2025 (Current Year) Faculty Courses School of Environment and Society Undergraduate major in Transdisciplinary Science and Engineering
Foundations of Energy Systems Design
- Academic unit or major
- Undergraduate major in Transdisciplinary Science and Engineering
- Instructor(s)
- Junichiro Otomo
- Class Format
- Lecture (Face-to-face)
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 5-6 Thu
- Class
- -
- Course Code
- TSE.A343
- Number of credits
- 100
- Course offered
- 2025
- Offered quarter
- 2Q
- Syllabus updated
- Apr 4, 2025
- Language
- English
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
The transition of energy systems is progressing rapidly worldwide to reduce the risk of global climate change. In this lecture, you will learn the basic ideas necessary for designing energy systems. In order to understand the energy conversion process, it is necessary to understand material and energy flows and their conversion processes, and integrate each element to construct the entire system. In other words, by understanding individual basic knowledge such as chemical reaction, equilibrium and kinetics, thermodynamics, and transport phenomena, you will make full use of those knowledge in an integrated manner. Through the study of this lecture, you will learn the basics of how to freely design a new energy system.
Course description and aims
Through the study of this lecture, you will be able to acquire the following skills.
1) To be able to understand the energy conversion process from material and energy flows.
2) To be able to predict the energy conversion efficiency of the target energy system.
3) To be able to understand the concept of efficient energy system design.
Keywords
Material and energy, thermodynamics, kinetics, heat transfer, low-carbon/decarbonized energy systems
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
This class will be conducted mainly in a lecture style, but some will be conducted in an exercise style in order to deepen the understanding of the lecture content.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Material flow, energy flow, and energy system | Students will understand material flow, energy flow, and their conversion processes in energy systems, and understand the importance of mass and energy balance in entire systems through explanations of specific cases. |
| Class 2 | Energy conversion process and the first law of thermodynamics | Students will understand the concept of enthalpy and energy conservation, and be able to calculate the mass and energy balances of the target system. |
| Class 3 | Energy conversion process and the second law of thermodynamics, and exergy | Students will understand the concepts of entropy and exergy, and understand the energy conversion process from the perspective of the second law of thermodynamics. |
| Class 4 | Equilibrium and kinetics | Students will understand the importance of chemical equilibrium and reaction kinetics in energy systems, and use them in system design. |
| Class 5 | Reaction design and reactor design | Students will learn typical reactor types and be able to deal with reaction kinetics in various reactors. |
| Class 6 | Heat transfer | Students will learn the basics of three heat transfers: conduction, convection, radiation , and understand the importance of heat transfer processes in system design. |
| Class 7 | Integration and design of energy systems, and practice | Students will understand the actual design of CO2 zero emission systems based on the knowledge learned up to the 6th session (eg hydrogen turbine, carbon dioxide capture and storage plant, etc.) |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.
Textbook(s)
Not specified
Reference books, course materials, etc.
Distribute prints in the lecture
Evaluation methods and criteria
Quiz and report (homework)
Related courses
- TSE.A201 Material and Molecular Engineering
- TSE.A204 Engineering Thermodynamics
- TSE.A303 Unit operations
Prerequisites
Bases of ordinary and partial differential equations