Reviews for Direct Energy Conversion: Fundamentals of Electric Power Production

The average rating for Direct Energy Conversion: Fundamentals of Electric Power Production based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-08-16 00:00:00 Michael Foley A disclaimer: this book was written by my cousin, Guy Deutscher, who is a physicist in Israel who teaches at Tel Aviv University: As much as I remember the second law of thermodynamics from my days in high school chemistry and physics, I sometimes still have a hard time grasping the concept. Entropy is the subject of the second law, and it increases inexorably in every closed system over time unless energy is expended to reduce it. It is the second law which teaches us that perpetual motion is not possible, that an internal combustion engine or home heating unit can never be 100% efficient. Some energy is always lost, often in the form of heat. That increases entropy in the rest of the system. Some energy is always lost and entropy is always going up so that moving things eventually slow down, hot things eventually grow cooler and cool things get hotter. Like a good article in Scientific American, Professor Deutscher starts off slowly, giving simple houshold example explaining entropy. It was so simple, I felt like I was reading a children's book. Maybe he wrote it for his grandchildren, I thought, to explain the issue of global warming. After explaining entropy, the author describes our sources of energy, exactly how much we need to keep us going, and the effects of the resulting entropy such as pollution and global warming. He explains how the "biosphere" works as a self regulating entity, fighting entropy naturally with energy from the sun. Then it gets complicated! Like any good professor, he explains the Carnot cycle - named for Sadi Carnot who first described the problem of entropy in 1824. It was mathematical. It was complicated. It reminded me of college, and it made me appreciate the intelligence of this man who is applying all that he knows about the world to the problem - whether we call it global warming, the energy crisis or the entropy crisis. It is impressive. After we understand entropy he teaches us about various forms of energy production available today and how each one affects the entropy of the system. Entropy is the problem of power loss during the transmission of electricity from the point of production, say in a wind farm off the coast of Germany, to a city many kilometers away. Remember, no matter how we produce our energy, the process is always less than 100% efficient and entropy increases. A note here: origionally from France and now from Israel, Guy makes many references to European countries and uses the metric system in his discussions. The European/Israeli perspective is refreshing, giving us new benchmarks to consider about the environment, but the use of metric measurements may cause some confusion for those unfamiliar with them. This is a short book and there was not room for everything. I wish that Guy had spent more time explaining how a hydrogen based fuel cell economy would work. He alluded to it in a  scenario starting with producing electricity in the Sahara desert, transmitting it to the coast where sea water could be converted to fresh water and hydrogen would be produced by hydrolysis, liquified and transported for use elsewhere all with no net change in the entropy of the system. The idea is intriguing, but it needs to be fleshed out more than space permitted. Though it may be a bit too technical for the average reader, for those who have some science background, this book will prove to be an extremely helpful explanation of the problems we face as a modern society as we fight entropy and plan for a more sustainable future.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-11-06 00:00:00 Per Laursen amazing