106 km.

 Calculate the total radiation from the sun into space

 Calculate the view factor for radiation from the sun to a square plate of
size 1 m2 at the location of the Earth directly facing the sun.
 Calculate the view factor for the same plate if it is tilted away from the sun
by 30°.
 Calculate the radiation received by the Earth.

View factor for radiation between two parallel grey plates

If two parallel plates are perfect black bodies, and if they are very large compared to
the distance between them, each plate sees the entire surface of the other plate, and
the view factor is simply 1.
However, if the plates are grey bodies, with emissivities 1 and 2, then part of the
radiation emitted by one plate is reflected back to it from the other plate, and so on.
This leads to an infinite series of partial reflection adding up to a total radiative heat
transfer between the plates as
1
𝑄1→2 = 𝜎𝐴(𝑇14 − 𝑇24 )
1 1
𝜀1 + 𝜀2 − 1

6.6 Combined heat transfer through several layers

If heat is conducted, for example, from the air in a room through the walls of the
house and the windows, the heat has to cross several hurdles.
1 First it needs to get near the wall and then into the wall; this happens by
convection
2 Then it goes either through the plaster or the glass by conduction (and maybe
radiation)
3 Then maybe through an air gap or vacuum if we have double-glazing (by
conduction, convection, or radiation), or through bricks (by conduction) and so
on, until it gets to the outside surface.

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6 Heat Transfer

4 There it leaves the wall/window and is carried away by convection and radiation
In the following, I will ignore radiation or assume that it has been incorporated in the
heat transfer coefficient, h.
We can treat the heat going through the wall section of the room separately from the
windows. They are obviously linked because they start with the same room and
outside temperatures.
Let us take the easiest case of
1 the room with a heat transfer coefficient h1
2 a single wall with a thermal conductivity k1 and thickness d1, and
3 the outside with a heat transfer coefficient h2.
Even this has three stages. Since the amount of heat flow rate through each of the
stages is the same, and the surface areas are the same, we can work out what it is:
Q= (1/h1 + d1/k1 +1/h2 ) – 1 A T
The expression for the several layers looks much easier, if we express Fourier's law
using the thermal resistance, R:
Q= A T / R
where the units of R are K m 2 W – 1 = K m 2 / W.
For a single layer, R= d/k, and for a convective heat transfer, R=1/h
Looking back at the several layers, we now see, that the total thermal resistance of
several layers is the sum of the individual layers.
For our case of room - wall - outside, we have
R= 1/h1 + d1/k1 + 1/h2.
And we can easily add more and more layers....
Often, you might find something called the U-value. This is simply the inverse of the
thermal resistance, U= 1/R, so that
Q= A T / R = U A T

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6 Heat Transfer

Example 1.
The wall of an industrial furnace is constructed from 0.15m thick fireclay brick
having a thermal conductivity of 1.7 W/m.K. Measurements made during
steady-state operation reveal temperatures of 1400 and 1150 K at the inner
and outer surfaces, respectively. What is the rate of heat loss through a wall
that is 0.5 m by 3 m on a side? Assume: One dimensional steady state
condition with a constant thermal conductivity.
Solutions:

Since heat transfer through the wall is by conduction, the heat flux may be
determined from Fourier’s law, i.e.

The heat flux represents the 2rate of heat transfer through a section of unit
W/m
area. The wall heat loss is then

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6 Heat Transfer

Example 2
The hot combustion gases of a furnace are separated from the ambient air and its
surroundings, which are at 25°C, by a brick wall 0.15 m thick. The brick has a thermal
conductivity of 1.2 W/m . K and a surface emissivity of 0.8. Under steady- state
conditions an outer surface temperature of 100°C is measured. Free convection heat
transfer to the air adjoining the surface is characterised by a convection coefficient of h =
20 W/m2.K. What is the brick inner surface temperature?
Solution:

From the energy conservation at the surface we get, i.e.

qcond - qrad - qconv = 0
or rearranging and substituting the heat loss per unit area for conductive, convective and
radiative, the above equation become
Solving for T1: T1 = 352 °C

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6 Heat Transfer

Summary
The basics of heat transfer and the four types of heat transfer,
1 Conduction through solids
2 Forced convection of a fluid blown or pumped over a surface
3 Natural convection where buoyancy drives the fluid flow
4 Radiation,
were introduced and reduced to a form similar to Fourier’s law of conduction.
From the similarity of Fourier’s law to Ohm’s law and Kirchhoff’s law, it is possible to
extend the simplest case to several layers of conducting or insulating materials and to
heat transfer pathways acting in parallel.

Exercises
1 Using typical values, estimate the heat loss from a bungalow in winter and the
heat gain in summer. Describe the building and all assumptions.
2 Using typical values, estimate the air velocity required across a microchip
surface to maintain it at a safe operating temperature.

Reading
Y. A. Çengel and R. H. Turner (2001). Introduction to Thermal-Fluid Sciences,
McGraw- Hill

91
 Fluid mechanics
Introduction
A number of turbines, such as hydro turbines and wind turbines, convert energy carried
by the fluid directly to work, the aim of this section is to provide the very basic
principles of fluid mechanics as the underpinning science to fluid machines, based on
the conservation of mass (Continuity equation), momentum (a version of Newton’s 2nd
law), and energy (Bernoulli’s equation, which is a version of the first law of
thermodynamics).
Another technique, which is actually relevant to all parts of the physical sciences but
which is particularly useful for fluid mechanics is Dimensional Analysis, introduced in
the second half of this section.
This section should be read in conjunction with the following section on fluid machines.
Once you have read both sections and the online notes, you are ready to complete the
associated set of online exercises.

7.1 Basic Fluid Mechanic principles

This section quickly reviews the fundamental basics of fluid mechanics, based on the
conservation of mass, momentum, and energy.

The control volume

If we want to be able to describe the forces and mass balances we need to define a
volume over which we do this. This volume of our choice is called the control volume,
abbreviated CV, and the surface which encloses this volume is called the control surface
(CS).

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Continuity equation
The continuity equation states that mass is conserved. In an incompressible fluid, such
as water, this is equally to the statement that the volume or volume flow rate is
conserved. In other words: What comes in has to come out
in Qin = out Qout
1 Q1 = 2 Q2
If fluid is incompressible (all liquids), 1 = 2 , and
Q1 = Q2
U1 A1 = U2 A2 ,
where Q is the volume flow rate, A the cross-sectional area through which the fluid
flows, and U the average velocity through that cross-sectional area.

Momentum equation
Here, we have to remember that the best-known form of Newton’s second law, F= m
a, is a simplification of the proper definition as ‘The change of momentum is equal to
the applied forces', F= d(mv)/dt. To apply this to a fluid, we have to re-phrased it
slightly if we look at a position through which fluid is flowing, instead of looking at a
solid object with mass m:
The Change of momentum in our control volume is equal to the net gain of
momentum by momentum flowing into the control volume plus any forces
applied to the fluid within the control volume or at its surfaces.

By convention, one calculates the momentum flowing out of the control volume.
This gives a minus sign which disappears if we move that term to the left of the 'iis
equal'. Also, the forces can be divided into those which apply throughout the bulk of
the volume, 'body forces' (e.g. gravity), and those which contribute only at the outer
surfaces of the control volume (They are described by a stress tensor which includes
forces due to pressure and stress). With this, the momentum equation for a control
volume can be rephrased as

Rate of Change of Momentum + Net loss of Momentum

= Body Forces + Surface Forces .
You could also visualise the different meanings of the terms by realising that the
momentum carried by the fluid is carried by the mass flow rate = rate of change of
mass:
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7 Fluid mechanics

F= d(mv)/dt. = m dv/dt + v dm/dt = m a + v m’ = m a +  v Q= m a +  A U 2.

Remember that this is more of an illustration than a derivation. In particular, any force
applied is given by the difference between the value of  v Q at the inlet and the outlet.
If we are looking at a steady-state flow, then there will be no acceleration. If we
furthermore only consider a case where the only velocity component is that in the
direction of the mass flow rate, then the force becomes
F= 1 A1 U1 2 – 2 A2 U2 2.
The most important forces of all is the pressure force, F= pA.

Energy, energy per unit volume, and head

The most important forms of energy for fluid machines are
1 Potential energy: m g z
2 kinetic energy: ½ m U2
3 flow work or pressure energy: p V.
(all having the base unit: 1 joule= 1J= 1 kg m2 s 2)
In fluid mechanics one often uses energy per unit volume: 1 joule per m3= 1 kg m1 s2.
Note that this has the same units as pressure: 1 pascal= 1 Pa= 1 kg m1 s2.

1 Potential energy:  g z
2 kinetic energy: ½  U2
3 flow work or pressure energy: p
Using the hydrostatic pressure equation, p=  g H, this pressure is equivalent to a
stationary column of fluid above the point you are looking at with a height of H.
As hydropower is usually associated with a reservoir a certain elevation above a
turbine house, and because pressure is most easily measured by the height of a fluid
column in a manometer, one often converts these into quantities with dimension (m)
by dividing each term by  g, and refers to them as head:
1 Elevation: z
1
2 dynamic head: 2𝑔 𝑈 2
𝑝
3 static head: 𝐻 = 𝜌𝑔

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Bernoulli's equation
Bernoulli's equation is the statement of the first law of Thermodynamics that energy is
conserved. It considers the energy balance at two points along a path that a fluid
takes, a stream line.
In terms of energy per volume (unit pascal: 1 J/m3= kg m–1 s–2= Nm= Pa):
1 1
𝑝1 + 𝜌𝑔𝑧1 + 𝜌𝑈12 = 𝑝2 + 𝜌𝑔𝑧2 + 𝜌𝑈22
2 2
In terms of energy per mass (unit J/kg= m2 s–2)
𝑝1 1 𝑝2 1
+ 𝑔𝑧1 + 𝑈12 = + 𝑔𝑧2 + 𝑈22
𝜌 2 𝜌 2
In terms of head (unit m)
𝑝1 𝑈12 𝑝2 𝑈22
+ 𝑧1 + = + 𝑧2 +
𝜌𝑔 2𝑔 𝜌𝑔 2𝑔
1 2
The last can be rewritten using the hydrostatic pressure due to a fluid column of
height h1: p= gh:
𝑈12 𝑈22
ℎ1 + 𝑧1 + = ℎ2 + 𝑧2 +
2𝑔 2𝑔
giving us Bernoulli’s equation using elevation, static head, and dynamic head.
Taking into account losses and work done on or by the fluid, the energy balance at
point 2 can be worked out in terms of the energy balance at point 1 and what has
been lost or gained in between. If energy is added to the fluid the work term is
positive if energy has been extracted, HW is negative:
𝑈12 𝑈22
ℎ1 + 𝑧1 + = ℎ2 + 𝑧2 + + 𝐻𝐿 + 𝐻𝑇 − 𝐻𝑃
2𝑔 2𝑔
where HL is the head loss (e.g., due to friction) between points 1 and 2, HT the head
extracted by a turbine, and HP the head added by a pump.
The head loss is usually due to a combination of friction and ‘minor losses’, quantified
by a friction factor, f, and minor loss coefficients, K, which result in a head loss of
𝐿 𝑈2
𝐻𝐿 = (4𝑓 + ∑ 𝐾)
𝐷 2𝑔
If we only have a pump but no turbine in the system, we can re-arrange it to
𝑈22 − 𝑈12 𝐿 𝑈2
𝐻𝑃 = ℎ1 − ℎ2 + 𝑧1 − 𝑧2 + (4𝑓 + ∑ 𝐾)
2𝑔 𝐷 2𝑔

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As the left-hand side only quantifies the pump and the right only the two endpoints of
the fluid system, the right-hand side is called the system head, HS. This equation is
used to calculate what flow rate and pressure one finds if one puts a given pump into
a pipeline system.
The same can be done for a turbine:
𝑈12 − 𝑈22 𝐿 𝑈2
𝐻𝑇 = ℎ1 − ℎ2 + 𝑧1 − 𝑧2 + (4𝑓 + ∑ 𝐾)
2𝑔 𝐷 2𝑔

Mechanical and Fluid power

Mechanical Fluid kinetic Fluid static
Hydraulic
Force F F 𝑚̇𝑉 Δp A

Energy E Fs 1⁄ 𝑚𝑉 2 pV, ρgH

2
Torque T Fd 𝑚̇𝑉𝑡 𝑑

Power P F U= F d  =  T 𝜔𝑚̇𝑉𝑡 𝑑 = 𝜌𝜔𝑑𝑉𝑡 𝑄 ρgHQ

s is used for linear distance moved, while d is used for distance of selected point from
centre of rotation.  is the angular velocity of the machine rotor.
Note that in the torque only the component of the force is counted which is at right
angles to the distance vector from the axis of rotation.
Euler’s turbomachine equation states that, in the absence of losses etc., the change in
hydraulic power across the turbine is fully transferred into shaft power by means of
the fluid applying a torque on the shaft in the form of the tangential velocity. In short,
it states that the three columns in the bottom row of the table above are all equal.

