This page will keep an ongoing log of class activity during the course. I will make a short summary of what was covered in each class and give brief advice on what to read and what problems to work on for the next class. (Please see the problem set link on the homepage for detailed assignements and problems).

ClassLog

Spring 2017 Notes, CHEM 8069 (grad):
21. Thurs. Apr. 20: Last class! Discuss jobs in the energy sector. Watch parts of two videos to close, interviews of Bill Gates and Elon Musk on the future of energy. I posted the summary of jobs in clean energy on the online site for the course, under the Jobs section.
20. Tues. Apr. 18: Discuss jobs in sustainable energy.
19. Thus. Apr. 13: Complete discussion of topics.
18. Tues. Apr. 11: discuss Steve Melink visit. Finish discussion of major projects. Discuss new set of topics (quickly). These include synthetic fuels and catalysis, biofuels, wind, hydrogen production and fuel cells, and energy storage. Discuss problem solving methods -- helpful? Prep for job discussions -- search for job opportunities as if you had a new Ph.D. and were looking for a job. Utility of 'learning community' approach we have adopted?
17. Tues. Apr. 4: continue discussion of detailed project papers. Short class today. No class Thurs. Meet with Steve Melink Fri. at 2:30 in 601 Crosley. Then his talk is at 3:35 PM in 502 Rieveschl. After this week we only have 2 weeks left in the class. The last week (2 classes) I would like to focus on job opportunities in clean energy. I have some links in the online materials (near the bottom) but those are not at all comprehensive. Please start exploring online info about careers in clean energy, sustainability, renewable energy, energy efficiency, etc. In my google news feed I have links to these topics and there are literally articles every day.
16. Tues. Mar. 28: Collect rest of talks from the first 2 sets of topics. Go through major project papers. Students will discuss their work on the papers -- informal talks. Problem solving work. Recall Steve Melink talk next Fri. Apr. 7.
15. Tues. Mar. 21: More talks on renewable sources. Discuss new set of topics (bioenergy, hydroelectricity, wind, geothermal, hydrogen, E storage), projects due Thurs. 3/23, go through exam and practice.
14. Thurs. Feb. 23: New posts on discussion board. Work PS12. Continue student short talks 4, 5, 7. Next Tues. talks 3, 6, 8. Discuss new topics on Tues. Note: Mar. 7 Prof. Bill Jensen will discuss a paper he wrote on renewable energy research going all the way back more than 100 yrs. This will be a very interesting talk! Also Prof. Ault will talk the next class Mar. 9 on his own installation of solar PV and geothermal for his house. Please be prepared with lots of questions.
13. Tues. Feb. 21: Fun facts. Your main project is due Mar. 23. The only exam will be Mar. 2, covering the problems on the problem sets and/or ones we have done in class. Problem set 12, problems 1-4. Video on debate between renewable and nuclear, Jacobson and Brand TED talk. Talks by students on renewable energy, etc.
12. Thurs. Feb. 16: Fun facts. Discussion group entries are working! Prob. solve Jacobson power numbers. Finish "Here comes the sun" video, and watch TED debate on renewable and nuclear energy, Jacobson and Brand. Discuss next set of topics for student talks. They can be a little bit shorter this time.
11. Tues. Feb. 14: Fun facts. Blog entries? Prob. solve (what volume of oil does U.S. consume per year--length of side?). Midterm on problem solving Thurs. Mar. 2. Discuss paper on potential of renewable energy. Watch "Here comes the sun" video. Project topics (solar, wind, synthetic fuels, nuclear, storage). Send your fossil fuel talks. New topics for short discussions (see eonline)?
10. Thurs. Feb. 9: Fun facts. Blog on BB. Probs. 5.4, 7.7, 8.1. Finish fossil fuels discussion topics 8, 10. New topics: intro to renewable and sustainable. Read the 'some say yes' link carefully, we will discuss in detail. What is left out of that paper?
9. Tues. Feb. 7: Fun facts. Class blog for posting links to interesting developments. Problem set 3 number 1. Estimate of energy for car vs. train on trip to Columbus. Fossil fuel discussion continued.
8. Thurs. Feb. 2: Fun facts. Problem estimating the total E from placing solar panels on every home roof in the U.S. What fraction of U.S. total E would be covered? More fossil fuel presentations.
