A Global Perspective on Sustainable Energy and Transportation

There is plenty of hydro-carbon energy available on earth, for hundreds of years. The urgency of sustainable energy and sustainable transportation technologies is due to population growth, global warming, and equitable access to energy for all humanity. The way forward is to help the developing world (90% of population that dominates the future emissions) with “clean” energy and transportation, rather than making the developed world clean (the 10% solution). The developed world can be more effective by improving its energy efficiency by 50%, in the near future. This has to be done by appropriate technologies, consistent with sound business plans, and market-based economy.

This presentation offers the engineering and economic foundations of the above proposition.
Case studies and example technologies from the author’s group at Texas A&M University will
be presented as specific illustrations.