Dimensional analysis
Dimensional analysis is tool used universally in all areas of the physical sciences albeit
frequently not overtly. It is a method to find parameters which describe the important
dynamics of a system in a way which is not restricted to that particular system.
Without it, it would be useful to build scale models of cars or aeroplanes and test
them in a wind tunnel. Dimensional analysis helps you to transfer the data from the
wind tunnel to the real thing.

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The procedure is to gather all relevant parameters, and then to reduce them to a
minimum set of nondimensional parameters using a set of base units. If we have
different situations where all nondimensional parameters are the same, then the
dynamics is the same, and we have similarity. Similarity is usually split into geometric
similarity, i.e. the shape is the same, and dynamic similarity, i.e. the other parameters
are the same. To have a truly similar situation, we need both geometric and dynamic
similarity.
It is probably best illustrated by an example. To read the theory, refer to a standard
Fluid Mechanics textbook
Example: Wind drag on a car.
The relevant parameters are the size and geometry of the car, the fluid
properties of the air through which the car is moving, the speed at which it is
moving, and the drag force: Size L, air density , air viscosity , speed U, Force F.
The base units are length, m, mass, kg, and time, s.
The first condition is that we test the car using a scale model; trying to measure
the drag force on a Ferrari will be different to that on a minibus…
Secondly, we have 5 parameters and 3 base units. Since the procedure boils
down to a simultaneous set of equation for the five parameters, we know that
we will end up with 5 – 3 = 2 non-dimensional parameters.
One parameter to characterise the drag force will have the form Fa UbLcde
The other one will have the form UfLgh i
We can safely start with a=1. Putting this into the base units:
kg 1 m 1 s –2 × mb s –b × m c × kgd m –3d × kge m –e s –e = 0
and
× mf s –2f × m g × kgh m –3h × kg i m –i s –i = 0
which can only be satisfied if each base unit drops out:
kg: 1 +d +e =0
m: 1 +b +c – 3d –e =0
s: –2 –b –e =0
This reduces to :
b=–e 2
c= – 2e 2
d= – e 1

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We can now choose to set e = 0, and get b = –2, c = –2, and d =–1:
𝐹 𝐹
The force parameter is F U –2L–2 –1 or, 𝐶𝐷 = 𝜌𝐿2 𝑈 2 = 1 , where CD is the drag
𝜌𝐴𝑈 2
2
coefficient.
Repeat the exercise for the second parameter (and making sure you don’t choose j =
𝜌𝑈𝐿
0!) to get the Reynolds number, 𝑅𝑒 = .
𝜇

As you saw, we had a choice to set one of the unknown exponents to zero. One can
end up with a different set of equally valid non-dimensional parameters.

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Summary
The basics of Fluid Mechanics were introduced, including,

 Fluid energy and power terms

 Bernoulli’s equation
 Dimensional analysis

Exercises
 Take a reservoir of water at an elevation of 250 m above ground.
 Calculate the energy per m3 (in Pa), the energy per kg (in J/kg), and the energy
per gravity (in m).
 Calculate the velocity of a jet of water discharging into the atmosphere at
ground level.
 For a volume flow rate of 15 m3/s from the reservoir in Exercise 1 through a
pipeline of diameter 2 m and length 450 m,
 Calculate the total power given by the elevation and flow rate (hydraulic power).
 Calculate the fluid velocity through the pipe,
 The power associated with the fluid velocity through the pipe,
 the dynamic head, and
 the head loss assuming a friction factor of 0.005 and K= 2.
 From the remaining available head, calculate the available hydraulic power.
 Carry out a Dimensional analysis for a hydro turbine, based on
 Fluid properties of water
 Available head / pressure (use the quantity g H rather than just H)
 Volume flow rate
 Power

Reading
B.S. Massey (now B.S. Massey and Ward-Smith). Mechanics of Fluids, Chapman &
Hall or Stanley Thornes, now 7th or 8th edition.
Y. A. Çengel and R. H. Turner (2001). Introduction to Thermal-Fluid Sciences,
McGraw- Hill

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 Fluid machines
Introduction
The aim of this section is to provide the very basic principles of the common types of
engines and turbines which exploit fluid motion or pressure. To provide the required
basic fluid dynamic concepts, the basic processes, such as Bernoulli’s equation are
briefly revised. These are then applied to the range of engines and turbines from
reaction turbines to wind turbines.
Read also the sixth section of the online ‘Basic Notes.’
Once you have read this section and the online notes, you are ready to complete the
fourth set of online exercises, which is based on the material covered here and in the
previous section.

8.1 Definition of fluid machines

This is an introduction to extracting work from a fluid flowing through a turbine. This
could be a reaction turbine in a hydropower station, driven by a pressure drop across
the turbine, or it could be a wind turbine extracting kinetic energy from the wind.

Turbines and engines are machines which extract energy or power from a
stream of fluid and convert it into mechanical energy
(and then possibly into other forms, such as electricity)

Pumps, fans, and compressors are machines which use mechanical

energy or power to increase the pressure or kinetic energy of a fluid.

 Design parameters for pumps and fans:

1 Desired flow rate
2 Associated head loss
3 Power requirement

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 Design parameters for compressors::

1 Desired pressure increase
2 Associated flow rate
3 Power requirement

 Design parameters for turbines and engines: Either

1 Desired power generation
2 Available head
3 required flow rate
Or, for wind turbines and similar,
1 Desired power generation
2 Available flow rate
Important quantities
1 Head or available head: hydrostatic pressure at machine inlet/outlet: p= gH .
When considering a turbine beneath a reservoir, the available head at the
turbine inlet is the height of the water level above the turbine minus the head
loss in the penstock feeding the water from the reservoir to the turbine (and
possibly minus residual head required at the turbine outlet for the water to clear
the turbine).
2 Flow rate, Q.
3 Power:
this can be either the hydraulic power in cases where the static head is
exploited: p= gH, or the power carried in an open stream, of velocity U,
through the cross- section, A, of the turbine facing the stream (in the case of a
wind turbine, this is the circle swept by the rotor blades of diameter D): P= ½ 
AU3 .

Dimensional Analysis for fluid machines

Taking a reaction turbine as a representative, we recognise that the relevant
parameters are most likely to be:

 Shape of the turbine

1 Size of the turbine: usually the diameter of the rotor, D in [m]
2 Operating speed of the turbine, N in [rad/s]

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3 Density of the fluid,  in [kg/m3]

4 Viscosity of the fluid,  in [kg/m/s]
5 Available head of the fluid, H, or pressure, p in [kg/m/s2]
6 Flow rate through the turbine, Q in [m3/s]
7 Power output, P in [kg m2 / s3]
With 7 parameters and 3 base units, we expect 4 nondimensional parameters. If you
go through the analysis, trying to find one parameter proportional to H, and to Q, and
one to P, you are likely to end up with
𝜌𝑈𝐿
a Reynolds number, 𝑅𝑒 = 𝜇
D
𝑔𝐻
a head coefficient, Π𝐻 = 𝑁2 𝐷2
𝑄
a flow coefficient, Π𝑄 = 𝑁𝐷3, and
𝑃
a power coefficient, Π𝑃 = 𝜌𝑁3𝐷5.

This particular set is correct but has not been adopted as the most useful one. As
there is always some freedom in choice of non-dimensional parameters, and because
any product of two non-dimensional parameters is still a non-dimensional parameters,
we can find one parameter which expresses the power in terms of head and flow rate,
and another parameter which in some way characterises the machine by its operating
speed without any reference to its size:
Π𝑃 𝑃
The new power coefficient becomes: Π = Π = 𝜌𝑔𝐻𝑄. Recognising that the term at
𝐻 Π𝑄

the bottom is the hydraulic power, we see that we have derived an expression for the
efficiency.

Specific Speed
The ‘speed’ coefficient, KN can be found by combining the power coefficient and the
head coefficient so that the size drops out, and that it is proportional to the operating
speed:
1 1 1
Π𝑃2 4 𝑃2 𝑁10 𝑃𝐷10 4 𝑁 4 𝑃2 4 √𝑃
𝐾𝑁 = ( 5 ) = ( 2 6 10 5 5
) = ( 2 5 5
) =𝑁 5
Π𝐻 𝜌 𝑁 𝐷 𝑔 𝐻 𝜌 𝑔 𝐻
√𝜌(𝑔𝐻)4
A turbine with a high specific speed will provide a high power output for a low head,
whereas a turbine with a low specific speed will provide power at a high head.
Another rule of thumb not immediately obvious from the equation is that of two

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turbines providing the same power, the one with the higher specific speed will be
more compact.
Because the specific speed has been found to be very useful for many years, it has been
adopted in all sorts of units, from the standard SI units to Imperial units but also
‘practical units’ which then resulted in the specific speed not being a non-dimensional
unit at all. Because all the turbines have almost exclusively been used for water
( = 1000kg/m3), and on the Earth’s surface, (g= 9.81m/s), engineers have adopted the
√𝑃

specific speed using the short form 𝑁𝑠 = 𝑁 −5 (where
N I have used NS to distinguish it
𝐻4
from the non-dimensional version derived above. Often, the speed is also taken in
rev/s rather than rad/s, which changes the specific speed value by a factor of 2.
Exercise:
√𝑃
Try to find the units of 𝑁𝑠 = 𝑁 −5 if you take N in rev/s (rather than rad/s), P in
𝐻4
MW and H in m.