7. Tues. Jan. 31: Fun facts. Personal E inventory, what are your numbers? Work a problem. Rest of class student discussion/presentation of fossil fuel information.
6. Thurs. Jan. 26: Fun facts. Quick problem on U.S. total energy. Reminder on personal energy inventories, are you done? Complete Laughlin video on the future of energy. Start student talks on various topics related to fossil fuels.
5. Tues. Jan. 24: Fraction of total E used in TX coming from their large wind farms? What is the total area of wind farms required to power all E used in U.S.? Comparison with E from solar. Comparison of costs for the two sources. As of now solar is a lot more expensive. Laughlin video on the future of energy, got to 20' in the video.
4. Thurs. Jan. 19: Fun facts. Energy conversions and interactions, e.g. chemical/electrical is a battery, etc. Primary and secondary energy sources, and flows (wind) vs. stored (fuel). EROI. Embodied E and food production. Energy carriers, e.g. electricity and hydrogen. Problem on solar PV area needed to power U.S. and the world. Review readings (EIA, Energy in U.S., Some say yes, E consumption by appliance, EROI). Work on your personal daily energy inventory, give results in kWh.
3. Tues. Jan. 17: Fun facts. Discuss notebooks and purpose. Discuss forms of energy, physical and chemical. Energy laws. Why is energy so hard to pin down? Discuss energy and power units and conversions. Work some problems. Work your way through Prob Sets 1-4. Read two links on energy consumption by appliance, and two links to EROI (Energy Return On Investment). Recall in item 1 below we have 3 assigned previous readings in addition to the ones above.
2. Thurs. Jan. 12: Please get 2 notebooks for the course. 1 for class discussion and 1 for problem solving. In terms of taking notes, as I discussed, this field is huge and there is no way you can systematically learn in some simple order. You need to dive in, start reading, and over time things will start to clarify. That is my experience anyway. Two places to get current news are 1) phys.org (you can set up an account there where you get a daily email with current news on various topics like renewable energy, technology, etc)and 2) google news is excellent to ship you stories each day. If you have a google account go to the news link and then choose a bunch of relevant topics like renewable energy, sustainable energy, energy, etc. Those two sites should be enough to keep you going but please search for others too, and share the sites with the rest of us. Today we will go through my overview talk just to get things started. We will clarify the military spending question by looking at two wiki sites with the relevant information. We will have a quick look at the paper by Jacobson and Delucchi concerning the potential of renewable energy to power the world. They discuss main wind, water, and solar and do not discuss nuclear and/or synthetic/bio fuels. I would add those possibilities to the list (nuclear is not renewable but may help as a bridge to fully renewable future, which is our only option in the long term). Please read 'outline of energy' and 'wiki energy' links. We will start to discuss types of energy, some basic energy principles, and units/conversions. Phew, most days won't have so much info listed!
1. Tues. Jan. 10: Intro to course. Go through goals etc. Assigned reading from online site: EIA U.S. energy explained, Energy in the U.S. Also read journal article in online materials under heading 'some say yes'.

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2016 notes

1. Mon Aug. 22: Go over course and syllabus. Short introduction to energy in our society. Why should we learn about this issue?
2. Wed. Aug. 24: Finish going over course outline etc. Answer Qs. Start with personal energy inventory by going through a typical day of energy use. Start practicing dimensional analysis and doing simple calculations. Read the first five links under Energy Basics on the Online link (through "Energy development").
3. Fri. Aug. 26. Fun facts. Some discussion by me of energy basics. Powers of ten and units. A problem on the sun's energy. Assignment for weekend. Quiz materials -- read the first 5 links that I assigned.
4. Mon. Aug. 29. Fun facts. Energy units. Some simple practice calculations. Explore Energy in the U.S. information.
5. Wed. Aug. 31. A few interesting calculations. Begin to go through "Energy in the United States" Wiki page.
6. Fri. Sep. 2. Fun facts. Review of calculations. Assign problems. Discuss "Energy in the United States."
7. Wed. Sep. 7. Fun facts. Discuss personal energy inventory. Assign new readings and problems for study. Possible quiz Fri. on figure from "Energy in the U.S." link.
8. Fri Sep. 9. Quiz. Discuss problems and work through a couple. Discussion on energy policy and public spending. Short TED talk on renewable energy in Costa Rica.
