Winter 2024 Public Lecture

McMaster Climate Centre and McMaster Alumni Association Presents

A Public Lecture with Dr. James Cotton

Most of us who live In the Northern cold regions have a fundamental problem: we need to heat our homes, but we also want to reduce our carbon emissions. The good news is there is a way to do both by creating thermal networks. A thermal network is a system of insulated, underground pipes that directly distribute heat to homes and other buildings using heat generated from clean sources- even waste heat such as from pizza ovens. Rather than using their own furnaces, boilers, fireplaces or electric baseboard heaters to heat buildings, consumers would receive heat directly from a utility. In this conversation Dr. Cotton will explain how its can be done.

About Dr. Cotton

Dr. James cotton is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Co-Director of the McMaster Institute for Energy Studies {MIES). Dr. Cotton’s research focuses on developing energy systems and technologies to advance sale and efficient thermal management solutions, integrated energy systems, and nuclear energy harvesting technologies. Dr. Cotton’s research and industry experience involves nearly all aspects of the energy network, ranging from improving hybfid and electric vehicle performance, integrated community energy systems, and waste heat recovery from commercial and industrial processes to experimental and system modeling research on CANDU and Micro Modular Reactor (MMR)sub-systems and components.