8.2 Types of turbines

Reaction turbines
The action of driving the turbine shaft is by a gradual pressure drop over rotor.
Pressure drop through rotor
Degree of reaction =
Pressure drop through machine
Depending on the orientation of the rotor relative to the main flow direction, they are
classified into radial flow, axial flow, and
mixed flow machines.
1 Radial flow turbine:

 Runner between outer inlet radius and

inner outlet radius.
 specific speed range: 0.1 - 0.4 ;
 moderate head (up to 500m) and
moderate flow rates;
The most common example of a radial flow reaction turbine is the Francis turbine. In
fact, this turbine is in principle the same as a centrifugal pump operating in reverse,
and in cases where specifically designed turbines are too expensive, centrifugal pumps
have been used as turbines. This also opens up the possibility of a pumped-storage

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hydropower station; when there low electricity demand, the power station operates
the machines as pumps to fill up its reservoir, and when electricity demand rises, the
same machines are used as turbines to generate electricity.
10 Axial flow turbine:

 Runner entirely within fluid, except for shaft.

 specific speed range: 0.3 - 1 ;
 low head (up to 150 m for Kaplan, up to 25m for Bulb
 turbine) and high flow rates.
Kaplan turbine='Propeller in housing' although usually with vertical axis.
Bulb turbine, usually with horizontal axis but with generator in bulb in line with
runner. Used at very low heads, such a tidal power stations.

Impulse turbines
Examples of impulse turbine are the Pelton Wheel
and the Turgo turbine:
All energy is converted to kinetic energy in a fluid jet
hitting the turbine runner. The runner is everywhere
at atmospheric pressure. As a result, the degree of
reaction is zero.
Because the size of the buckets at the rim of the
runner limit the size of the jet, Pelton Wheels
operate best at fairly low flow rates. They are
therefore best suited for high heads. This is reflected in a specific speed range of
0.01 – 0.1.

Turbine types according to their specific speed

 The diagrams only show the rotor, but not the stationary housing or guide
vanes.
 The values in the various specific speeds are only approximate ranges. The usual

 The specific speed for the Pelton Wheel applies to a single jet. For multiple jet,
the power output is proportional to the number of jets.

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Name Image of the runner typical Kn Kn NS NS

head (m) (rev) (metric) (British)

Impulse turbines

Pelton Wheel > 300 <0.2 <0.03 < 30 < 10

Turgo turbine
(cross flow)

steam turbine
(axial flow)

Reaction turbines

Radial flow reaction turbines

Francis 500 – 30 0.25 – 0.04 – 50 – 10 –

1.3 0.2 250 60

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Mixed flow reaction turbines

100 – 15 0.6 – 2 0.1 – 0.3 120 – 30 –

360 100

1.3 – 2.5 0.2 – 0.4 250 – 60 –

500 120

2–3 0.3 – 0.5 360 – 100 –

600 150

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Axial flow reaction turbines

Kaplan 50 – 4 2–6 0.3 – 1 360 – 100 –

1200 300

Bulb or Pit < 20 >3 > 0.5 > 600 > 150

Wells

Controlling the output

As the turbine will slow down if energy is drawn off at a higher rate, the response of a
turbine to an increase of the electricity demand is a change in speed. Frequencies can
be measured extremely accurately, and this is a way to monitor whether a turbine is
matching the electricity demand. If the frequency drops, the flow rate through the
turbine has to increase. This control of the flow rate is achieve by different means. The
flow rate of the water jets in a Pelton Wheel is usually controlled by a spear valve,
which can change the volume flow rate but does not affect the jet velocity. In reaction
turbine, wicket gates and guide vanes are used to both, control the flow rate and
condition the velocities to enter the turbine runner smoothly.

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Example: A large hydropower station

A new 150MW hydropower station is to be built at a site where the available
head is estimated at 350m. The generators require the turbine to rotate at 10Hz.
1 Find the volume flow rate to generate 150MW of hydraulic power.
2 Find the specific speed (KN (rev)) to generate 150MW.
3 If the only available turbines are Francis turbines with KN= 0.08 rev, find
the power output from one turbine, and the number of turbines required
to generate 150MW.
Solution:
3
= 43.7 𝑚 ⁄𝑠
𝑃ℎ 150,000,000
1 𝑄 = 𝜌𝑔𝐻 = 9810∗350

√𝑃 √150,000,000
2 𝐾𝑁 = 𝑁 5 = 10 = 0.147
√1000(3434)1.25
√𝜌(𝑔𝐻)4

𝐾𝑛2 𝜌(𝑔𝐻)2.5 0.082 ∗1000∗(3434)2.5

3 𝑃= = = 44.2 ∗ 106 𝑊 = 44 𝑀𝑊
𝑁2 102

So, we would need 4 turbines.

Propellers and wind turbines

To get a good idea what one might get out at best, one can simplify the problem
greatly. Instead of looking at the detailed flow through the turbine, we can treat the
turbine itself as a black box and only look at its effect on the nearby fluid stream. One
simplification is to regard the black box as a very thin disk just enclosing the rotor, the
actuator disk. We can then define a control volume which encloses some fluid
upstream of the rotor, the actuator disk, and some downstream fluid. Because the
only object within that control volume is the actuator disk, we can use Bernoulli's
equation everywhere, except across the disk. But the disk is the only thing which can
affect the flow, so it is the only thing where a force can be exerted.

 Propellers generate thrust by accelerating the fluid through the rotor.

 Wind (and tidal stream) turbines generate power by converting kinetic energy of
the fluid flow into rotation of the rotor.
 They have no casing to guide the fluid through the machine
 They cannot maintain a pressure drop between upstream and downstream of
the machine.
 Simple wind mill designs may have flat rotor blades which act like deflector
plates. The torque on the rotor is given by how much the air stream is deflected
by the blades. The real efficiency is much reduced because one cannot have

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ideal flow conditions across a moving deflector blades if it is to do work (use the
velocity triangles: because the entry angle and the exit angle of the blade are
the same, we cannot do the work gradually along the blade.
 Rotor blades are generally
shaped like areofoils - they
generate a lift force
perpendicular to the fluid
flow along the blade
(remember that the blade is
moving at the same time).
Propellers want to generate
forward thrust while wind
turbines want to generate torque.

Actuator disk theory

To get a good idea what one might get out at best, one can simplify the problem
greatly. Instead of looking at the detailed flow through the turbine, we can treat the
turbine itself as a black box and only look at its effect on the nearby fluid stream. One
simplification is to regard the black box as a very thin disk just enclosing the rotor, the
actuator disk. We can then define a control volume which encloses some fluid
upstream of the rotor, the actuator disk, and some downstream fluid. Because the
only object within that control volume is the actuator disk, we can use Bernoulli’s
equation everywhere, except across the disk. But the disk is the only thing which can
affect the flow, so it is the only thing where a force can be exerted.
Actuator disk Control Volume
The control volume wants to enclose
the actuator disk completely but not
look at the fluid flowing past it. We
also want to use streamlines as the
side boundaries so that we know
that there is no fluid leaving the
control volume through sides and
that we can use Bernoulli’s equation
along the side. The streamline which
just touches the edge of the disk is
called the slipstream. Also, we need to extend the control volume to far enough away
from the disk so that we look at simple, unperturbed flow:

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8 Fluid machines

 Pressure far upstream and downstream is unaffected: 𝑝4 = 𝑝1 = 0

 Mass flow through control volume: 𝑚̇ = 𝜌𝐴1 𝑢1 = 𝜌𝐴2 𝑢2 = 𝜌𝐴3 𝑢3 = 𝜌𝐴4 𝑢4
 The disk is very thin: 𝐴2 = 𝐴3 = 𝐴, where A is the swept area of the rotor.
 By continuity: 𝐴𝑢2 = 𝐴𝑢3 → 𝑢2 = 𝑢3
 The force on the disk by the flow is the pressure difference across the disk:
𝐹 = (𝑝2 − 𝑝3 )𝐴
1
 Bernoulli before disk: 𝑝2 = 2 𝜌(𝑢12 −𝑢22 )
1
 Bernoulli after disk: 𝑝3 = 2 𝜌(𝑢42 −𝑢22 )
1
 Inserting pressures gives force: 𝐹 = 2 𝜌𝐴(𝑢12 −𝑢42 )
 Force on disk is also the net change in the momentum flow rate:
𝐹 = 𝑚̇(𝑢1 − 𝑢4 )
 with Momentum flow rate into C.V.: 𝐽𝑖𝑛 = 𝑚̇𝑢1
 Momentum flow rate out of C.V.: 𝐽𝑜𝑢𝑡 = 𝑚̇𝑢4
 Equating both forces, using 𝑢12 −𝑢42 = (𝑢1 + 𝑢4 )(𝑢1 − 𝑢4 )
1
 and re-arranging gives 𝑢2 = 2 (𝑢1 + 𝑢4 )
21
 Power transmitted by disk: 𝑃 = 𝐹𝑢2 = 4 𝜌𝐴(𝑢12 −𝑢42 )(𝑢1 + 𝑢4 )
𝑢
 Using 𝑈 = 𝑢1 and 𝜒 = 𝑢4 :
1
1 3 (1 1
 𝑃 = 𝐹𝑢2 = 4 𝜌𝐴𝑈 − 𝜒 2 )(1 + 𝜒) = 4 𝜌𝐴𝑈 3 (1 + 𝜒 − 𝜒 2 − 𝜒 3 )

Wind turbine
The flow of kinetic energy by the wind
through an area A is
1
𝑃𝑎𝑖𝑟 = 𝜌𝐴𝑈 3
2 2
The efficiency of a stationary actuator
disk is therefore:
𝑃 1
𝜂= = (1 + 𝜒 − 𝜒 2 − 𝜒 3 )
𝑃𝑎𝑖𝑟 2
This expression can be used to find the
Figure 8.1: Efficiency of an ideal wind
optimum efficiency by differentiating it
turbine.
with respect to χ and setting that
expression to zero. This gives a quadratic equation with a root of χ = 1/3. Inserting this
into the equation for the efficiency gives
 = (1 + 1/3 – 1/9 – 1/27)/2 = (27 + 9 – 3 – 1)/27/2= 32/54= 59%.
The best efficiency of an ideal wind turbine of  = 59% is known as the Betz limit.

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8 Fluid machines

Propeller
If we consider a propeller, the power
conversion between actuator disk
2
and fluid is given by the force and
the fluid velocity through the disk,
u 2 , but the useful power is that
which is related to the actual speed
of the aircraft, which is U, but the
force is obviously still the same. So
the useful output is
1
𝑃𝑜𝑢𝑡 = 𝜌𝐴𝑈 3 (1 − 𝜒 2 )
2
Figure 8.2: Efficiency of an ideal
The efficiency is
propeller.
𝑃𝑜𝑢𝑡 2
𝜂= =
𝑃𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑟 1+𝜒

Example: Design of an aircraft propeller:

An aircraft is powered by to turboprop engines. Assume that the actual
propellers work at the ideal limit according to actuator disk theory where the
wind speed behind the propeller is 50% higher than the travelling speed. Each
engine must provide a thrust of 50kN to achieve a speed of 300mph at an
altitude where the density of air is 0.8kg/m3.
1 Calculate the efficiency of the propellers
2 Calculate the power requirement for the engines.
3 Calculate the diameter of the propellers.
4 Calculate the pressure changes across the propeller.
Solution:
U= 300mph= 185m/s.
= 1.5=3/2
2 2 1
 𝜂 = 1+𝜒 = 5 = 5 = 20%
2

2 F= 50,000N
u2= ½(U+u4)= 1.25U= 231m/s.
P= Fu2= 11.55MW

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8 Fluid machines

1
3 𝐹 = 2 𝜌𝐴𝑈(1 − 𝜒 2 )--> A= 2.92 m2 and D= 1.93m.

