Economic and technical analysis of CLT production facilities: an application to small and emerging markets

European Journal of Wood and Wood Products - The CLT market is quickly growing and developing in different regions of the world. However, the production and consumption are highly concentrated in...     

Combined production of second-generation biofuels and electricity from sugarcane residues

This paper describes a preliminary analysis of two technological routes (based on hydrolysis and on gasification + Fischer–Tropsch conversion process) of biofuels production from cellulosic materials. In this paper it was considered the integration of the two alternative routes to a conventional distillery of ethanol production based on fermentation of sugarcane juice. Sugarcane bagasse is the biomass considered as input in both second-generation routes. Results show that the integration of gasification + FT process to a conventional distillery is slightly more efficient (from an energetic point of view) and also offers the advantage of products diversification (ethanol from the conventional plant, plus diesel, gasoline and more surplus electricity regarding the hydrolysis route). Considering typical Brazilian conditions, at this stage it is not possible to foresee any significant advantage of any of the alternatives, but potentially the gasification route would have an advantage regarding avoided GHG emissions depending on the emission factor of the electric sector in which cogeneration units will be installed.     

Performance of the SAC-C satellite electricity storage system

The analysis of telemetry data of the Argentine electricity storage system SAC-C satellite is presented. Diagnostic indicators were established in order to evaluate the in-flight performance of the satellite nickel-hydrogen batteries. The state of charge of the batteries was related to the hydrogen pressure. A predictive analysis allowed us to detect early failure of the electricity storage system.     

A decision support tool coupling a causal model and a multi-objective genetic algorithm

A significant class of decision making problems consists of choosing actions, to be carried out simultaneously, in order to achieve a trade-off between different objectives. When such decisions concern complex systems, decision support tools including formal methods of reasoning and probabilistic models are of noteworthy helpfulness. These models are often built through learning procedures, based on an available knowledge base. Nevertheless, in many fields of application (e.g. when dealing with complex political, economic and social systems), it is frequently not possible to determine the model automatically, and this must then largely be derived from the opinions and value judgements expressed by domain experts. The BayMODE decision support tool (Bayesian Multi Objective Decision Environment), which we describe in this paper, operates precisely in such contexts. The principal component of the program is a multi-objective Decision Network, where actions are executed simultaneously. If the noisy-OR assumptions are applicable, such a the model has a reasonably small number of parameters, even when actions are represented as non-binary variables. This makes the model building procedure accessible and easy. Moreover, BayMODE operates with a multi-objective approach, which provides the decision maker with a set of non-dominated solutions, computed using a multi-objective genetic algorithm. Ivan Blecic is Assistant Professor of Economic Appraisal and Evaluation at the Faculty of Architecture in Alghero (University of Sassari, Italy) and member of Interuniversity Laboratory of Analysis and Models for Planning (LAMP). He received a Ph.D. in Planning and Public Policies in 2005 from IUAV University of Venice where he has also been a research fellow at the Department of Planning. His current research interests include analysis and modelling for planning, evaluation techniques and modelling, decision support systems and methods for public participation. Arnaldo Cecchini graduated cum laude in Physics at the University of Bologna in 1972. He is Professor of Analysis of Urban Systems at the Faculty of Architecture in Alghero (University of Sassari), Director of the Urban and Environmental Planning Course, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Architecture in Alghero and Director of the Interuniversity Laboratory of Analysis and Models for Planning - LAMP. He is the author of more than 100 articles and papers published in books and refereed journals and is an expert in techniques of urban analysis and for public participation: simulation, gaming simulation, cellular automata, scenario techniques. Giuseppe A. Trunfio gained a Ph.D. in Computational Mechanics in 1999 at the University of Calabria, Italy. He has been a research fellow at the Italian National Research Council where he has worked extensively on the application of parallel computing to the simulation of complex systems. He is Assistant Professor of Computer Engineering at the Department of Architecture and Planning of the University of Sassari and his current research interests include decision support, probabilistic models, neural networks, evolutionary computation and cellular automata.     

Cooling rate effects in the welding of API 5L-X80 steel

One of the main reasons for the development of API 5L-X80 steel was its use in polar regions, where high toughness at low temperatures is required. This work studied the effect of the cooling rate in welding on the mechanical and metallurgical properties of this type of steel. Different cooling rates also simulate different welding energies. The different cooling rates were obtained with five different preheating regimes. The interpass temperature was equal to the preheating temperature of each of the double-V joints with root face, robotic welding being carried out by electric arc with shielding gas and consumable electrode (‘Metal Active Gas’ – MAG), solid wire with mechanical strength equivalent to the base metal (‘matching’) and shielding gas consisting of 75% Ar and 25% CO₂. The welded joints were analysed using light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), as well as mechanical testing: tensile, bending, impact (Charpy-V) and hardness (Vickers). The results of the mechanical tests were satisfactory and correlated with the metallurgical analyses. The joints had high impact strength (Charpy-V) at test temperatures of up to ?40 °C.     

A manipulative field experiment to evaluate an integrative methodology for assessing sediment pollution in estuarine ecosystems

The assessment of sediment contamination is of crucial importance for the management of estuarine ecosystems. Environmental risk assessment of oil pollution must be specific to these ecosystems because of their unique toxicant bioavailability dynamics, which is not comparable with that of other ecosystems where the environmental parameters are less variable. The goal of this work was to test in two European estuarine areas (Ria de Aveiro, Portugal; La Manga, Spain) whether the common methodology used to evaluate sediment pollution in marine sediment (amphipod toxicity tests and community structure analysis) is suited to these physico-chemically unique systems. Manipulative field experiments were conducted at three oil concentration levels, to compare resulting changes in community structure with laboratory and in situ amphipod toxicity tests carried out with native amphipod species Corophium multisetosum (Atlantic area) and Microdeutopus gryllotalpa (Mediterranean area). The impact of the toxicant was reflected in the community structure and toxicity tests, both of which were correlated with oil concentration. These results point to this methodology being a reliable tool for assessing and monitoring pollution in estuarine areas.