Micro- and nanofluidics for energy conversion

LOCATING AND HARVESTING ENERGY has been a challenge for human society throughout history. In recent years, energyrelated research has attracted significantly increased attention due to increasing fuel prices and its consequences on the global economy. The urgency of alternative energy technology development has been well recognized. An important reason for this is the catastrophic global climate change triggered by greenhouse gas emissions. It is also predicted that a peak in oil production rates will be reached in the near future. From a historical perspective, similar scenarios have been observed whenever the normal energy supplies were at risk (e.g., the oil crisis of 1970s). Although, in the past, the international community had worked together to overcome energy crises by increasing production in existing oil fields, finding new oil resources, and improving oil refinery technologies, it is obvious that renewable energy sources will become inevitably necessary. Intensive research efforts on both basic and applied energy science will be the essential driving force for the shift from traditional energy resources to the renewable ones.