4 p = F/A = 17kPa = 0.17bar = 170mbar

Design of a helicopter rotor

A helicopter design requires from the rotor that it can carry a mass of 5,000kg. The
diameter of the rotor is not to exceed 8m. Assume that actuator disk theory gives a
useful indication of the situation. Near ground, the air density is 1.2kg/m3.
1 Sketch a diagram of the helicopter rotor as an actuator disk, and outline the
slipstream boundary and the velocities at crucial points.
2 Determine the air velocity through the disk required to produce the force to
balance the weight of the helicopter.
3 Calculate the power requirement for the motor powering the rotor.
4 Estimate the torque on the rotor shaft if the rotor rotates at 300rpm

Solution:
𝜋𝐷 2
The swept area of the rotor is 𝐴 = = 50.27 𝑚2
4 4
The upstream velocity, u1, is zero, and the velocity through the disk, u2, is therefore
half of the downstream velocity, u4.
The force generated by the change in velocity is 𝐹 = 𝑚̇(𝑢4 −𝑢1 ) = 2𝜌𝐴𝑢22
2
The force required to counteract the weight of 5,000kg is F= mg= 49kN.
𝐹
The air velocity through the rotor is then 𝑢2 = √2𝜌𝐴 = 20 𝑚/𝑠.

1 𝐹 𝐹3 𝐹3 1
The power carried by the air is 𝑃 = 2 𝑚̇𝑢42 = 𝐹𝑢2 = 𝐹 √2𝜌𝐴 = √2𝜌𝐴 = √𝜋𝜌 𝐷 = 980 kW

𝑃 980,000
The torque is 𝑇 = 𝜔 = = 31 kNm.
2𝜋∗5

Some remarks on wind turbines

One of the design and operating conditions not used in the actuator disk theory is the
rotational speed of the turbine rotor. It is obvious, however, that wind of a given speed,
U0, can turn the rotor only at a certain speed. The parts of the rotor moving fastest are
the tips of the rotor blades. A rotor with a radius, R, and turning with an angular
velocity, , has blade tips moving at Utip= R .

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8 Fluid machines

In fact, two other constraints limit the useful speed of such a turbine or propeller:
1 If any part of the rotor is moving at speeds approaching the speed of sound, the
compressibility of air will affect the performance
2 If the rotor is moving too fast (or if the blades are too close together), a blade
will follow in the wake of the previous blade rather than receive 'fresh' air.
While the first is more relevant to aircraft propellers, the second is important for wind
turbines. As a result, smaller turbines may turn faster and/or have more blades, while
larger ones tend to have fewer blades and turn slower. Equally, if you want to reduce
the number of blades for a given rotor radius or diameter, you must increase the
rotation rate to achieve the same output.
Most current large wind turbines have three blades, and operate at a tip speed ratio
of about 8:1. This means that the tips move about 8 times faster than the mean wind.

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8 Fluid machines

Summary
The basics of turbines extracting fluid power were introduced.
These included hydro turbines. The dimensional analysis of these turbines lead to the
definitions of efficiency and specific speed. The various types of turbines were then
introduced with a reference to their usual range of applications in terms of available
head, including,

 Radial flow reaction turbines, such as the Francis turbine

 Axial flow reaction turbines, such as the Kaplan turbine, and
 Impulse turbines, such as the Pelton Wheel
The basics of propellers and wind turbines were introduced and analysed through the
Actuator Disk theory, which resulted in the Betz limit of  = 59% as the best efficiency
for an ideal wind turbine.

Exercises
1 Identify and specify suitable turbines for a 240 MW hydropower scheme from a
reservoir level 300 m above the discharge level.
2 Specify the rotor diameter, rotation rate, and torque on the shaft for a 2 MW wind
turbine.

Reading
B.S. Massey (now B.S. Massey and Ward-Smith). Mechanics of Fluids, Chapman &
Hall or Stanley Thornes, now 7th or 8th edition.
Y. A. Çengel and R. H. Turner (2001). Introduction to Thermal-Fluid Sciences,
McGraw- Hill

114
 Electricity generation and
transmission
Introduction
The aim of this section is to provide the bare bones of the basic principles of electricity
generation and transmission.

9.1 Generation

Faraday’s law
Faraday’s induction law relates the creation of an electric voltage in a wire moving
through a magnetic field or, conversely a magnetic field moving past a wire.
The voltage (electromotive force) induced in a coil is proportional to the rate of change
of the magnetic flux. Since this voltage is set up across a single coil, we can add up the
voltage if a wire makes several coils:
𝑑Φ
𝑉=𝑁
𝑑𝑡
where V is the voltage induced, N the number of windings,  the magnetic flux.
Generation in a generator or alternator follows this principle where the motion of the
coils is rotational, and where the magnetic field is not generated by a permanent
magnet but by an electromagnet. So, a generator has rotor coils which provide the
magnetic flux, and stator coils around the rotating shaft which generate the voltage.
The voltage induced in each stator coil alternates in polarity as the magnetic poles of
the rotor passing through change polarity. If they are designed not too badly, the
induced voltage can be described by a sine function – giving the AC voltage. If that
voltage is linked to an electric circuit, it results in an AC current.
The power output from a generator coil is P= VI, where V is the voltage (in volt) and I
the current (in ampere). Each coil will also result in a sinusoidal power output. To
provide more control over the output, a generator consists of many stator coils which

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9 Electricity generation and transmission

are wired such that there are three sets of coils, all the coils in one set generating in
phase but the three sets at different phases. The average power at any time provided
by those three phases is constant for a balanced system.

Power transformers
The very same principle of power generation applies to transformation. If a coil wound
around an iron core carries a time-varying current, it sets up a time-varying magnetic
flux in the iron core proportional to the number of windings of that coil, according to
Faraday’s law. The magnetic flux in the core then induces a voltage in another coil
proportional to the number of windings of that coil around the core. We therefore get
an equation for the induced voltage, V2, in coil 2 as
𝑁2
𝑉2 = 𝑉,
𝑁1 1
where V1 is the voltage in coil 1, and N1 and N2 are the number of windings in coils 1
and 2, respectively.
If the transformer works without any losses, then the power, P= VI, will not change, and
consequently, the current will change in the inverse relation as the voltage.
A transformer with 10 windings in coil 1 and 100 windings in coil 2, receiving a current
of 1A at a voltage of 240V in coil 1, will turn this into a current of 0.1A at 2400V.

Losses in transmission
The answer to a question you might have asked in the previous section: Why are we
interested in transforming power, and why do we have high voltage power lines?
Losses in an electric conductor are given by Ohms law, which states that the voltage
drop (or loss), VR, due to its resistance along a conductor is proportional to the
current:
𝑉𝑅 = 𝑅𝐼
where R is the Ohmic resistance of the conductor (in ohm). This can be used to
express the power dissipated, PR, due to resistance in that conductor is
PR  VRI  RI 2 .

We can see that the power loss is proportional to the square of the current;
decreasing the current by a factor 2 will decrease the losses by a factor 4. If we want
to minimise losses, then we need to minimise the current.

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9 Electricity generation and transmission

In the example of the previous section, let us assume we had lost 10 % of the power
had we used the low voltage to transmit the power from the generator to the
consumer. With the 1:10 transformer, we have reduced the losses by a factor of 1:102=
1:100. As a result, we would only lose 0.1 % of the power.

Reading
This section is best revised with a standard textbook, such as Hughes electrical and
electronic technology.

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10 Energy statistics

Energy statistics
Production, Consumption, and Emissions

Introduction
The aim of the chapter is to introduce the way energy data are collected and presented
in national or global energy statistics. Some potential problems in their interpretations
are highlighted. The second part uses some energy statistics to discuss the link
between energy and living standard.
Read also section 3 of the Basic Notes available online

10.1 Energy statistics

Never trust a statistic unless you have fudged it yourself6.

Almost every single country on Earth collects and publishes data of their national
energy production and consumption. The data are usually published by (or on behalf
of) government departments. Digests of these national data are also compiled in
international databases, most notably by the International Energy Agency7 and by BP8,
and also by the UN and the OECD.

Data and information reliability and use

A word of caution: while many organisations state that they are independent – and
may really try to stay independent – all collation, presentation, and interpretation of
data is necessarily biased by the authors opinions. For example, the IEA is an
organisation closely founded by OECD countries, who represent the major oil-
consuming countries. As a result, one of their underlying tenets is to ensure a reliable

6
While no direct source for this ‘quasi’-quote can be given, it is a caution frequently raised!
7
http://www.iea.org
8
BP Statistical Review of World Energy

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10 Energy statistics

and affordable supply of oil and gas. Following the IEA World Energy Outlook report in
2005 (which was in addition to its regular bi-annual reports during even years)
criticism was raised by several people that the IEA attempted to steer world policy
decisions to support oil and gas investment at the expense of investing in sustainable
renewable energy development9. You might ask yourself the question why the EIA felt
obliged to publish an World Energy Outlook report in 2005 when there was to be one
due in 2006.
Another example can be found in the wind debate. Some groups, either truly trying to
protect wildlife using wildlife and the country side in addition to a strong financial
involvement in the nuclear industry present all evidence that wind turbines are
unreliable, an eye-sore, and killing birds, whereas the respective national wind energy
association will present evidence that wind turbines have produced a substantial
amount of energy, that they attract tourists, and that bird fatalities are so much small
than other human activities that not installing wind power will kill more birds in the
resulting climate change.

Data collation and presentation

To compile any statistic, the two fundamental questions are:
1 What do we want to know?
2 How should we organise the information?
The first question seems easy to answer:

 The energy which we put into the society/economy, the ‘primary energy’,
probably broken down into the different types of energy resources.
 Possibly some intermediate stages of the energy, for example when converting
it from, eg, coal to electricity.
 The final amount of energy consumed, probably broken down into type of
energy consumed and/or type of consumer
While this sounds straightforward, there are some pitfalls:

 Is primary energy always well defined?

9 EIA (2005). World Energy Outlook 2005 -- Middle East and North Africa Insights. EIA report
summary: http://www.iea.org/textbase/npsum/WEO2005SUM.pdf
Criticism raised by R. Rechsteiner (MP in Switzerland), Energy Bulletin, 26 Nov 2005:
http://www.energybulletin.net/11701.html

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10 Energy statistics

 How do we account for energy used in the energy generation, for example
getting the oil from the reservoir up, to shore, and refined into useful fuel?
 Where does the chain stop, or who is the final consumer? After all, the first law
of thermodynamics states quite firmly that energy cannot be ‘consumed’.
Before we go into the details of what exactly we put in the tables and figures, it is
useful to see a few of such figures. In Chapter 1, we have already seen some energy
graphs. It seems quite intuitive that the spaghetti diagram, Figure 1.4: Spaghetti
diagram for the flow of energy from primary source to end use (taken from Twidell and
Weir, 19)., is a clear graphical description of the input and output of the energy, both
by type and by end-user category. The relative contribution of each energy resource,
or energy form, is represented by the thickness of each strand. Unfortunately, such a
diagram only works for very simple cases, such as Norway, which only used four types
of resources and used almost exclusively hydropower to generate electricity.
For most countries, the primary input into electricity generation comes from a
multitude of sources, resulting in a true bowl of spaghetti where it is almost
impossible to untangle individual strands. Often, a number of pie charts are used
instead. Over the next few sections, we will establish some statistics on the example
of the information about the energy balance in the UK for 1998. Unless stated
otherwise, all information are taken from DTI (1999) Energy in Brief10.