9. Mon Sep. 12. Fun facts. Work problems. More discussion on energy basics. Discuss first exam and project.
10. Wed. Sep. 14. Fun facts. Quiz is graded. First midterm Wed. Oct. 5. A couple problems in class. Discussion of online links in Energy Basics, continued.
11. Fri. Sep. 16. Fun facts. Problem on nuclear energy. Go through weblinks on Energy Basics (online course materials).
12. Mon Sep. 19. Fun facts. Finish discussion of links in energy basics. Energy history. Discuss topics for projects. Worked problem on "how many miles to Americans drive in a year"? Answer: enough to 15000 round trips to sun.
13. Wed. Sep. 21. Worked problem on paving roads with solar panels -- what is the potential? Calculated how many cars could be powered by solar road to drive from Cincinnati to Columbus in a day. Finalizing project teams and plans.
14. Fri. Sep. 23. Quick listing of projects. Documentary on life of Nicola Tesla.
14. Mon. Sep. 26. Finish documentary on life of Nicola Tesla -- electricity genius inventor.
16. Wed. Sep. 28. Fun facts. Work on all problem sets through #6. Based on your personal E inventory, where do you think you could reduce your energy consumption if needed? We'll discuss electricity generation, some of it's history, and Tesla and Edison. Compile list of project topics. Work total area needed to power the world with solar.
17. Fri. Sep. 30. Fun facts. Work through problem on area of solar PV farm needed to provide all power to U.S.
18. Mon. Oct. 3. Fun facts. Prepare for midterm on Wed. Solve problems. New material on fossil fuels and impacts.
19. Wed. Oct. 5. First midterm exam.
20. Fri. Oct. 7. Fun facts. Go over solutions to midterm. (grading done over weekend). Discuss projects (due Mon Oct. 17). Discuss new material on where fossil fuels came from, the concept of peak oil, when will we run out (?), and some links on the impacts of fossil fuels.
21. Mon. Oct. 10. Fun facts. Return midterm exam. Finish Natl. Geo. video on possible responses to global warming. Begin discussion of renewable and sustainable energy. Reminder projects due a week from today, on Oct. 17.
22. Wed. Oct. 12. Finish Natl Geo video on response to global warming. Provide reading list from online materials. Solve one simple problem about how much energy goes into making gas.
23. Mon Oct. 17. Project 1 due. Projects received by midnight. Fun facts. Started on Wiki page on renewable energy -- lots of info there. Please read that link in online materials.
24. Wed. Oct. 19. Check on your posted project. Please start reading the other projects written by others in the class. Further discussion of renewable energy link. Video from YouTube called "Powering the future". Link to paper discussing the possibility of 100% renewable energy.
25. Fri. Oct. 21. Discuss project 1.
26. Mon. Oct. 24. Discuss project 1.
27. Wed. Oct. 26. Discuss project 1. Thorium TED talk. Sustainable E Wiki page.
28. Fri. Oct. 28. Finish discussion of project 1. Quick problem in class. Discuss reading assignment. Video on thorium.
29. Mon. Oct. 31. Fun facts. Finish thorium video. Discuss articles on renewable/sustainable, including sustainable energy, energy efficiency, and smart grid.
30. Wed. Nov. 2. Fun facts. Discuss energy efficiency. Video by Armory Lovins, head of Rockey Mountain Institute.
31. Fri. Nov. 4. Fun facts. Move on to nuclear power. Discuss a few weblinks about nuclear energy. TED talk debate between Mark Jacobson and Stuart Brand about the need for nuclear. Quiz next week on the links "Efficient energy use" and/or "Nuclear power" and/or "Liquid fluoride thorium reactor".
32. Mon. Nov. 7. Fun facts. Discuss nuclear energy overview. Two TED talks, one on nuclear and environment, one on fusion.
33. Wed. Nov. 9. Fusion TED talk. Discussion of projects.
34. Mon. Nov. 14. Quiz on Nuclear and Solar readings. Discussion of implications of election on energy policy. Discussion of solar energy future.
35. Wed. Nov. 16. Fun facts. Project 2. Quiz back. EIA Solar discussion. Video linked on online page "Here comes the Sun".
