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Heat pumps or hydrogen? The thermodynamics of reaching net-zero 

image courtesy of @thijsstoop

The 19th century science of thermodynamics was developed largely to design the heat engines which drove the industrial revolution: machines which burn fossil fuels to generate heat and turn it into useful work. Sustainable 21st century technologies for moving, keeping warm and making things rely on the same science of thermodynamics. In this talk we look at the role played by the laws of thermodynamics in sustainable energy technology. We apply the insights of the great Scottish engineers and physicists Watt, Kelvin and Maxwell to heat pumps and hydrogen technologies. Since a heat pump is essentially a heat engine run backwards we literally need to reverse parts of the industrial revolution to reach net-zero!