Energy

4.Emerging Energy Science and Technology


  The energy technology is one of the four key technologies for the 21st century. The world is moving away from the fossil fuel economy due to the fact that oil fields are mainly located at the politically unstable region, the economic growth of China and India, the limitation of fossil fuel supply and the requirement of emission reduction (due to the Kyoto Protocol). Worldwide researches on renewable energy technology have been very intensive recently including the hydrogen production, storage, and transportation infrastructure, fuel cell technology, solar energy, wind power, biomass, etc. In addition, with the advance in the technology, nuclear energy has regained its status and become a very promising energy production technology.

  Since renewable energy is a clean energy source with lower adverse impact to the environment, and never runs out, this has drawn great attention among industry. Solar electricity, fuel cell, and wind generation are the most mature and cost effective resources among different renewable energy technologies. Hydrogen is not a primary energy source but an energy carrier. Hydrogen must be produced from chemical species with hydrogen, e.g., methane (natural gas), methanol, or water. Recently, there have been abundant researches on hydrogen production, storage, and transportation. The research on solar electricity focuses on development and discovery of new materials and process to reduce the cost and improve the efficiencies of energy conversion. Several different kinds of fuel cells have been extensively studied. Nanotechnologies have been applied to develop new catalyst, new materials for electrolyte as well electrodes. Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells are most probable for transportation uses; hybrid power systems of solid oxide fuel cells and gas turbines potentially have significantly higher energy efficiency, while micro direct methanol fuel cells are probably most suitable for the power source of 3C products due to their potentially high energy density. Parallel operation of fuel cells with other sources of energy sources is also an important issue for future MicroGrid and Smart Grid development. The development of wind generation has rapidly progressed over the last decade. With the advance in wind turbine technologies, wind energy has become competitive with other fuel-based generation resources. The fluctuation of wind, however, makes it difficult to optimize the use of wind power generation. The research on harvest potential wind capacity will have great impact on energy conservation and system security. We expect that all possible strategies will be thoroughly discussed through this conference.