36. Fri. Nov. 18. Fun facts. Project 2. Finish video from Wed. Quiz on Mon. over EIA Solar, EIA Biomass, and EIA Biofuels.
37. Mon Nov. 21. Quiz. Finish solar video, "Here comes the sun." Discuss EIA Biomass, Biofuels, Hydro, Wind. Move on to hydrogen as E carrier. Also E storage: batteries and supercapacitors.
38. Wed. Nov. 23. Fun facts. Quizzes and proj1 graded by next Mon. Video by Dyson or Laughlin on the long view of energy and contrarian opinions. Read EIA hydro, wind, geothermal, hydrogen. Also online materials on E storage. There will be quiz next week. Remember proj2 due next Tues. Nov. 29. There will be no final, just a quiz next week and your proj2 with extensive discussions in class. Be ready to participate.
39. Mon. Nov. 28. Quizzes graded. New quiz Wed. Proj1 graded. There will be no final, but we will meet during the final time period (in our classroom). This will be Wed. Dec. 7 8-10 AM in our classroom. We will use that time to further discuss the proj2. For quiz Wed. read EIA hydro, wind, hydrogen, and the link on Li-ion batteries.

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2015 notes

1) Mon. Aug. 24: The first day we gave an overview of the purpose of the course. We talked about each word in the course title, namely 'sustainable' and 'energy' and 'society'. We talked about how energy is a very important topic both in the present and for the future, and it was mentioned how the current fluctuations in oil prices can affect the stock market. Energy is in the current news and will continue to be so in the future, for many reasons. The assignment is to start reading the weblinks in the online materials under 'Energy Basics', namely the first five links (the first one just gives links to other sites about energy).
2) Wed. Aug. 26: Today we will go over the course online materials and the syllabus, and then get started by making a short energy inventory to begin to look at all the places where we use energy during a typical day. Then we will start on the basics of energy units and dimensional analysis. We'll need these tools to do the necessary simple calculations for the class. We will start the 'interesting facts' at the beginning of class on Fri. Please bring an interesting fact that you found in your reading and be ready to share with the class.
3) Fri. Aug. 28: We will first spend about 5 min on 'fun facts' where you bring an interesting fact to class. I'll show you a few new posts on the eonline.html course page link. These are very helpful links. Then we will continue our discussion of orders of magnitude, energy basics, and units (dimensional analysis). You should start on the first assignment and problem set in the problems link on the home page.
4) Mon. Aug. 31: Today we will review the material we talked about on Fri. after our 'fun facts'. We will review orders of magnitude and powers of ten, and dimensional analysis by going through a few simple problems. We'll do a simple problem trying to figure out what fraction of the sun's light hits the earth (it's a tiny fraction but still for us it is a lot of energy). We will talk through some of the readings. It may be helpful for you to read through last year's lecture notes also which are linked on the homepage.
5) Wed. Sept. 2: We did more work on problem solving using dimensional analysis. We looked at parts of our own energy use inventory (per day), expressed in kWh. We are learning to calculate some interesting energy quantites, and that allows us to relate the energy cost of various things we do.
6) Fr. Sept. 4: Today we will finish the problem we discussed about what fraction of the sun's radiant energy reaches us. We will also have a quick look at Prob. Set 1 problems 4 and 5. Then we will go to some of the online readings (the first 5) and spend some time discussing that information.
7) Mon. Sept. 14: We will review some what Travis talked about last week. We will do the usual 'fun facts' exercise and solve a couple of problems, then return to some of the reading materials. We will begin to look more carefully at fossil fuel consumption.
8) Wed. Sept. 16: fun facts, discuss projects and how to divide up into teams of 4. Work a problem on solar energy. Discuss further the two online links Energy in U.S. and Energy Development.
9) Fri. Sept. 18: We will discuss again the projects and teams for them. We will continue work on the solar panel problem -- how much area is required to power the whole planet? If all the homes in the U.S. had solar panels on them could we power the country that way? We will continue going through online materials in Energy Basics.
10) Mon. Sept. 21: We will briefly discuss the projects again. Please see the 'Online Problems' link for more info about the projects. You should divide up into teams of 3-5 and pick a topic. Then discuss with me to approve the topic. This should be done by Fri. Sept. 25. Today we will do the usual 'fun facts' section, then a short problem, then on to discuss online materials related to energy basics. You should now start working on completing all the problems up to Problem Set 7. Several of the problems are quite easy, but they are good practice (energy vs. power, and units, etc.)
