This book highlights progress towards the capture, storage, and utilization of energy through the development of advanced materials and systems based on abundant elements, materials, and commodities. Energy is critical to human sustainability and a global-scale deployment of renewable energy systems will be required. Hence, the chapters integrate the fundamental aspects that enable the technical advancements in detail, along with an emphasis on the need for highly sustainable materials to enable real impact for humankind: To determine innovation of energy capture and storage through characterizations of materials in areas of electrical generation and electrical storage systems; To demonstrate better performance, economic and environmental advantages than the current state of the art; To define new chemistries and materials for innovations in energy density design through lower operational temperatures, improve safety, expanding operational voltage, battery durability lifetimes, and reduce system costs. Advances critical technical and commercial objectives for novel high energy density materials; Evaluates operational material models for optimizing energy capture that are integrated by configurations as a system; Illustrates utilization of material life cycle assessment for high energy outputs generators for sustainable materials.

The search for cleaner, cheaper, smaller and more efficient energy technologies has to a large extent been motivated by the development of new materials. The aim of this collection of articles is therefore to focus on what materials-based solutions can offer and show how the rationale design and improvement of their physical and chemical properties can lead to energy-production alternatives that have the potential to compete with existing technologies. In terms of alternative means to generate electricity that utilize renewable energy sources, the most dramatic breakthroughs for both mobile (i.e., transportation) and stationary applications are taking place in the fields of solar and fuel cells. And from an energy-storage perspective, exciting developments can be seen emerging from the fields of rechargeable batteries and hydrogen storage.

Research for clean energy is booming, driven by the rapid depletion of fossil fuels and growing environmental concerns as well as the increasing growth of mobile electronic devices. Consequently, various research fields have focused on the development of high-performance materials for alternative energy technologies.Advanced Materials for Clean Ene

This book, from noted materials selection authority Mike Ashby, provides a structure and framework for analyzing sustainable development and the role of materials in it. The aim is to introduce ways of exploring sustainable development to readers in a way that avoids simplistic interpretations and approaches complexity in a systematic way. There is no completely "right" answer to questions of sustainable development – instead, there is a thoughtful, well-researched response that recognizes concerns of stakeholders, the conflicting priorities and the economic, legal and social aspects of a technology as well as its environmental legacy. The intent is not to offer solutions to sustainability challenges but rather to improve the quality of discussion and enable informed, balanced debate. - Winner of a 2016 Most Promising New Textbook Award from the Textbook and Academic Authors Association - Describes sustainable development in increasingly detailed progression, from a broad overview to specific tools and methods - Six chapter length case studies on such topics as biopolymers, electric cars, bamboo, and lighting vividly illustrate the sustainable development process from a materials perspective - Business and economic aspects are covered in chapters on corporate sustainability and the "circular materials economy" - Support for course use includes online solutions manual and image bank

Electrochemical Energy: Advanced Materials and Technologies covers the development of advanced materials and technologies for electrochemical energy conversion and storage. The book was created by participants of the International Conference on Electrochemical Materials and Technologies for Clean Sustainable Energy (ICES-2013) held in Guangzhou, China, and incorporates select papers presented at the conference. More than 300 attendees from across the globe participated in ICES-2013 and gave presentations in six major themes: Fuel cells and hydrogen energy Lithium batteries and advanced secondary batteries Green energy for a clean environment Photo-Electrocatalysis Supercapacitors Electrochemical clean energy applications and markets Comprised of eight sections, this book includes 25 chapters featuring highlights from the conference and covering every facet of synthesis, characterization, and performance evaluation of the advanced materials for electrochemical energy. It thoroughly describes electrochemical energy conversion and storage technologies such as batteries, fuel cells, supercapacitors, hydrogen generation, and their associated materials. The book contains a number of topics that include electrochemical processes, materials, components, assembly and manufacturing, and degradation mechanisms. It also addresses challenges related to cost and performance, provides varying perspectives, and emphasizes existing and emerging solutions. The result of a conference encouraging enhanced research collaboration among members of the electrochemical energy community, Electrochemical Energy: Advanced Materials and Technologies is dedicated to the development of advanced materials and technologies for electrochemical energy conversion and storage and details the technologies, current achievements, and future directions in the field.

Sustainable Materials for Next Generation Energy Devices: Challenges and Opportunities presents the latest state-of-the-art knowledge and innovation related to environmentally-friendly functional materials that can be developed for, and employed in, producing a feasible next generation of energy storage and conversion devices. The book is broken up into three sections, covering Energy Storage, Energy Conversion and Advanced Concepts. It will be an important reference for researchers, engineers and students who want to gain extensive knowledge in green and/or sustainable functional materials and their applications. - Provides a concise resource for readers interested in sustainable and green functional materials for energy conversion and storage devices - Emphasizes sustainable and green concepts in the design of energy devices based on renewable functional materials - Presents a survey of both the challenges and opportunities available for renewable functional materials in the development of energy devices

The impending energy crisis brought on by the running out of finite and non-homogenously distributed fossil fuel reserves and the worldwide increase in energy demand has prompted vast research in the development of sustainable energy technologies in the last few decades. However, the efficiency of most of these new technologies is relatively small and therefore it needs to be increased to eventually replace conventional technologies based on fossil fuels. The required efficiency increase primarily relies on the ability to improve the performance of the functional materials which are at the heart of these technologies. The purpose of this book is to give a unified and comprehensive presentation of the fundamentals and the use and design of novel materials for efficient sustainable energy applications, such as conversion, storage, transmission, and consumption. The book presents general coverage of the use and design of advanced materials for sustainable energy applications. Thus, the book addresses all the relevant aspects, such as materials for energy conversion, storage, transmission, and consumption.