Energy Storage, 2nd Edition

Preface to the First Edition

The main purpose of this book is to present a different phenomenological approach to practical energy storage. Throughout the book, a main thread of the problems associated with the generation, transmission, conversion, and storage of energy is proposed, and various technologies are addressed primarily from a phenomenological viewpoint. The exploration of new processes is a major part of the continual search for improved means of the generation and storage of energy.

Although some mathematical developments are presented, this book is not intended as a text on thermodynamics or electrochemistry. Certainly, thermodynamics is employed and generous use is made of mathematical tools, but this is not a text directed toward the development or teaching of such principles. It is assumed that the reader possesses some knowledge of elementary classical physics and mathematics and differential calculus in order to easily understand some of the details of thermodynamics and diffusion processes upon which the mechanisms of concentration cell operations are based.

This book presents a broad review of energy technology only in summary fashion in order to provide a background so that the concentration cell approach will be viewed in context with other available means of energy storage. It is necessary to cover a reasonable portion of these subjects in order to make this narrative understandable as an alternative presentation. The rationale behind the concentration ...