A NEW COURSE TO BE OFFERED, FALL 2005

 

 

AME 599   Alternative Sources of Energy and Power  (3 units) 

 

Class time: 3:00 – 4:50 Tuesday-Thursday (precise hours to be arranged)

 

Prerequisites: senior class standing or graduate student standing.  Fall enrollment will be limited to 20 students.  If there is additional demand, the course will be offered in the spring 2006

 

Text: Tester, J., Drake, E., Golay, M., Driscoll, M., Peters, W., Sustainable Energy: Choosing Among Options, MIT Press, New text to be published summer, 2005.     

 

Instructor: Prof. Fred Browand, RAPP 203, browand@spock.usc.edu

 

The course will examine the present world dependence upon fossil fuels, and why this dependence will be modified in the 21st century.  Many alternative sources of power are examined at a detailed technical level, and with the intent to identify critical areas where technical break-through would be most beneficial.  Methods for the costing of large projects are developed to enable realistic economic comparisons between alternative technologies. 

 

Students will have a chance to add to the course material.  They will work in groups and make power-point presentations that clarify issues or include material not covered. The presentations will become part of the course material.  At the end of the term, each student will have a complete electronic version of the course—including the student power-point presentations.

 

Tentative Syllabus

 

Week(1)  Population growth and world economics.

Week(2)  How much power do we use?  Where does the power come from?  SP*

Week(3)  The earth’s beginning.  The carbon cycle: basis of life and of our fossil fuels.     

Week(4)  How long will the oil last? The rise of LNG.  Other alternatives for power.  SP*

Week(5)  Generating electric power from geothermal heat.  SP*

Week(6)  Electric power from wind energy.  SP* 

Week(7)  Methods for evaluating economic costs for large projects. SP*

Week(8)  Brief discussion of quantum mechanics for carbon chemistry. 

Week(9)  Synthetic fuels from coal and biomass.  Making and utilizing hydrogen.

Week(10) Continued. SP*

Week(11) Global warming.  The ozone hole.

Week(12) Continued.  SP* 

Week(13) Power directly from the sun.  Concentrating the sun’s radiation.  Photovoltaics.

Week(14) Nuclear power.  SP*

 

SP* denotes Student Participation-Student Presentations