11) Wed. Sept. 23: We'll spend more time going through the online link "Energy development" and a few more in the Energy Basics category.
12) Fri. Sept. 25: We set up the teams for the projects and I got titles for most of them. If you are not on a team yet please see me; we'll discuss again on Mon. We also finished off material on Energy Development and looked through the Energy Information Agency site (very helpful basic information).
13) Mon. Sept. 28: We will finish of making up the teams for the projects. Some time will be spent working through a new problem that I will post in Problem Set 8. You'll be responsible for this problem for the exam. We'll talk about U.S. energy consumption stats and Energy Return on Investment (EROI).
14) Wed. Sept. 30: We will do a couple practice problems in class. We'll talk about E consumption stats in the U.S. and the EROI concept (important!). We'll explore a couple of TED talks on energy topics.
15) Fri. Oct. 2: FF, discuss history of E links, TED talks -- maybe 2 on alternative energy sources, next week we will discuss E history some more and then impacts of fossil fuels. After that we move on to renewable and sustainable sources.
16) Mon. Oct. 5: FF. Review for exam (Fri.), problems, reading material. Watch one more TED talk on alternative energy topics.
17) Wed. Oct. 7: Review for exam. Work on problems. Exam is on Friday, you are all required to attend or present doctors excuse.
18) Fri. Oct. 9: Midterm Exam.
19) Mon. Oct. 12: Exams will be handed back on Wed. Today we will watch the video "Powering the planet" from our ourline resources.
20) Wed. Oct. 14: Go over the exam, hand them back. Fun facts. New readings on impacts of fossil fuels. Define renewable/sustainable. Start discussing wind energy -- review our problem discussing how many wind farms would be necessary to provide electricity to power all the cars in the U.S. This gives us the scale of the problem.
21) Mon. Oct. 19: Fun facts, begin talking about wind energy. Review the problem we did related to how many wind farms we would need to provide for all-electric autos in the U.S. The number is large but not completely out of the realm of possibility. From this we can learn that wind energy is likely to grow in importance and become one of the major players in our energy future.
22) Wed. Oct. 21: We will continue our discussion of wind energy.
23) Fri. Oct. 23: We will start to discuss nuclear energy. This is not what we would call a renewable energy source, but it is a low carbon source. (You can read about 'breeder reactors' that might make nuclear energy more or less renewable.) I made the proposal that the four main promising directions for energy in the future are: wind, solar, biofuels, and nuclear. If you disagree and/or can find information to the contrary let's discuss that in class!
24) Mon. Oct. 26: We had several fun facts. We finished the documentary on thorium energy and then watched a TED Talk that had a pro-con debate about the future of nuclear energy vs. renewable sources like wind and solar.
25) Wed. Oct. 28: We'll start discussing the projects -- this will be our fun facts activity for a while. We will finish off our discussion of nuclear energy and move on to biofuels.
26) Fri. Oct. 30: discussed the paper 'hydro1' from Project 1. Discussed biofuels in class.
27) Mon. Nov. 2: will discuss the paper 'hydro2' from Project 1. Will discuss a bit more on biofuels, watch a TED talk on biofuel development, and move on to solar energy and solar power if there is time.
28) Wed. Nov. 4: facts on 'nuclear1' project. Discuss solar energy further. Maybe a TED talk on our energy future by Amory Lovins.
29) Fri. Nov. 6: go over exam and project dates (posted on webpage now). We will discuss the project 1 'nuclear2' paper. We will continue to talk about solar energy.
30) Mon. Nov. 9: reminder of class dates, Nov. 20 for second midterm, Dec. 2 for second project. Discuss solar1 project. Continue discuss of solar energy. Begin discussion of energy on the large scale, analysis of which renewable sources we should take seriously. See lecture notes on future of energy.
31) Fri. Nov. 13: discuss project 1 solar2. Watch talk by Robert Laughlin of Stanford about Powering the Future.
32) Mon. Nov. 16: discuss project 1 thorium1. Finish video by Laughlin, begin discussion of energy storage: batteries, supercapacitors, etc. Please see review under Midterm2 of the course home page. This is for the exam on Fri. Nov. 20.

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