10.2 Primary energy

What is primary energy? Generally, it is the energy content of the original resource. In
the case of natural gas, it is the amount of gas extracted from the reservoir. Once it
has left the ground and thus entered the market, this primary energy resource could
be used for a variety of applications, ranging from cooking in the domestic kitchen to
electricity generation in a power station.
Simple!, but:
How do we count the water flowing down a river which may be used in a hydropower
scheme? After all, it cannot be used for anything other than electricity generation at
that particular location11?
In most statistics, we are given the energy content of the fuels and, in addition to that,
‘primary electricity’. Primary electricity is the form of electricity which derives from a

10
http://www.dti.gov.uk/epa/
11
The possibility of using a water mill to extract mechanical energy directly is ignored since this is
not used to any noticeable extent anywhere in the world.

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10 Energy statistics

source which cannot be used for anything else. This includes, among others,
hydropower, wind power, and nuclear energy. This opens up a substantial difference
between the electricity produced by a nuclear power station and by a coal-fired power
station. For the nuclear power station, the output is used to fill in the energy
production while for the coal-fired station it is the input which goes in the statistics.
Problem: We expect less energy to come out of a coal-fired power station than we put
in (a typical proportion is that about 30% of the energy released by the burning of the
coal is converted to electricity). There is a fundamental unfairness in measuring the
input for one scheme but the output for another scheme. On the other hand, the input
into a primary electricity plant cannot be used for anything else, so the amount we
lose may be irrelevant, whereas coal could be used for something else where we use
the energy contained in the coal more efficiently.
Illustration 1: If a coal power station generates 1000 kWh in a day, the primary coal
energy input on that day is 3000 kWh and 2000 kWh are lost as heat. If we were to
replace the coal power station by a hydro power station, we only need to generate
the 1000 kWh of energy and very little heat is generated (maybe about 100 kWh). As a
result, the same contribution to the electricity will look very different in the energy
input side, depending on where we use it. In the first case, the entry is 3000 kWh but
in the second case, it is only 1000 kWh.
Illustration 2: If the same coal power station is replaced by a nuclear power plant, the
entry in the statistics will only be 1000 kWh, but a nuclear power plant generates the
same amount of waste heat as a coal power station. While the entry in the primary
statistics is only 1000 kWh, we still generate the waste heat of 2000 kWh. If we were
able to use this waste heat constructively, we could use energy further down the line
which had never entered in the primary column.
Solutions: Three conventions to deal with this imbalance between primary fuels and
primary electricity can be found:

 Acknowledge that they are very different sources of energy, and stick to the
simple output from the primary electricity generators as the input to the
statistics.
 Multiply all output from primary electricity generators by a factor of 3 to show
the amount of energy which would be consumed if that electricity had been
generated by a traditional coal or gas power station.
 Multiply only the output from nuclear power stations by a factor of 3, since they
also produce the same waste heat as other fuel-operated power stations. This
waste heat might be useful at some stage.

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10 Energy statistics

The UK statistics12 and the BP Statistical Review, for example, use the third policy in
their statistics, while the UN use the first option. Even though the choice of
convention affects the numbers, there is often no clear indication as to which
convention is used in many publications.
The primary energy production in the UK for 1998 is summarised in the table and
illustrated in a pie chart as

Mtoe %

24.1 Petroleum 145.1 51

26.0
Natural Gas 90.2 32

Coal 26.0 9
145.1
90.2 Primary electricity 24.1 8

Total 285.4 100

This is obviously only a snapshot for 1998. It is very instructive to compile data from
several years to see a trend in the energy production. The UK, for example, shifted
dramatically from a coal-based country to an oil-and-gas based country.

Exercises:
1 Compile comparative primary energy data for the UK from different years,
including the 1970s and the most up-to-date data available from the dti website.
2 Compile comparative primary energy data for different countries.

10.3 Energy consumption

Since most government statistics are interested in the energy market, it is universally
agreed that the ‘final consumer’ of energy is that person or company who pays for the
energy while it is in energy form. For example, the energy consumed in the process of
making a light bulb is counted against the manufacturer of the light bulb, the energy
consumed while transporting it to the customer is counted against the haulage
company filling up their lorries with diesel, but the energy consumed while the light

12
as explained in Appendix A in the DTI’s Energy Digest, see http://www.dti.gov.uk/epa/

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10 Energy statistics

bulb is producing light in a house, is included in the energy bill of that domestic
customer.
Problem: Some countries, e.g. Switzerland and India, use to a noticeable degree wood
or other biomass to heat their building or do the cooking, where this biomass has not
been bought but collected free of charge by the individual (by felling a tree in a
communal forest or by picking up cow dung from the street). Because nobody pays for
this energy resource it cannot easily measured or included in the statistics.
Answer: Estimate....
Problem: Where do we count energy used by the energy industry: the energy required
to extract the fuel, the energy lost in the conversion to a useful energy, the energy lost
in transporting the energy...?
Answer: Not in the ‘Final use’
Problem: Fuels used in international transport. A national energy statistic will be
interested in the domestic use of fuels. Who includes the fuel used in open waters
(‘marine bunkers’ in UK statistics) or in the skies between two countries?
Answer: nobody really.
The ‘final consumption’ for the UK is summarised by the DTI as

Mtoe %

Oil 66 42
27
6.5 Gas 56 36
66
Coal 6.5 4
56 Electricity 27 17

Total 155.5 99

Another way to look at the final consumption, rather than by type of energy, is by type
of user:

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10 Energy statistics

Mtoe %

Industry 35.0 22
35
46
Service sector 21.7 14

Transport 53.6 34
21.7
Domestic 46.0 29

53.6 Total 156.3 99

We can attempt to compile the information as

10.4 Production and consumption

Comparing the production and consumption can give some useful insights. Comparing
the primary energy production of 285.4Mtoe with the final consumption of
156.3Mtoe, we see that there are some 129Mtoe missing. A closer look at the
published data shows

 Conversion losses: 51.7Mtoe, which is the energy lost as waste heat in the
electricity generation, and the energy lost in the refinement of crude oil to
ready-to-use fuels, ie petrol etc.
 Distribution losses and energy industry use: 20.8Mtoe.
 Import, export, stock changes
 Marine bunkers etc.

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10 Energy statistics

Figure 10.1: National production for the UK in 1998

This figure shows the national production of the UK for 1998 in the left column, and
the national consumption in the right column. The middle column accounts for the
conversion losses and the energy used by the energy industry to provide the energy
for consumption. A few things can be noted by comparing all figures prepared so far.

 Much more oil is produced than consumed: the UK is an oil exporting country.
 More coal is used and lost in the conversion than produced: the UK is a coal
importer.
 The UK is a net energy exporting country
 Gas is used in similar amounts as a final energy provider (heating, cooking etc.)
and as a fuel for electricity generation (visible in the conversion loss)
 While a large part of the primary electricity is ‘lost’ (this is due to incorporating
the waste heat into the nuclear electricity), more electricity is consumed. Almost
all of the electricity consumed has come with the penalty of about twice the
energy amount lost in the energy conversion.
 By far, the largest contributions to the energy consumption are in the fossil fuels
of oil and gas.

10.5 Change over time

It is useful to compare how the production and consumption have changed over time.
As a typical example, the 1970 figures are compared to the 1998 figures for the UK
(figure

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10 Energy statistics

Figure 10.2)

 The UK moved from a coal producer/exporter and oil importer to a coal

importing and oil exporting country.
 The total consumption has increased very little, but the production has
increased dramatically
 Primary electricity has increased noticeable, mainly due to nuclear generation

Figure 10.2: Change in consumption in the UK between 1970 and 1998

10.6 Energy data in relation to other statistics

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10 Energy statistics

The energy statistics presented so far have only given the bare numbers for energy
production and consumption. For these numbers to be meaningful they will have to
be placed in the context of other information. Energy consumption alone does not say
what has been done with the energy, or how efficiently is has been used. In this
section, three other types of information will be used to put the energy data into
context, namely the population, the ‘wealth creation’, and the ‘standard of living’ in a
country.

Per caput consumption

GMJ
It is obvious that a more populous country consumes per
more energy than a small country because it has more £GDP
people using energy. Industry
Service sector
But: the per-caput consumption does not measure the
Transport
industrial output/’wealth generation’
Domestic
The UK has a population of about 59 million. Subtotal
Converting the final consumption in 1998 to a per- Losses
capita consumption, the figures become those in the Total
table to the right.
Exercise: Complete the table. The last column is the number of people which could
subsist on that energy if all they need is a daily food ration with an energy content of
2000Cal.

Energy and GDP

A fairly common step to include the wealth generation - which to a large degree
depends on the energy consumption — is to measure the per-capita energy
consumption against the national Gross Domestic Produce (GDP). The GDP is the total
inland production of the national economic system, or the value of everything that the
country has produced in that
Annual Daily “food”
year. For the year 1998, the UK
GJ kWh # people
Industry
Service sector
Transport
Domestic
Subtotal
Losses
Total

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10 Energy statistics

National Office for statistics13 quotes a GDP of £859,384 million, or £859109. Dividing
the annual total energy consumption data by this figure, we obtain the amount of
energy expended on generating one pound of GDP.

Energy and standard of living

The Gross Domestic Product is obviously only one indicator of a nation’s state. To find
a measure which is not just based on the economic performance of a country but also
on other factors which affect the standard of living is difficult. One such factor, which
has been defined by the United Nations, is the United Nation’s Human Development
Index (HDI)14. The HDI attempts to measure the human development of a country by
taking into account in equal parts indicators for the life expectancy, the education (as
measured by adult literacy and the enrolment into primary, secondary, and tertiary
education), and the GDP of a country. Each contribution is scaled such that the value of
each of the three indicators is between 0 (least development) and 1 (highest
development). Taking a third of each, the life expectancy indicator, the education
index, and the GDP index, one can calculate the HDI, which again is between zero and
one. The UK has currently an HDI of 0.928, which identifies it as the 13th most
developed country (Top of the table is Norway with HDI= 0.942, and bottom of the
table at number 173 is Sierra Leone with HDI= 0.275). Figure 10.3 Human
Development index against annual per-capita electricity use (from Pasternak
(2000)shows the Human Development Index against the annual per-capita electricity
consumption for most countries included in the compilation of the HDI. A few things
can be noted about the figure. The horizontal axis is the electricity consumption rather
than the total energy consumption, so it may be somewhat skewed against highly
developed countries which might use a larger proportion of electricity rather than
other fuels. Almost all countries cluster around a well defined curve, which rises
steeply from the minimum at about 0.3 to a value between 0.7 and 0.8. Then the
increase in the development index slows down dramatically, and above an index of
about 0.9, there is no clear gain in the developmental index with increased energy
consumption. It appears that one could argue that any electricity consumption below
2MWh per year per person is directly used for the development of that country.

13
http://www.statistics.gov.uk
14
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Human Development Report 1999, Oxford
University Press, New York and Oxford, 1999. See also http://hdr.undp.org/

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10 Energy statistics

Figure 10.3 Human Development index against annual per-capita electricity use (from
Pasternak (2000)15
Above 4MWh, however, there is not gain at all by using more and more electricity. As
an example, Spain and Italy have a development index of about 0.9 at a per-capita
consumption of about 4MWh, and the USA and Canada have an index of about 0.93
but consume over three times that amount of electricity. At first sight, there seems to
be plenty of scope for increased energy efficiency even when only using current
technology.

