Energy is one of the building blocks of modern society. The growth of the modern society has been fueled by cheap, abundant energy resources. Since the Industrial Revolution, the world concentrated on fossil fuels to provide energy needed for running factories, transportation, electricity generation, homes and buildings. In parallel to the increase in the consumption of energy, living standards...

Desalination and water reuse technologies are critical for solving water problems. Unlocking water resources through the minimization of reverse osmosis (RO) concentrate volume offers sustainable opportunities to meet the challenge. A pellet softening lime intermediate concentrate chemical stabilization (ICCS) reactor and a conventional lime softening ICCS for the treatment of RO concentrate we...

The increase in atmospheric concentration of CO2 by 31% since 1750 from fossil fuel combustion and land use change necessitates identification of strategies for mitigating the threat of the attendant global warming. Since the industrial revolution, global emissions of carbon (C) are estimated at 270F 30 Pg (Pg = petagram= 10 g = 1 billion ton) due to fossil fuel combustion and 136F 55 Pg due to...

The expected near depletion of fossil fuels encourages both the research and industrial communities to focus their efforts find effective sustainable alternatives [...]

The environmental performance of industrial anaerobic digestion (AD), pyrolysis, and integrated system (AD sequence with pyrolysis) on food waste treatment were evaluated using life cycle assessment. The integrated treatment system indicated similar environmental benefits to AD with the highest benefits in climate change and water depletion in addition to the increased energy generation potenti...

Depletion of fossil fuels and environmental considerations have led engineers and scientists to anticipate the need to develop a clean, renewable and sustainable energy system. In general, they agree that in such a system hydrogen will be used as an energy carrier. One of the areas in which hydrogen will be replacing fossil fuels is air transportation, an area that has been under research for s...

Although technological progress can alter the relative costs of different energy sources, fossil fuels inevitably will be displaced as depletion raises their costs and makes them uncompetitive. They may be displaced sooner if they are taxed to internalize negative externalities. Currently, wind generation or nuclear power, supplemented by bulk electricity storage, are the most feasible alternat...

We recall that hydrogen combustion does resolve the environmental problems of fossil fuels due to excessive emission of carcinogenic substances and carbon dioxide. However, hydrogen combustion implies the permanent removal from our atmosphere of directly usable oxygen, a serious environmental problem called oxygen depletion, since the combustion turns oxygen into water whose separation to resto...

The rate at which the Earth’s surface receives high-utility energy from the Sun is 11,000 times as great as the rate at which humans use commercial energy. Despite this, 88 percent of the commercial energy used comes from non-renewable, fossil-fuel sources. Fossil fuel use each year adds 3 percent more carbon-dioxide to the atmosphere than natural sinks can remove. The task for humans is to fin...