In the Netherlands anno 2021, energy is mainly used to heat buildings such as houses (with central heating on natural gas, especially in autumn and winter), for lighting and to run appliances (in the form of electricity), to power cars and other vehicles (mainly liquid motor fuels made from oil), and in industry to convert … Continue reading Energy transition – how to depart from fossil fuels
Just like coal, oil, natural gas and electricity, hydrogen is also an energy carrier – it contains energy that can be released, for example through combustion. Hydrogen has a high energy density of around 33 kWh per kilogram, almost three times the value of petrol. In practice, however, this high value is rather disappointing because … Continue reading Hydrogen
The comfortable temperature on earth is due to the unique combination of the distance to the sun and the presence of our atmosphere. As a result, the earth absorbs just the right amount of solar energy we need for life as we know it. And the atmosphere acts as an insulating blanket, keeping the temperature … Continue reading Carbon dioxide and global warming
Just outside the earth’s atmosphere, the sun shines with a power of 1367 watts on a square meter of surface facing the sun. This sunlight radiates continuously from the sun to the earth. On a cloudless day in summer, 1000 watts per square meter arrive at the earth’s surface in the Netherlands – the earth’s … Continue reading Solar energy: from sunlight to electricity
Nuclear power plants for energy generation use the solid ceramic material uranium oxide UO2 as “fuel”. If the uranium isotope 235U in the nuclear reactor is bombarded with slow neutrons, this produces an unstable uranium isotope 236U that very quickly decomposes into large nuclei with a mass number around 142 and around 92, such as … Continue reading Nuclear energy
In an internal combustion engine in your car, the fuel – petrol, diesel, LPG – reacts directly with oxygen. The larger volume of combustion gases pushes a piston back and forth, and a crankshaft converts this back-and-forth movement into a rotating movement for the car wheels. Chemical energy from the fuel is converted into useful … Continue reading Electrochemistry of the fuel cell
Batteries exist by the grace of people who want to be mobile at all times. Lithium ion batteries are especially popular because of their high energy density – up to 200 Watts of energy per kilogram of battery. But also because they can be recharged over and over again without deteriorating significantly. And that’s why … Continue reading Electrochemistry behind rechargeable lithium ion batteries