Energy and Climate

Some basic facts:
The mean surface pressure is about 1000 mbar= 10 5 Pa.
The mean Earth radius is 6371 km  the surface area is 4R2= 5.1×1014 m2
Using the pressure force and gravity in Newton’s second law,

15 A.D. Pasternak (2000). Global Energy Futures and Human Development: a Framework for
Analysis. US Department of Energy, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Report UCRL-ID-
140773; http://www.llnl.gov/tid/lof/documents/pdf/239193.pdf

129
10 Energy statistics

pA = F= mg,
we can estimate the mass of the atmosphere as
m = pA/ g = 5.2×1018 kg.
Exercise:
Refer back to the combustion products of the fossil fuels, coal, oil products, and
natural gas. These are mainly water and carbon dioxide. Consider the fact that
well over three quarters of our total energy consumption is based on these
fuels, estimate the anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere. From the total emission, calculate its contribution to the total
atmosphere in ppm (parts per million). Then, looking at the following graphs,
think about the observation that the carbon dioxide concentration in the
atmosphere has increased in line with the industrial revolution and energy
consumption.
The following graphs (Figure 10.4, Figure 10.5) were copied from reports of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 16 and a presentation of the IPCC in 2001
(Figure 10.6, Figure 10.7).

16 From IPCC Third Assessment Report: Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. Available from
http://www.ipcc.ch/pub/reports.htm : pdf at http://www.ipcc.ch/pub/un/syreng/spm.pdf ;html
at http://www.ipcc.ch/pub/syreng.htm

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10 Energy statistics

Figure 10.4: Changes in mean surface temperature , sea level and Northern Hemisphere
snow cover over the past 150years16

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10 Energy statistics

Figure 10.5: Projected surface temperature changes for the late 21st century (2090-2099
relative to the period 1980-1999, respectively. 16

Figure 10.6: Measured mean surface temperature over the past 140years and 1000 years,
respectively. (Source: IPCC,2001; Figure 9-1a)

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10 Energy statistics

Figure 10.7: Time series of atmospheric concentrations over the past 1000 years. (Source:
IPCC,2001; Figure 2-1)

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10 Energy statistics

Summary
Some ways of displaying energy statistics, both as data on their own and within the
concept of energy use related to other national characteristics were presented. Some
points which became apparent are

 The current energy balance is very much dominated by oil and gas
 A substantial fraction of the energy of gas and coal are lost in the conversion to
electricity in power plants
 Moderate electricity use contributes to the development of a country, but above
a finite value of electricity consumption, no apparent gain in the country’s
development can be detected.
 In many countries, the energy consumption is split into three parts of similar
proportions: transport, domestic, and industry (both manufacturing and service
industry). In the UK, and many other countries, transport is the largest of the
energy users. Transport is to over 90% based on oil.
 The use of fossil fuels results necessarily in carbon dioxide emissions of the
order of 3kg of CO2 for each kg of fossil fuel

Exercises
1. Gather energy production and consumption data for your country of origin, or a
country of your choice. Put this into context of the development of that country (how
much has energy been linked to improvement in standard of living, how much is
energy a source of income or expenditure/ dependence on others). Find out what the
national policies and legislation are to guarantee a secure energy supply, yet comply
with international agreements (such as the Kyoto protocol), and how much those
policies are compatible with sustainable development. Think about your findings

Sources other than the main textbook

BP Statistical Review of World Energy
J. Ramage. Energy: a guide book http://www.iea.org http://www.energy.gov/
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/contents.html http://hdr.undp.org/
http://www.berr.gov.uk/ http://www.statistics.gov.uk
other national statistics publications / web sites

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 Outlook
Introduction
This section highlights some of the very many points not even touched upon in the
previous sections. If I were to discuss, or even provide answers, to some of the
questions raised in this chapter, I would fill many more hundreds of pages… I have
therefore decided to pose questions and leave it up to you to find out more using
newspapers, professional journals, and scientific articles address, and, above all, your
critical mind.

11.1 Energy and sustainable development

Currently, over 80% of our energy supply come from fossil sources, coal, oil, gas, and
nuclear. We are consuming fossil fuels at a rate that they will certainly be virtually
used up within a few hundred years whereas it took some million years to create
them.
Apart from nuclear, they all were originally produced as biomass. If we make a rough
estimate that one can get about 50t/ha/year as a theoretical maximum (Wheat
productivity in the UK is a little under 50t/ha/year), using a typical net calorific value of
10GJ/t, we can estimate proportion of annual biomass production we are currently
using up. The total land surface is about 13 billion hectares = 1.3×1014 m2 of which
about 1/3 is arable, say 4×109 ha. This makes global maximum energy supply
TPES = 10×109J/t×50t/ha/yr×4×109 = 8×1021J.
A more realistic value will be closer to 1% than 10% of that figure. Our current annual
energy consumption is around 5×1020 J. Are our current consumption patterns
compatible with the principle of sustainable development?
Do we have the moral duty to our offspring and the planet to

 say we are working towards sustainable development

 make some effort towards sustainable development
 change our fundamental way of life so that we can achieve sustainable
development?

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11 Outlook

11.2 Energy saving and energy efficiency

Energy saving is if we use less energy, energy efficiency is if we get out more from the
same energy used. While they seem to be saying the same thing in terms of numbers,
there is a fundamental difference, linked to our human nature: if we achieve energy
efficiency, we feel justified to increase what we get out of the energy – so that we may
get more at the end but do not use less energy.
True energy saving is if we actually use less energy, regardless of what we get for it.
Should we priorities economic development using highest energy efficiency
technology, or should we prioritise energy reduction? The latter is obviously
completely anathema to the modern philosophy of achieving economic development
and growth. This can always be justified by saying that economic development will
result in wealth, health, and new technologies.

11.3 Technological, behavioural, and attitudinal solutions

‘Technological fixes’ as opposed to behavioural and attitudinal fixes are currently the
only seriously acceptable solutions to tackle the energy challenge, as they both seem
to be good for the environment but also bolster technological and economic
development. Furthermore, it is the only way of remaining electable as the population
does not like being told they cannot use their car, fridge, cooker, or computer
whenever they like.
However, technological fixes tend to have their own problems; look at recent
technological fixes, e.g. drugs to address one illness usually come with side effects
which may result in decades of scarred people (example thalidomide); nuclear power
is a wonderful technological fix to supply vast quantities of electricity without vast
amounts of carbon dioxide emissions; just a pity that no real solution to the waste
problem has been found.

11.4 Is Renewable Energy always good?

Obviously, one form of technological fix proposed to address both the finite nature of
fossil fuels and their environmental impact, is the development of renewable energy
technologies.
On the face, they are a good way of reducing emissions and reducing reliance on fossil
fuels. However, they also have some problems attached. One of the main problems is

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11 Outlook

that their energy density tends to be much lower than that of the fuels. One needs so
many installations and requires so much land that they do more damage the
landscape than a compact power station (be it in the form of nuclear, or coal/gas fired
power station which captures the CO2 for secure storage; only problem is how to store
it practically and securely at the scale required?)
Wind energy, for example, is controversial among nature lovers: they argue that wind
turbines kill birds – but then, how many birds are going to be killed by climate change?
It is argued that wind cannot really supply enough energy: once there is more than
10% or 20% of the electricity supplied by wind, the fluctuating nature of the wind
resource makes the entire electricity network unstable; required backup generation in
the form of fossil generators must be on stand-by and may cause as much emissions as
if they were the energy supplier without wind power.
Biomass has another problem associated with it: sustainable production of it. While
the use of waste and residue seems reasonable, what about biomass crop. Since the
UK’s potential for biofuel (ethanol as a petrol substitute and biodiesel) currently
seems to be able to cover may be up to 20% of the current fuel consumption,
developing countries are now proposing to chop down their tropical rain forest to
produce biofuel for the West while destroying habitat for endangered species as well
as tinkering with an important part of the climate system.

11.5 Energy and climate

There is no doubt that the vast majority of the increased carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere is a direct result of our energy consumption in the form of burning the
carbon-based fossil fuels.
Even assuming we could find more and more oil and gas if we just look hard enough
and invest enough (as the EIA implicitly assumed in its 2005 World Energy Outlook), we
are still facing the problem that we are rapidly heading to a climate situation with CO2
levels never seen before.
Climate change is not just an academic debate. Results of measured and predicted
climate change at present include: increased droughts in dry areas, increased
likelihood of flooding and other areas, increased occurrence of sever storms, general
rise of sea level. All this is expected to lead to a substantial and rapid shift in habitats
for our fauna and in growing patterns and yield of crops. This in turn will lead to global
shift and uncertainty of national economies and security.
A small UK example is the rise in house insurance premiums as buildings are more
likely to suffer from flooding of nearby rivers.

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11 Outlook

11.6 Costing energy

Currently, the price of energy contains the investment required to extract it from the
ground, process it ready for end-use, transport it to the consumer and support this
entire chain. In addition, it is more or less heavily taxed to provide the government
with income, to invest in supporting this infrastructure, e.g. by building roads, or invest
in the nation’s welfare, e.g. health, education, defence, or to invest in development of
technological solutions to provide energy security. With the carbon tax in the UK, an
attempt has been made to include an environmental cost.
How do we define the total cost of energy? How do we calculate the total cost of
energy?
Exercise
Read the newspapers critically. Follow up controversial stories by doing
background research. Read the material you find in your research critically –
there is no such thing as a truly objective or unbiased account. Try to be
objective by looking at both sides of the argument.

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Appendix A: Energy Units and conversion

Appendices
Appendix A: Energy units and conversions

A.1 Basic definitions

1 joule = 1J = 1Nm:
The energy expended to move against a force of 1N by a distance of 1m.
1 kilowatt-hour = 1kWh:
At a constant rate of energy consumption of 1kW, the energy consumed during the
time interval of 1 hour.
1 calorie = 1cal= 4.19J:
The heat energy needed to warm 1g of water by 1
to warm 1kg of water by 1K)
1 British thermal unit = 1BTU= 1055J:
The heat energy needed to warm one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit.
(1therm= 100,000BTU= 105 BTU)
1 quad = 1quadrillion British thermal units = 1.055EJ
1 tonne of oil equivalent:
The heat released from burning 1t of oil. The exact amount of heat released depends
on the quality of the oil. A generally accepted ‘standard’ tonne of oil gives 1toe=42GJ

A.2 Basic units

In the following tables: To convert from the unit in the left column to the unit in the
top row, multiply by the factor in the intersecting cell.
Example: The electricity bill states that you have used 869 kWh during the preceding
90 days. How much is that in MJ?
The entry in the cell with kWh to the left and MJ to the top is 3.6.
 869kWh = 3.6  869 = 3128MJ.

