Energy and the Environment
Code
3679
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia
Department
Departamento de Engenharia Mecânica e Industrial
Credits
6.0
Teacher in charge
Daniel Cardoso Vaz, José Fernando de Almeida Dias
Weekly hours
4
Total hours
58
Teaching language
Português
Objectives
At the end of the course the student should have attained:
Knowledge and the ability to apply in discussions the statistics of fossil and renewable energies concerning Portugal and a number of notable cases in the World. The ability to discuss the finitude of fossil fuels.
Knowledge of: combustion fundamentals; pollutant formation mechanisms; techniques and equipments for the conversion of solid, liquid and gaseous fuels, aiming at improved environmental and energy efficiency performances.
Understanding of the fundamental principles and techniques inherent to conventional and alternative sources of energy: combustion, nuclear, biomass, solar, wind, hydro, tidal, wave, geothermal. The ability to discuss the applicability and limitations of energy storage techniques.
Notions of the economics of energy production and of the financing of energy investments.
The ability to discuss the tricotomy energy-society-environment.
Skills of information processing, both autonomous and self-learning, and meeting goals.
Prerequisites
It is assumed the knowledge of the matters dealt with in: Física II, Dinâmica dos Fluidos I, Termodinâmica Aplicada.
The written evaluations have implicit that the student is able to express his/hers train of thought intelligibly, either in portuguese or english, and to apply the mathematical tools that are used in the course.
Subject matter
1-Energy use in the technological society. Fossil, renewable, and nuclear resources limitations.
2-Fossil fuels. Pollutants. Clean combustion techniques.
3-Renewables. Biomass: gasification, anaerobic digestion, alcohols and biodiesel. Solar: thermal, photovoltaic, termoelectric, and passive. Wind: the resource, technologies, equipments operation. Hydropower: types of facilities and turbines. Waves: the various technologies. Other renewables. Geothermal: electricity and direct use.
4-Nuclear. Global scenario. Bounding energy. Isotopes chart. Fission and fusion. Moderators and uranium enrichening. Conventional reactor. Safety and environmental impact. Fast neutron breed reactors.
5-Other topics considered timely and relevant.
Bibliography
1. "Energy Science - Principles, Technologies, and Impacts", J. Andrews and N. Jelly, Oxford University Press, 2007.
2. "Energia e Ambiente - apontamentos do docente"and "Energia e Ambiente - exercícios de aplicação", D.C. Vaz, FCT, 2013. -- to be made available in CLIP.
3. Chapters 11 to 13 of "Mechanical Engineer’s Reference Book", 12th ed., Edited by E.H. Smith, Butterworth-Heinmann, 1994. -- electronically available from within the Campus.
4. "Energy and Problems of a Technical Society", J.J. Kraushaar and R.A. Ristinen, John Wiley & Sons, 2nd. ed., 1993.
Teaching method
(If required, classes can be taught in english).
The lectures will be as interactive with the students as possible. The students are encouraged to raise questions about the topics being discussed in a lecture.
In the problem-solving sessions, problems are proposed to the students with the goals: to exercise their critical thinking and ability to discuss ideas, to consolidate their use of terminology, as well as to prepare for an evaluation test.
Nowadays, students have the opportunity to develop their personal work method when searching for information in "conventional" libraries, electronic libraries, or simply through navigation in the internet (webpages of well-know institutions such as IEA''''''''s,www.iea.org/Textbase/stats/index.asp).
Evaluation method
1 - Assessment mode: continuous, through 3 minitests (theoretical-practical component)weighing 100% to the final classification and with a minimum grade of 9,5 val.
2 - Assessment consists in 3 short tests or in the final exam as described in no. 3, art. 3 of the «Regulamento de Avaliação de Conhecimentos» (RAC).
3 - Final grade: NF = ( 30% MT1 + 40% MT2 + 30% MT3 ) . In the exam route, if EX < 9,5 then the student fails with NF=EX. The terms enter in this expression rounded to the first decimal place.
4 - The sort tests and exams are closed-book and the use of text-memory calculators is not allowed. Formulae found necessary will be given. Transgressions are subjected to what is foreseen in art. 9 of the RAC.