Degree Name
Master of Science
Graduate Program
Mechanical Engineering
Advisor
Mondal, Kanchan
Abstract
Climate change has become the major global challenge of sustainability; among various anthropogenic sources of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the burning of fossil fuels for energy to support commercial, residential, municipal and industrial sectors is considered to be the primary cause of increasing levels of carbon dioxide emissions. However, because climate change is regionally driven with global consequences, to analyze emissions data, energy planning techniques must be developed which are simple, replicable and optimized for maximum benefit. Climate scenarios are continually derived from global models despite these models containing little to no regional or local specificity. Place-based research, well grounded in local experience, offers a more tractable alternative for defining complex interactions among the environmental, economic, and social processes that drive greenhouse gas emissions.
The focus of this study involves the development of a balanced energy supply and demand model under carbon constraints for the Southern Illinois energy sector; this sector represents the local specificity desired to build a carbon emissions pinch analysis model at the local level. This project is intended to formulate a robust methodology for constructing a Geographic Data Base Management System by employing a bottom/up approach to CO2 emissions modeling; the resulting data base can serve as the foundation for an environmental applications model employing pinch analysis techniques to address the allocation of energy resources and technologies to reduce CO2 emissions.