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Appendix A: Energy Units and conversion

J cal BTU

J 1 0.239 9.48 x 10–4

cal 4.19 1 3.97 x 10–3
BTU 1055 252 1

A.3 Small units

J kJ MJ kWh
J 1
kJ 1
MJ 1 0.28
kWh 3.6 1

A.4 Medium units

J kWh GJ toe
J 1
kWh 1
GJ 1
toe 1

A.5 Large units

J PJ TWh Mtoe
J 1
PJ 1
TWh 1
Mtoe 1

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Appendix A: Energy Units and conversion

A.6 Orders of magnitude

Symbol prefix Power of ten Name Examples:

E exa- 1018 quintillion 1EJ

P peta- 1015 quadrillion 1PJ

T tera- 1012 trillion 1TWh

G giga- 109 billion 1GW

M mega- 106 million 1MJ

k kilo- 103 thousand 1kWh

141
Appendix B: Answers to selected questions

Appendix B: Answers to selected questions

Here you find solution to some of the exercises printed at the end of each chapter. In
many cases, you had to make some assumptions or choices. As a result, some of the
answers only give an approximate answer as you may have chosen a different value
from the available choices (e.g. amount and chemical composition of volatile
component of different coal types). Nevertheless, they should give you rough idea as
to whether your answer is sensible.

Chapter 2:

1 a) (all approximate)
Antracite Lignite Wood/Dung Gas Octane Uranium
1333 kg 2000 kg 2500 kg 994 kg 833 kg 0.0122 kg
b)
Antracite Lignite Wood/Dung Octane Gas
Air 13,350 8,000 33,333 14,620 14,576
CO2 3,667 2,200 3,667 2,573 2,095
Water 0 0 1,500 1,184 854
c) 1,919 m2
d) 3499 m2
2 a) Answer: ~ 0.167 0.25 0.313 0.313 0.104 0.0926 1.52e-06 kg/s
b) Answer: ~ 1.778 2.5 0.5 0.5 3.655 1.79 kg/s
c) 5000 37793 m2

Chapter 3:

1 a) (Assumption: calculating the property of the mix as a simple mix of the two
heat capacities; this gives for the mix a γ = 1.384): 666.5 K; 1777 kPa
b) using γ = 1.4 would give 689 K; 1,837 kPa: errors of 3%
c) 5,332 kPa
d) γ = 1.379: 909.5 K; 303 kPa
e) using γ = 1.4 would give 871 K; 290 kPa: errors of 4%

142
Appendix B: Answers to selected questions

Chapter 4:
Ideal cycle:

 Efficiency would be 62 %
 Ideal temperature after compression would be 801 K
 Total gas flow rate would be 62 kg/s and fuel consumption rate would be 1.38
kg/s (fuel – air ratio: 2.2 % or 1 in 45)
Real cycle:

 Efficiency is 41%
 fuel consumption rate is 2.08 kg/s (fuel – air ratio: 2.2% or 1 in 60)

Chapter 5:
1 2; 540 kJ/min
2 8.89 kW; 48 MJ/hr

Chapter 6
1 Taking a generic, cheap building of brick work (k ~ 0.7 W/mK; d = 10 cm; Area = 60
m2); flat roof of similar material (A = 30 m2), both fitted with some insulation (say,
R = 0.03 m2k/W), and some single-glazed windows (k ~ 1 W/mK; d = 4 mm; Area =
20 m2). Assuming free/natural convection inside, hi = 10 W/m2K, and moderate
wind outside (forced convection), ho = 100 W/m2K, and constant inside
temperature of 18 C, summer temperature of 30ºC, and winter temperature of -5
C, we get: 11.4 kW loss in winter and 5.9 kW gain in summer.
Obviously this ignores heat transfer through the floor and heat exchanges through
ventilation (both will have a similar magnitude as the pure conduction), as well as
any solar gain from sun light.

Chapter 7
1 a) 2453 kPa; 2.45 kJ/kg; 250 m b) 70 m/s
2 a) 36.8 MW b) 4.77 m/s
c) 0.17 MW d) 1.16 m
e) 7.55 m f) 35.5 MW

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Appendix B: Answers to selected questions

Chapter 8
1 Assuming an available head of 250 m some possible solutions are
a) Two 6-jet (or three 4-jet) Pelton Wheels (20 MW per jet) with 20-pole
generators turning at 150rpm
b) Three 80 MW Francis turbines with 5-pole generator turning at 600rpm.
c) Two 120 MW Francis turbines with 10-pole generator turning at 120rpm.
2 64 m, 29 rpm, 665 kNm

Chapter 9
1 5 pole pairs
2 1 : 55
3 89 MW; 6.75 MW; 893 MW

144
Appendix C: Example exam

HERIOT WATT UNIVERSITY

School of Engineering and Physical Sciences

Foundations of Energy B51ET1

December Time

Duration: TWO hours

Answer all questions from Part A (4 marks each)

Answer one question from Part B ( 40 marks)
Answer one question from Part C (40 marks)

145
Appendix C: An example exams

Data sheet

Prefixes and conversions

kilo: 103, mega: 106, giga: 109, tera: 1012, peta: 1015, exa: 1018,
1 toe = 42 GJ; 1kWh = 3.6 MJ

Fluid and fuel properties

Water at 5 to 20°C : density 1000 kg m – 3 ; specific heat 4.2 kJ kg– 1 K– 1

Air at ground level and 0 to 40°C: density 1.225 kg m – 3 ; specific heat at constant
pressure 1.01 kJ kg– 1 K– 1, specific heat at constant volume 0.72 kJ kg– 1 K– 1,
Name Composition Molecular Energy content
weight (MJ / kg)
Methane CH4 16 55
Ethane C2H6 30 51
Octane C8H18 114 48
Cetane C16H34 226 48
Anthracite >~80% C 12 ~30
Lignite ~ 60% C 12 ~20
Biomass ~ Cx(H2O)y ~10 – ~20

Carbon dioxide CO2 44

Typical ranges of the heat transfer coefficient

Type of convection h W/m2/K
Free convection of gases 2 - 25
Free convection of liquids 10 - 1000
Forced convection of gases 25 - 250
Forced convection of liquids 50 - 20,000
Boiling and condensation 2,500 - 100,000

146
Appendix C: An example exams

Useful equations

Ideal gas p =  RT with R = Cp – CV

Isentropic processes
p2 / p1 = ( 2 / 1 )  
T2 / T1 = ( 2 / 1 )    ;

T2 / T1 = ( p2 / p1 ) (      

with  = Cp / CV
Stefan-Boltzmann law: Q=AT4 with = 5.67×10 – 8 W m–2 K–4
Hydraulic power PH =  g H Q
Fluid current power P=½AU3
Nondimensional specific speed: KN =  (P/) 1/2 (gH) – 5/4

147
Appendix C: An example exams

Part A

Q1 [4 marks]
A 68 kW car engine consumes 12 litres of octane (density 850 kg/m3) on a 1 hour
journey, where the average power provided by the engine is half its rated power.
a Calculate the efficiency of the engine
b Calculate the carbon dioxide emissions from the engines

Q2 [4 marks]
A roof with area 100m2 suffers a heat loss of 2 kW. if the inside is at 15ºC and
the outside at 5ºC.
a Calculate the thermal resistance of the roof.
b Calculate the heat loss if insulation with a thermal resistance of 0.75 m2K/W is
installed

Q3 [4 marks]
A 600 MW coal-fired power station operates with an average capacity factor of 80%
and at an efficiency of 30%.
Coal: calorific value 30MJ/kg;
For simplicity assume that the coal is 100% carbon
a Calculate the electricity generated in a year In GWh.
b Calculate the carbon dioxide emissions in the year in million tonnes (109 kg).

Q4 [4 marks]
A roof-top wind turbine with a rotor diameter of 1.5 m reaches its rated power at a
wind speed of 12 m/s. The efficiency at that point is 30%.
a calculate the rated power.
b calculate the capacity factor if the turbine has generated 150 kWh

Q5 [4 marks]
A 5MW gas turbine requires a gas flow rate of 0.25 kg/s if the gas has a calorific value
of 50 MJ/kg.
a Calculate the efficiency of the turbine
b Calculate the amount of gas used during a month of operation at a capacity
factor of 60%.

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Appendix C: An example exam

Part B

Answer one question only

Q6 [40 marks]
A ground-floor apartment has a ground plan of 15 m wide on the front and back and
10 m deep and a ceiling height of 4.5 m. It has 4 windows/doors each on the front and
the back, all 1.5 m wide and 2.5 m tall. The side walls and ceiling are adjacent to other
apartments which are all kept at the same temperature as this apartment. Below the
wooden floor boards is a weakly ventilated air gap above the soil, leading to a heat
transfer coefficient between the boards and the soil of 2 W m–2 K–1.
Wall material: thickness 200 mm, thermal conductivity 0.7 W m–1K–1. Windows:
thickness 3 mm, thermal conductivity 0.8 W m–1K–1.
Floor boards: thickness 40 mm, thermal conductivity 0.2 W m–1K–1. Soil temperature
under building: 8C
A recent survey has shown that the windows and doors are currently poorly fitted
resulting in an additional total heat loss of 20 W K–1 per window or door.

a Ignoring all radiative heat transfer, estimate the heating requirement during
typical winter conditions of 5°C to maintain the apartment at a constant
temperature of 17°C.
b To justify (or otherwise) the assumption to ignore radiation, estimate additional
heat transfer by radiation during the night or a sunny day, assuming
I. an average heat gain of 100 W m–2 on the sunny side of the apartment
and
II. a uniform radiative heat loss, exchanging radiation with a surrounding of
effective temperature of 0°C, assuming an uniform emissivity of the
surfaces of 0.9 and a uniform surface temperature and thermal resistance.
Explain the simplifications you make in the process and comment on your
findings.

c Discuss the various contributions to the heating requirements and discuss

various options to improve the thermal performance of the building and thus
reduce the energy consumption of that house hold. When discussing options,
keep in mind typical costs of installing them.

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Appendix C: An example exam

Q7 [40 marks]
The GE Energy LM6000 gas turbine is rated at 43 MW electrical output with a pressure
ratio of 30 while requiring a heat input of 8.71 MJ/kWh and an exhaust gas flow rate
of 125 kg/s. The temperature of the intake air is 30°C and the temperature of the
exhaust gases is 449°C.

a Analyse the turbine as if it were an ideal turbine with the given pressure ratio
and taking the air and gas properties as those given for air at 30°C.
I. Describe the thermodynamic cycle to be used for this analysis, including
assumptions made for the individual stages.
II. Calculate the temperatures after the compression and combustion stages?
III. Calculate the heat and work balances and the efficiency of the ideal
turbine.
IV. Assuming a calorific value of natural gas of 54 MJ/kg, calculate the natural
gas flow rate and the air flow rate to provide 43 MW.
b Compare and discuss the efficiency and natural gas consumption of the ideal
and actual turbines.

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Appendix C: An example exam

Part C
Answer one question only
Q8 [40 marks]
A report by the BBC on 6 November 2007 starts with the following headlines:
What is driving oil prices so high?
Oil prices have surged to record highs above $97 a barrel.
Prices have more than quadrupled since 2002 and are currently 40% higher than at
the start of the year.
What factors are causing this unremitting increase and what are the likely
consequences for consumers and the global economy?
What is causing the latest price spike?
Try to answer the three questions raised in this headline, drawing on your technical,
economic, and current affairs knowledge.

