WFU Physics Colloquium

TITLE: Waste Heat Recovery for Energy Efficiency

(Co-sponsored by the WFU Department of Physics and the WFU Center for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability ^*)

SPEAKER: Professor Gerald Mahan ,

TIME: Wednesday October 20, 2010 at 3:15 PM ^*

PLACE: Room 101 Olin Physical Laboratory

^* Note the early starting time.

There is current interest in using waste heat to produce electricity. Several industrial cases are described. Another option is in vehicles, where the hot exhaust gases can be used to generate electricity for the vehicle. Three different technologies are discussed: steam turbines, Stirling engines, and thermoelectrics. Each technology will be reviewed. My own research in thermoelectrics will be mentioned briefly.

Dr. Clark is one of the foremost authorities on tropical rain forests, working on climate controls on ecosystem services such as carbon flux and storage in old-growth tropical rain forest, and ecological and physiological processes affecting growth and survival of lowland rain forest trees. This talk will treat a controversial topic in changes in forest carbon storage and tree mortality rates due to climate change based on long time series in the New World Tropics.