Real options valuation of US federal renewable energy research,development, demonstration,and deployment

Benefits analysis of US Federal government research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RD³) programmes for renewable energy (RE) technology improvement typically employs a deterministic forecast of the cost and performance of renewable and non-renewable fuels. The benefits estimate for the programme derives from the difference between two forecasts, with and without the RD³ programme in place. Three deficiencies of this approach are that it ignores: (1) uncertainty in the cost of non-renewable energy (NRE); (2) the possibility of adjustment to the RD³ effort commensurate with the evolving state of the world; and (3) the underlying technical risk associated with RD³. In this paper, an intuitive approach to determining the option value of RE RD³ is developed. This approach seeks to tackle the first two deficiencies noted above by providing an estimate via a compound real option of an RE RD³ programme in a future with uncertain NRE costs. A binomial lattice reveals the economic intuition underlying the decision-making process, while a numerical example illustrates the option components embedded in a simplified representation of current US Federal RE RD³.     

Exploitation of the Antibacterial Properties of Photoactivated Curcumin as ‘Green’ Tool for Food Preservation

In the search for non-chemical and green methods to counteract the bacterial contamination of foods, the use of natural substances with antimicrobial properties and light irradiation at proper light waves has been extensively investigated. In particular, the combination of both techniques, called photodynamic inactivation (PDI), is based on the fact that some natural substances act as photosensitizers, i.e., produce bioactive effects under irradiation. Notably, curcumin is a potent natural antibacterial and effective photosensitizer that is able to induce photodynamic activation in the visible light range (specifically for blue light). Some practical applications have been investigated with particular reference to food preservation from bacterial contaminants.     

Effect of inoculation and nodularisation treatment temperature on recalescence and eutectic undercooling temperature in Spheroidal graphite (SG) cast iron

In this study, the effect of inoculant composition and nodularisation treatment temperature on recalescence temperature (TER) and undercooling temperature (TEU) in SG iron has been studied by using thermal analysis. 0·1, 0·2 and 0·3 wt-% of three types of inoculants Ca,Ce,Al–FeSi, Ca,Sr,Al–FeSi and Ca,Ba,Al–FeSi were used as so called stream inoculation. Ca,Ce,Al–FeSi was found to be the most potent one in reducing both recalescence (?T _r ) and eutectic undercooling (?T). The nodule count has also been found higher in Ca,Ce,Al–FeSi inoculated SG iron samples compared to other two inoculants. It has been observed that higher the nodule count lower is the ?T _r and ?T and vice versa. The recalescence and shrinkage relationship of 24 heats of differential case castings has been established; it was observed that the number of castings containing shrinkage in respective heats increase as the recalescence and nodularisation treatment temperature increases.     

Experimental and physical approaches on a novel semiconducting-ionic membrane fuel cell

Semiconducting-ionic membranes (SIMs) have exhibited significant superiority to replace the conventional ionic electrolytes in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). One interesting phenomenon is that the SIMs can successfully avoid the underlying short-circuiting issue and power losses while bringing significantly enhanced power output. It is crucial to understand the physics in such devices as they show distinct electrochemical processes with conventional fuel cells. We first presented experimental studies of a SIM fuel cell based on a composite of semiconductor LiCo_0.8Fe_0.2O₂ (LCF) and ionic conductor Sm-doped CeO₂ (SDC), which achieved a remarkable power density of 1150 mW cm^?2 at 550 °C along with a high open circuit voltage (OCV) of 1.04 V. Then, for the first time we used a physical model via combining a semiconductor-ionic contact junction with a rectifying layer which blocks the electron leakage to describe such unique SIM device and excellent performance. Current and power are the most important characteristics for the device, by introducing the rectifying layer we described the SIM physical nature and new device process. This work presented a new view on advanced SIM SOFC science and technology from physics.     

Exhaust emission profiling of fatty acid methyl esters and NOx control studies using selective synthetic and natural additives

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy - The present study was focused on the optimized biodiesel production using Moringa oleifera (M. oleifera) and rice bran oils, characterization, and...     

Non-blind Arnold scrambled hybrid image watermarking in YCbCr color space

Microsystem Technologies - Due to fast technological development, human beings generally depend upon computer and other digital equipments in different areas of concern/applications. Therefore,...     

A new approach for simplification and control of linear time invariant systems

Microsystem Technologies - This study presents a new approach for system simplification and control. This approach is based on the behaviour of growth and reproduction of weed plants namely...     

Highly porous and thermally stable tribopositive hybrid bimetallic cryogel to boost up the performance of triboelectric nanogenerators

There have been tremendous efforts made to investigate various materials to enhance the electrical performance of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) but there is still demand for some techniques to further enhance the performance of tribomaterials. Therefore, we fabricated a bimetallic hybrid cryogel via cheap and facile UV-radiation as well as in situ reduction method. Fabricated TENG device made up of porous hybrid bimetallic cryogel film containing silver and gold nanoparticles as tribopositive material and poly dimethyl siloxane (PDMS) as a tribonegative layer with dimension of 1 × 2 cm² has the ability to produced output voltage of 262.14 V with current density of 27.52 mA/m² and 7.44 W/m² peak power density, which was sufficient to light up more than 120 white light emitting-diodes (LEDs). Porous and rough structure, interaction of nanoparticles was the reason behind the performance enhancement of tribopositive material. Thus, this study introduces a very stable and easily synthesized bimetallic hybrid cryogel as a tribopositive material to enhance the performance of tribomaterials to design high performance TENG devices.     

Mars orbiter laser altimeter: receiver model and performance analysis

The design, calibration, and performance of the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) receiver are described. The MOLA measurements include the range to the surface, which is determined by the laser-pulse time of flight; the height variability within the footprint determined by the laser echo pulse width; and the apparent surface reflectivity determined by the ratio of the echo to transmitted pulse energies.     

Analysis of a turbulent boundary layer subjected to a strong adverse pressure gradient

We define two non-dimensional parameters $\text{Λ =}\text{τ}{}_{\mathrm{w}}\text{p}{}_{\mathrm{x}}\text{δ}$ and $\text{R}{}_{\mathrm{p}}\text{=}\text{U}{}_{\mathrm{p}}\text{δ}\text{ν}$ where τ_w is the wall stress, p_x(?0) is the pressure gradient to which the turbulent boundary layer (of thickness δ) is subjected, ν is the kinematic viscosity, $\text{U}{}_{\mathrm{p}}\text{= (}\text{νp}{}_{\mathrm{x}}\text{p}\text{)}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>1</mtext><mtext>3</mtext>}}$ is a characteristic velocity and p is the density. The limit corresponding to the strong adverse pressure gradient is formulated as Λ → 0, R_p → ∞, ΛR_p finite. Using appropriate inner and outer asympcotic expansions, both above a wall layer possibly scaling with τ_w and ν, it is found by an application of Millikan's argument that there is an inertial sublayer where the streamwise velocity distribution obeys a half-power law, whose slope depends on Λ, and intercept on ΛR_p. Indeed comparison with available experimental data shows the inner law to be well represented by $\text{u}\text{Up}\text{= (3.5 + 19Λ)(}\text{yU}{}_{\mathrm{p}}\text{ν}\text{)}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>1</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}\text{+ 2.5ΛR}{}_{\mathrm{p}}$. The outer flow obeys a generalized defect law; use of constant eddy viscosity closure yields results in good agreement with experiment.