Q9 [40 marks]
A report by the BBC on 29 Sept. 2007 said:
Critics angry at Bush climate plan
by Roger Harrabin, Environment analyst BBC News
US President George W Bush infuriated his critics by professing world leadership
on climate change at his meeting of the top 16 world economies - while offering no
new substantive policy and implicitly rejecting binding emissions controls.
Mr Bush, who has been sceptical of climate change, said at the forum in Washington
that our understanding of the science had moved on.
He agreed that energy security and climate change were major challenges and
pledged to solve both problems - but dismissed notions of despair.
The American president said clean technologies like nuclear power and clean coal
would protect the economy as well as the environment.

a Discuss the link between energy consumption and climate change, drawing on
scientific principles and observations.
b Describe actions to either weaken or break the link between energy consumption
and climate change, or to mitigate the impacts of that link.
c Discuss the position which Mr Bush appears to take on these issues and explain why
energy security and climate change are mentioned side by side.
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Appendix C: An example exam

Appendix D: Solutions to the example exam

Answer to Q1 [4 marks]
a) Average power: 68/2= 34 kW
Journey time = 1 hour= 3600 s
Energy provided = 34kW * 3600s = 122.4 MJ
litres of octane = 12 l * 0.85 kg/l = 10.2 kg of octane
energy input = 10.2 kg * 48 MJ/kg = 489.6 MJ Efficiency = 25%
b) octane: C8 H18 : molecular weight: 8*12 + 18 = 114
carbon dioxide CO2: molecular weight: 12 + 2*16 = 44
for each octane molecule eight CO2 molecule: 8*44kg / 114kg = 3.09
Then 10.2 kg of octane result in 3.09*10.2 = 31.5 kg of carbon dioxide

Answer to Q2 [4 marks]
a) Q = A ΔT / R
Thermal resistance of roof : R= A ΔT / Q = 100m2 * 10K / 2000W = 0.5 m2 K / W
b) Adding 0.75 m2 K / W results in a total resistance of 1.25 m2 K / W, and a resulting
heat loss of Q = A ΔT / R = 800 W.

Answer to Q3 [4 marks]
a) With a capacity factor of 80% over a year of 24*365 = 8760 hours, the power
station has generated E out= 0.8*0.6GW * 8760 h= 5256 GWh
b) With an efficiency of 30%, this means that the energy input had to be
5256/0.3= 17520 GWh= 63 million GJ.
With a calorific value of 30 MJ/kg or 30GJ/t, this requires an amount of coal of
63/30 = 2.1 million tonnes of coal or carbon.
Therefore, the carbon dioxide emissions are 2.1 *44/12= 7.7 million tonnes.

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Appendix C: An example exam

Answer to Q4 [4 marks]
a) A rotor diameter of 1.5m gives a rotor area of 1.77m2.
At a wind of 12m/s, the power input is
Pin= ½ ρ A U3= 0.5*1.225*1.77*123= 1.87kW.
With an efficiency of 30%, this gives a rated power output of 0.56 kW.
b) With a rated power of 0.56kW, the potential annual generation is
E= 0.56kW*8760h= 4900 kWh.
Since the turbine has generated 150kWh, its capacity factor was 150/4900= 3%.

Answer to Q5 [4 marks]
a) A 5MW gas turbine requires a gas flow rate of 0.25 kg/s if the gas has a calorific
value of 50 MJ/kg.

a) Calculate the efficiency of the turbine

b) Calculate the amount of gas used during a 30-day month of operation at a
capacity factor of 60%.
The heat input is 0.25kg/s * 50 MJ/kg= 12.5 MJ/s= 12.5MW.
Therefore, the efficiency is 5/12.5= 40%.
b) With a capacity factor of 60%, it has generated
0.6*5MW*3600s* 24h*30d= 7776 GJ, requiring an input of 19440 GJ.
With a calorific value of 50GJ/t, this gives a gas consumption of 390 tonnes.

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Appendix C: An example exam

Answer to Q6 [40 marks]

a) Heating requirement
The heat loss is considered for each route: through walls, window, floor, and
draught.
The front elevation is 15m*4.5m= 67.5m2. Of this, 4*1.5*2.5= 15m2 is 'window' and
52.5m2 is wall. The ground plan is 15m*10m= 150m2.

I. The thermal resistance through one wall is, including convection on the inside
and outside of around h1= 5W/m2K and h2= 25W/m2K, respectively
(depending on a suitable choice by the students):
R = 1/h1 * d/k + 1/h2 = 1/5 + 0.4/0.7 + 1/25 = 0.2 + 0.54 + 0.04= 0.78 Q= A T /
R = 52.5 * (17 – 5 ) / 0.78 = 52.5 * 12 / 0.78 = 808 W

II. The thermal resistance through the 'windows' is, likewise

R = 1/h1 * d/k + 1/h2 = 1/5 + 0.003/0.8 + 1/25 = 0.2 + 0.004 + 0.04= 0.24 Q= A
T / R = 15 * 12 / 0.24 = 750 W

III. The thermal resistance of the floors is

R = 1/h1 * d/k + 1/h2 = 1/5 + 0.04/0.2 + 1/2 = 0.2 + 0.2 + 0.5= 0.9 Q= A T / R =
150 * 9 / 0.9 = 1500 W

IV. The heat loss by draught from all eight windows is 8 * 20 * 12= 1820 W
This gives a total heat loss of 2*808 (front and back) + 2* 750 + 1500 + 1820=
6.436kW or approximately 6.5kW
b)

I. On a sunny day, this is offset by the entire front elevation of 67.5m2 receiving
a total 6.75kW (in this case matching the total heat loss.
II. For the radiative heat loss on the shaded side, the surface temperature must
first be estimated from the heat loss without radiation,
e.g., the wall: Tw = T air + Q/ ( h2 * A) = 5 + 808 / ( 25*52.5) = 5.6°C = 279K
Assuming that the window temperature won't be that much different, the grey
body radiation can be found as
Qr =   A (T1 4 – T2 4 ) = 0.8 * 5.67*10 – 8 * 56.5*( 2794 – 2734)
= 3.06*10 – 6 * ( 6.059* 109 – 5.555*109)= 3.06*10 – 6 * 5.05*108= 1545 W.

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Appendix C: An example exam

During the day, the sun provides enough heat input to approximately balance
the non-radiative heat loss but the shaded side results in a heat loss of about
1.5kW, leaving a net heating demand of about 1 to 2 kW.
During the night, the heat loss is from both sides, and we face an additional
heat loss of around 3kW, leaving a total heat loss of around 9 to 10 kW.
c) The single largest factor is the draught. draught-proofing the windows could
reduce the heating bill by 15 to 20%. Draught-proofing and installing double
glazing would result in a reduction of around 20 to 30%. Insulating the floor
(carpeting or putting stuff under the floor boards could reduce the bill by 10% - All
in all, one could probably reduce the bill/ carbon footprint by up to 50% without
too great an expense

Answer to Q7 [40 marks]

a)

I. The cycle is the Brayton cycle, consisting of isentropic compression (assuming

no losses – 100% efficient compressor), constant-pressure heat addition in the
combustion chamber (assuming complete combustion), isentropic expansion in
the turbine (again assuming 100% efficient turbine), closing the loop by taking
heat rejection to the atmosphere at (constant) atmospheric pressure.
For the remainder, the air and gas (and mixture) are treated as ideal gas with
the properties of ideal gas air at 30°C.
II. Temperature after compression:
The compression ratio is r= 30, and the temperature changes during the
isentropic compression and expansion is
T2 = T*r ( – 1) /  and T3 = T4 * r ( – 1) /  .
( r ( – 1) /  = 30 0.4/1.4 = 2.643 )
T1 = 30°C = 303K; T4 = 449°C= 722K T2= 303 * 2.643 = 801 K = 528°C
T3= 722 * 2.643 = 1908 K = 1635°C
III. Heat and work balance
The heat input is Q= Cp * T = 1.01 * (1908 – 801 )= 1.01 * 1107= 1118 kJ/kg
The heat output is Q= Cp * T = 1.01 * (722 – 303 )= 1.01 * 419= 423 kJ/kg The
work input is Q= Cp * T = 1.01 * (801 – 303 )= 1.01 * 498= 503 kJ/kg
The work output is Q= Cp * T = 1.01 * (1908 – 722 )= 1.01 * 1186= 1198 kJ/kg
The net work output is 1198 – 503 = 695 kJ/kg
The efficiency is then Wnet/Qin = 62% (or (Q in – Qout)/ Qin or 1 – 1/r ( – 1) / )

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Appendix C: An example exam

IV. To get a power output of 43MW at 62% efficiency the heat input is 43/0.62=
69MW. With a calorific value of 54MJ/kg, this equates to 69/54 = 1.28kg/s
To get a net power output of 43MW, the total fluid flow rate through the
turbine must be Pnet = m' * Wnet or m' = 43MW/ 0.695MJ/kg = 61.87 kg/s.
Thus, we need an air intake of 61.87 – 1.28= 60.59kg/s, or an air-fuel ratio of
1:47
b) The actual efficiency is found from the heat input of
8.71 MJ/kWh = 8.71 MJth/3.6MJe=2.42; Turning this round 3.6/8.71= 41%.
The actual turbine is only two-thirds as efficient as the corresponding ideal
turbine.
The compressor will not be working 100% efficient, say 80%, actually requiring
600kJ/kg, and the temperature will be slightly below the ideal T2. The turbine
itself will be similar, only giving ~1000kJ/kg, and the combustion may not be
perfect either... giving only, say 1000kJ/kg. This would then lead to an efficiency
of 400/1000 = 40% ...
With an efficiency of 41%, the gas consumption will be 43/0.41/54=1.94 kg/s.
With an exhaust flow rate of 125kg/s is around twice the ideal value!

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Appendix C: An example exam

Answer to Q8 [40 marks]

Here the student is to touch on a slow trend of increasing prices due to higher production
costs as the oil fields are gradually being depleted, on top of which we see political
instability in many regions rich in resources – which tend not to be the regions with the
largest consumption...Example are gas pipelines from the central Asian FSU regions
through Turkey – currently in internal conflict with the Kurdish minority. The gas supply to
northern Europe had a scare when Russia used the gas supply to 'negotiate' with Ukraine.
Iraq and Iran are obvious examples to mention. Nigeria, the largest African producer is far
from peaceful, more likely teetering on the brink of civil unrest...
The weak dollar doesn't help either, etc. …
Implications for the economy are severe, as around 80% of the world's activities are based
on fossil fuel. Energy prices, which used to be largely a small part of
production/distribution costs are now become significant, putting pressure on all areas of
manufacture and commerce. Increasingly more individual consumers will experience fuel
poverty, etc...

Answer to Q9 [40 marks]

a) The link is through the inevitable production of CO2 as a by-product of combustion of
fossil fuels for transport, heating, and generation. CO2 is a gas which, like water vapour,
is largely transparent to visible light but opaque to many frequency bands in the infrared
– the wavelength of maximum intensity of black body radiation from a surface at
terrestrial temperatures. Since the industrial revolution, the concentration has increased
consistent with industrial activity and has reached record levels not seen in paleo-
records.
Assuming a simple heat transfer model and adding a resistance to radiation from the
surface to space, the Earth's surface and lower atmosphere will warm up – global
warming. The globally averaged temperature has increased by almost a degree during
the last 50 years or so, and the polar regions have warmed up by around 4 degrees.
b) It is estimated that a third of the heating energy in UK households is wasted – similarly
in Europe and US. Energy efficiency is one way to reduce carbon emissions, advanced
demand management will also help. Reducing overall consumption could do, and some
people believe that we just need to rely on technology...
The US has not only some oil reserves in Alaska (currently not exploited to their full
potential for environmental reasons) but also high coal reserves. Developing clean coal is
one technological fix to reducing oil dependency yet developing low- carbon energy
supplies, nuclear obviously is another option, at least for those who already have it and are
allowed to use it – like most rich nations including the USA.

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