Catalog Course Description

Class Information

My university email address is: . This is the email address you should use to contact me on a day-to-day basis, if I am not in my office when you have a question. If you want to get something to me when I am on travel, you can also cc: this email address: r.jost@ieee.org. However, DO NOT just cc: all your regular assignments and questions to this address, and do not send attachments to this address, unless directed to do so by me. This email address eventually aliases into my "home" email account, and I get enough mail there already. If you use this address without good justification, it will make me "cranky and crabby". See consequences below.

Please put the following => [Energy-class] into your subject line, exactly as shown in the BOLD text, as it will help me to better manage the emails that I will be receiving this semester. Also, it is an extremely good idea to include your NAME in your emails. I realize that some of you have secret identities to keep the evil supervillains from finding out who you are, but I promise not to tell them, and I really would like to know to whom I am responding when I get an email. Your university-provided email address does not always tell me who you are, and you don't want me to have to remember the email address of everyone in the class, because it will make me cranky. And cranky professors do not give out liberal amounts of partial credit.

My web page: http://www.engineering.usu.edu/ece/faculty/rjost

Lecture Location:
12:00 - 1:15 Th, EL 109

Prerequisites:
Familiarity and understanding of math and physics concepts expected of a senior/graduate student in engineering or physics, and I don't mean just having vague recollections of having heard the terms somewhere in your distant past. Some knowledge of chemistry, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and electromagnetics will be expected, although we will be reviewing the basics of these areas as we use them in our class.

The next four texts are similar to the first two texts and provide some additional perspective on the course topics. The text by Decher is a detailed look at approaches to direct energy conversion, such as fuel cells, photovoltaics, etc. The text on power plant technology by El-Wakil is an excellent introduction to conventional power plants, although it does not cover hydroelectric power plants to any great degree. I just received the text by Vanek and Albright, so I do not have a good feel for it yet, but it looks very promising and may be a good one text introduction for future offerings of this course. I especially like the incorporation of economic issues into the text.

The last three texts provide an introduction to nuclear energy and engineering. The first one is one of the best one volume introductions to the many topics associated with nuclear energy and its role in today's society. For the purposes of this course this is probably the best book to start with for additional information concerning nuclear energy. The other two texts are very good introductions to the basics of nuclear engineering and are highly recommended if you are interested in this particular topic.

Text 1:

"Energy Science: Principles, Technologies, and Impacts", by John Andrews and Nick Jelley, Oxford University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-19-928112-1. (On reserve)

"Energy and the Environment" by J.A. Fay and D.S. Golomb, Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN 978-0-19-515092-06. (On reserve)

Recommended/Useful Supplements:

	"Renewable Energy, 2nd ed.", Godfrey Boyle, Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0-19-926178-9. (On reserve)
	"Energy Systems and Sustainability", Godfrey Boyle, Bob Everett and Janet Ramage, eds. Oxford University Press 2003. ISBN 978-0-19-926179-6. (On reserve)
	"Sustainable Energy: Choosing Among Options", Jefferson W. Tester, et al., authors. MIT Press 2003. ISBN 978-0262201537 .
	"Energy and the Environment, 2nd ed." by R.A. Ristinen and J.P. Kraushaar, Wiley and Sons, 2006. ISBN 978-0-471-73989-0. This is a more basic text on energy and how it impacts the environment. Very easy to read, with a lot of information covered at a very accessible level. The authors also have a similar book titled "Energy and Problems of a Technical Society, 2nd ed.", Wiley, 1992. I actually like this text better than the newer text because it goes into more depth in some areas and is more quantitative, but both are good books for an introduction to energy issues.
	"Direct Energy Conversion: Fundamentals of Electric Power Production", Reiner Decher, Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN 978-0-19-509572-2.
	"Power Plant Technology" by M.M. El-Wakil, McGraw-Hill, 2002(1985). ISBN 978-0-07-287102-9.
	"Energy Systems Engineering: Evaluation and Implementation" by F. Vanek and L.D. Albright McGraw-Hill, 2008. ISBN 978-0-07-1495936.
	"Nuclear Energy: An Introduction to the Concepts, Systems, and Applications of Nuclear Processes, 5th ed.", by R. Murray Butterworth-Heinemann, 2001. ISBN 978-0-7506-7136-1. (On reserve) A new edition with greatly updated information will be coming out this fall. Be sure to take a look at it when it comes out.
	"Fundamentals of Nuclear Science and Engineering, 2nd ed.", by J.K. Shultis and R.E. Faw CRC Press, 2004. ISBN 978-1420051353.
	"Introduction to Nuclear Engineering, 3rd ed.", by J.R. Lamarsh and A.J. Baratta Prentice Hall, 2001. ISBN 978-0201824988.

Some of these texts, as well as others, are available in the reserve shelves in the library. For list of what is on reserve, go to the USU Library Electronic Reserve Page.

Recommended Software: We will be using MATLAB to develop energy system performance modeling tools. One of the smartest things you could do, if you plan on doing extensive work in mathematical modeling and simulation applications or Digital Signal/Image Processing is to get your own copy of the Student edition of MATLAB. Release R2007a is the latest version. With this on your computer, you can free yourself from the computer lab.

Another suitable tool for system performance modeling is Mathcad by the company Mathsoft. This program is more interactive than MATLAB, and is thus very well suited to developing what-if design packages.

I use and recommend both packages. The Mathcad worksheets give you a better "view" of what is going on in the development of modeling scenarios, especially while you are in the cut and try design stage of putting an analysis package together. Plus, you can see the intermediate results in a more straightforward fashion. On the other hand, when I know what I want to do and how I want a package to operate, I like the GUI interface possible with MATLAB. I consider these two packages to be complementary and it is worth your time to learn how to use both. However, for this class, I recommend that you stick to MATLAB, although I will also allow you to use Mathcad if you want.

Syllabus: This course is focused on the physical principles involved in energy generation and conversion. Generation of electrical energy via coal, gas, hydroelectric and nuclear plants will be covered in detail. Alternative and renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, wave, geothermal, biomass, etc. will also be studied, and aspects of energy conservation will also be covered.

After providing the student the necessary background, the underlying physical principles that determine how energy is generated and transformed will be covered for each approach. To appreciate the impact of these approaches, the student will need to understand such concepts as energy flows in society, energy cost, risk & uncertainty, etc. Also, to appreciate the full impact of these activities the student must realize that these impacts are not only local, but potentially global. Thus, a review of pertinent weather and climate phenomena will be carried out.

The purpose of this course is not to advocate for or against any particular energy source, but to give the student the necessary tools to determine the appropriate role that a source may have in the overall energy mix for society. To do this, the student needs to understand the true cost of energy generation. That means examining the entire life cycle of energy sources, from the acquisition of resources, through construction of generation plants, through eventual decommissioning and disposal of plant assets. Additionally, the impact on the environment must be assessed to determine the true cost of energy for each generation approach.

Grading: We are going to have a midterm exam (25%), homework (15%), a research paper (25%) and a design project (35%) that will take place over the course of the semester. If you are takig this course for 6930 credit, then you will be following the same general grading scheme, but more work will be expected of you for your research paper and your design project.

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Last updated: 10/28/2008