Energy consumption, worldwide

Nowadays, approximately 20% of energy consumption worldwide is used for lighting. In the last two decades, the semiconducting light sources have played a key role in emerging SSL technologies, demonstrating an exponential improvement in the luminous efficacy. In feet, the record values of the luminous efficacy... 

The average daily incident solar radiation, or insolation, that strikes the earth s surface worldwide is about 220 W/m (1675 Btu/ft ). The annual insolation on 0.01% of the earth s surface is approximately equal to all energy consumed (ca 1992) by humans in one year, ie, 321 x 10 J (305 X 10 Btu). In the United States, the world s largest energy consumer, annual energy consumption is equivalent (1992) to the insolation on about 0.1 to 0.2% of U.S. total surface. 

From various U.S. DOE sources, projections have been made that the worldwide annual energy consumption in 2020 could be 75 percent higher than it was in 1995. The combined use of fossil fuels is projected to grow faster from 1995 to 2020 than it did from 1970 to 1995. Natural gas is expected to account for 30 percent of world electricity by 2020, compared to 16 percent in 1996. 

Energy consumption The plastics industry consumes about 3% of U.S. total annual oil and gas consumption. This use is more than offset by the savings that plastic products create. Many different studies have substantiated this fact. Worldwide there are areas where the consumption may be lower and possibly greater reaching up to 4%. 

BIOHOCH An aerobic wastewater treatment process. Optimimum reactor design and a proprietary air injection system achieve 50 percent of the energy consumption of similar systems. Fifty systems had been installed worldwide by 1994. Licensed by Brown-Minneapolis Tank and Hoechst-Uhde Corporation. 

Renewable energy scenarios depend on environmental protection, which is an essential characteristic of sustainable developments. Worldwide biomass ranks fourth as an energy resource, providing approximately 14% of the world s energy needs. Biomass, mainly now represent only 3% of primary energy consumption... 

The water in rivers and streams can be captured and turned into hydropower (HP), also called hydroelectric power. HP currently provides about 17% of the world s electricity supply, virtually all of Norway s electricity and more than 40% of the electricity nsed in developing countries. However, there is great potential in hydropower worldwide. Norway produces more than 99% of its electricity with hydropower. New Zealand nses hydropower for 75% of its electricity. HP provides more than 97% of all electricity generated by renewable sources. Other sources, biomass, geothermal, solar and wind account for less than 3% of renewable electricity production. When the electricity share of total energy consumption is considered, the increase becomes even more dramatic. 

Nuclear energy has been used to produce electricity for more than half a century. Worldwide, nuclear energy accounts for 6% of energy and 16% of electricity, and 23% in OECD countries (UNDP, 2004). OECD countries prodnce almost 55% of the world s uranium. The global nuclear energy consumption increased rapidly from 0.1% in 1970 to 7.4% in 1998. This increase was especially high in the 1980s. 

The International Energy Agency was set up in 1974 to focus on issues of energy security, especially oil security, but is today more concerned with how energy production and use can be reconciled with the preservation ofour natural environment. An excellent site for obtaining up-to-date statistics on worldwide energy consumption. 

Figure 1. Sources of energy consumed worldwide and in the United States in 2001. In that year, the United States consumed a total of 1.0 x 1019 J of energy, whereas worldwide consumption was 4.2 x 1019 J. (Data was obtained from British Petroleum and the World Energy Council.)...

The Cativa process is based on a promoted iridium catalyst, and offers a considerable improvement over the rhodium-based system as a result of increased catalyst stability at lower water concentrations, decreased by-product formation, higher rates of carbonylation, high selectivity (>99% based upon methanol), and improved yields on carbon monoxide. This is a more cost-effective process for methanol carbonylation owing to lower energy consumption and fewer purification requirements. Implementation of this new process has now been achieved in four plants worldwide. 

Scientific and industrial interest in oil shales has had a chequered history since, in 1694, Martin Bale was awarded a patent for the production of "oyle from a kind of stone". The production of shale oil in the 19th century became less economic when cheap crude oil reached a widening market and, with the exception of a few countries worldwide, the oil shale industry was essentially run down early this century. The energy crisis of the early 1970 s reawakened a wide interest in the possible economic production of shale oil, but the current downturn in energy consumption, with a concomitant drop in crude oil prices... 

The chemical production complex in the lower Mississippi River corridor is one of the several worldwide complexes that can benefit from using carbon dioxide as a raw material and the resulting reduced energy consumption. In Fig. 4, a list of some of these... 

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