Sulphur removal in ironmaking and oxygen steelmaking

Sulphur removal in the ironmaking and oxygen steelmaking process is reviewed. A sulphur balance is made for the steelmaking process of Tata Steel IJmuiden, the Netherlands. There are four stages where sulphur can be removed: in the blast furnace (BF), during hot metal (HM) pretreatment, in the converter and during the secondary metallurgy (SM) treatment. For sulphur removal a low oxygen activity and a basic slag are required. In the BF typically 90% of the sulphur is removed; still, the HM contains about 0.03% of sulphur. Different HM desulphurisation processes are used worldwide. With co-injection or the Kanbara reactor, sulphur concentrations below 0.001% are reached. Basic slag helps desulphurisation in the converter. However, sulphur increase is not uncommon in the converter due to high oxygen activity and sulphur input via scrap and additions. For low sulphur concentrations SM desulphurisation, with a decreased oxygen activity and a basic slag, is always required.     

Organic food processing: a framework for concept,starting definitions and evaluation

In 2007 EU Regulation (EC) 834/2007 introduced principles and criteria for organic food processing. These regulations have been analysed and discussed in several scientific publications and research project reports. Recently, organic food quality was described by principles, aspects and criteria. These principles from organic agriculture were verified and adapted for organic food processing. Different levels for evaluation were suggested. In another document, underlying paradigms and consumer perception of organic food were reviewed against functional food, resulting in identifying integral product identity as the underlying paradigm and a holistic quality view connected to naturalness as consumers' perception of organic food quality. In a European study, the quality concept was applied to the organic food chain, resulting in a problem, namely that clear principles and related criteria were missing to evaluate processing methods. Therefore the goal of this paper is to describe and discuss the topic of organic food processing to make it operational. A conceptual background for organic food processing is given by verifying the underlying paradigms and principles of organic farming and organic food as well as on organic processing. The proposed definition connects organic processing to related systems such as minimal, sustainable and careful, gentle processing, and describes clear principles and related criteria. Based on food examples, such as milk with different heat treatments, the concept and definitions were verified. Organic processing can be defined by clear paradigms and principles and evaluated according criteria from a multidimensional approach. Further work has to be done on developing indicators and parameters for assessment of organic food quality. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry     

A Constructive Technology Assessment Approach to ICT Planning in Developing Countries: Evaluating the First Phase,the Roundtable Workshop

Information and communication technology (ICT) might play an important role in development. There are many failed implementations as there is limited knowledge of how to apply ICT in a development context. The Roundtable (RT) workshop is a participatory approach based on constructive technology assessment. This paper develops an evaluative framework to assess the effectiveness of the RT workshop. It is an interpretive study based on quantitative and qualitative data from case studies. It is a rare and detailed study on the process and output of a participatory exercise. It shows that the RT workshop is a useful and robust methodology to integrate ICTs in priority areas of sector development like agriculture, education, health, etc. Empowerment, reflexive learning, and networking are key elements to generate owned up ICT projects that are moulded to local needs. In a cross-case analysis relevant contextual factors are identified.     

DOES MIGRATION EQUALISE REGIONAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATES? EVIDENCE FROM AUSTRALIA

Whether inter-regional migration equilibrates regional economic performance is a question which has received considerable attention in recent literature. The author examines that question, focusing upon regional unemployment rates and real wages within the context of a 24-hour equation econometric model of the interaction between regional wages, regional unemployment, and inter-regional migration in Australia. Used to solve for steady-state values of wage and unemployment differences, the model determined that the steady state involves non-zero unemployment rate differences and non-zero wage differences. The model is also used to investigate the stability of the equilibrating mechanism and to simulate the effects upon unemployment, migration, and wage rates of a shock to employment growth. The main findings are that inter-regional equilibrating forces are slow and do not help equalize regional unemployment rates or wages.     

Lighting control in office buildings

A demonstration project at an office building of Nederlandse Gasunie in Groningen, Holland, is here described by engineers with TNO-TH in Delft. Five different lighting systems were installed on different floors, most of them controlled automatically on daylight in an inner and outer zone. These systems, when compared with a reference system without automatic control, showed savings between 30 and 40 per cent of lighting energy consumption in relation to the maximum number of lighting hours.     

Interregional transfers: A political-economy CGE approach

We model the effects of changes in a federal governments inter-regional transfers within the context of a CGE model of a federal system in which regional governments act to maximise the welfare of the residents of their region subject to the effects of their decision on regional economic outcomes. Regional governments are modelled as players in a non-cooperative game. Simulations are conducted with six versions of a small two-region model, each calibrated for a particular Australian state and the rest of the nation. We show that a change in the level of transfers has little influence on per-capita private consumption, government consumption and welfare, and that its main effect is to induce migration from the donor region to the recipient region.Received: 27 June 2001, Accepted: 20 December 2002, JEL Classification: C72, D58, H73, R13, R23The research reported in this article was supported by a SPIRT Grant from the Australian Research Council. We are indebted to Peter Dixon, James Giesecke, Sang-Hee Han, Peter McGregor, Alex Scherini, two anonymous referees, and the Pacific editor for their valuable comments and suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies.     

The effects of fiscal equalisation in a model with endogenous regional governments: an analysis in a two-region numerical model

This paper is concerned primarily with the economic and welfare consequences of federal redistributive grants. We use a model which has two regions, each with households, firms and regional governments as well as a federal government. Private agents are (utility and profit) maximisers and we assume that regional governments are empire-builders in that they choose their expenditure and tax levels so as to maximise total expenditure—the size of their empire. Labour is free to move between regions in response to utility differences and does so until such differences have been eliminated. Inter-regional migration, inter-regional trade flows and federal government redistribution are the main sources of interconnectedness between the two regions. The model is linearised in log-differences and simulated using a calibration based on Australian state-level data. We find that the welfare effect of intergovernmental transfers is trivial but that all other variables of interest change substantially—consumption, employment, prices, taxes, wages, output and government expenditure. Finally, the signs of the effects of a federal transfer are not affected by the empire-building behaviour of regional governments although the magnitude of the effects is generally dampened.     

Design of a multilayer transducer for acoustic bladder volume assessment

Catheterization remains the "gold standard" for bladder volume assessment, but it is invasive and introduces the risk of infections and traumas. Therefore, noninvasive bladder volume measurement methods have gained interest. In a preceding study a new technique to measure the bladder volume on the basis of nonlinear ultrasound wave propagation was validated. This paper describes a first prototype of a dedicated multilayer transducer to implement this approach. It is composed of a PZT transducer for transmission and a PVDF layer for reception. Acoustical measurements in a water tank and phantom measurements showed that there is a relation between bladder volume and the harmonic contents of the echo obtained from a region of interest behind the bladder. Simulations with an equivalent transducer model on the basis of KLM-circuit modeling closely matched with the results from the acoustical measurements. The results demonstrated the feasibility of the multilayer transducer design for bladder volume assessment on the basis of nonlinear wave propagation.