Carbon intensity of electricity in ASEAN: Drivers,performance and outlook

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with its ten member countries, has a total population exceeding 600 million. Its energy-related CO₂ emissions have been growing and in 2013 amounted to 3.6% of total global emissions. About 40% of ASEAN's energy-related CO₂ emissions are currently attributable to electricity production. In view of this high share, we study the CO₂ emissions of ASEAN's electricity production sector with a focus on the aggregate emission intensity (ACI) given by the level of CO₂ emissions for each unit of electricity produced. Drivers of ACI are analysed for individual countries and spatial analysis is conducted by comparing factors contributing to differences between the ACIs of individual countries and that of the ASEAN average. Arising from these analyses and in light of the current developments, it is concluded that drastic actions need to be taken both at the national and regional levels in order to reduce growth in the region's electricity-related CO₂ emissions. Two key policy issues, namely overcoming national circumstances to improve electricity generation mix and improving power generation efficiency, are further discussed.     

Multi-dimensional clearing functions for aggregate capacity modelling in multi-stage production systems

Nonlinear clearing functions have been proposed in the literature as metamodels to represent the behaviour of production resources that can be embedded in optimisation models for production planning. However, most clearing functions tested to date use a single-state variable to represent aggregate system workload over all products, which performs poorly when product mix affects system throughput. Clearing functions using multiple-state variables have shown promise, but require significant computational effort to fit the functions and to solve the resulting optimisation models. This paper examines the impact of aggregation in state variables on solution time and quality in multi-item multi-stage production systems with differing degrees of manufacturing flexibility. We propose multi-dimensional clearing functions using alternative aggregations of state variables, and evaluate their performance in computational experiments. We find that at low utilisation, aggregation of state variables has little effect on system performance; multi-dimensional clearing functions outperform single-dimensional ones in general; and increasing manufacturing flexibility allows the use of aggregate clearing functions with little loss of solution quality.     

An improved tri-reforming based methanol production process for enhanced CO2 valorization

The consistent rise of CO₂ concentration in the atmosphere is known to be significantly detrimental to the environment. Thus, mitigating CO₂ has become an urgent necessity. Current methods involving CO₂ mitigation can be broadly divided into two major categories which involve (i) CO₂ capture and sequestration (CCS) and (ii) CO₂ capture and valorization. Since, production of fuels/chemicals is an added feature along with mitigation in CO₂ valorization based methods, they could be economically favorable. An energy intensive CO₂ capture step is a common drawback of most CO₂ valorization methods that aim to mitigate CO₂ from major CO₂ emission sources (such as industrial flue gases). In this paper we employ and analyze a relatively new process called tri-reforming [1,2] which was developed to directly convert power plant based flue gases to synthesis gas, while avoiding the capture step. This paper is presented as an improvement over a tri-reforming coupled methanol production process as developed by Zhang et al. [3]. The process in Zhang et al. [3] involves utilizing tri-reforming process using flue gas and methane to produce synthesis gas which is then converted to methanol in the next step. The main contributions of this paper to the tri-reforming coupled methanol production process are: (i) proposition of a high pressure tri-reforming step to limit capital costs of the process (ii) establishment of steam input coupled with water separation step as a process improvement whose impact is shown to further amplify at higher tri-reformer pressures. The paper evaluates the process in terms of the profit generating and CO₂ valorization potential of the process as reflected by two parameters, gross margin (GM) and NPCV (net percentage of CO₂ valorized) respectively. In the proposed approach, higher pressures were utilized in the tri-reforming process to ensure economic feasibility of the process by limiting the reactor volume. The process improvements for the flowsheet containing the steam input combined with water separation (SWS) step over the one without these steps (termed as WSWS) are demonstrated in terms of an increase in GM/NPCV values at various pressures. The results indicate substantial improvements in GM and NPCV values (especially at higher tri-reformer pressures) ranging from 24.30 to 84.96% and 28.80–78.44% respectively in SWS cases over WSWS cases at various pressures. The simulations have been carried out in Aspen Plus V8.4 and are optimized using sensitivity analysis.     

Very fast H2 production from the methanolysis of NaBH4 by metal‐free poly(ethylene imine) microgel catalysts

The polyethyleneimine (PEI) microgels prepared via microemulsion polymerization are protonated by hydrochloric acid treatment (p‐PEI) and quaternized (q‐PEI) via modification reaction with methyl iodide and with bromo alkanes of different alkyl chain lengths such as 1‐bromoethane, 1‐bromobutane, 1‐bromohexane, and 1‐bromooctane. The bare p‐PEI and q‐PEI microgels are used as catalysts directly without any metal nanoparticles for the methanolysis reaction of sodium borohydride (NaBH₄). Various parameters such as the protonation/quaternization reaction on PEI microgels, the amount of catalyst, the amount of NaBH₄, and temperature are investigated for their effects on the hydrogen (H₂) production rate. The reaction of self‐methanolysis of NaBH₄ finishes in about 32.5 min, whereas the bare PEI microgel as catalyst finishes the methanolysis of NaBH₄ in 22 min. Surprisingly, it is found that when the protonated PEI microgels are used as catalyst, the same methanolysis of NaBH₄ is finished in 1.5 min. The highest H₂ generation rate value is observed for protonated PEI microgels (10 mg) with 8013 mL of H₂/(g of catalyst.min) for the methanolysis of NaBH₄. Moreover, activation parameters are also calculated with activation energy value of 23.7 kJ/mol, enthalpy 20.9 kJ/mol, and entropy ?158 J/K.mol. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

博弈结构、生产方式与双方道德风险组织激励

基于委托代理理论给出了双方道德风险组织激励问题的基本分析框架,建立合作与非合作博弈结构下双方道德风险组织激励问题的规划模型。以分析框架与规划模型为基础,引入线性生产与协作生产两种具体的生产方式,全面对比分析了不同博弈结构、不同生产方式下双方道德风险组织激励的均衡努力、最优契约和效用水平,揭示了不同博弈结构、不同生产方式下双方道德风险组织激励问题的特点与规律。     

施工质量控制要素及PDCA循环应用

施工生产要素是施工质量形成的物质基础,关系到施工质量的优劣,所以在施工过程中应加强对各生产要素的管理,并运用动态控制的原理来保证在实践环节的运用有效性。文章指出哪些是控制的重点,并且对PDCA模式的运用进行深入浅出的描述,旨在为施工质量控制提供理论支持。     

A p-n heterojunction NiS-sensitized TiO2 photocatalytic system for efficient photoreduction of carbon dioxide to methane

Nanoparticles of the p-type semiconductor nickel sulfide are grown on a highly aligned n-type TiO₂ film. Using XRD, XPS, EDS, UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, photoluminescence, photocurrent density, and CO₂-TPD, the physicochemical characteristics of the p-n heterojunction NiS-sensitized TiO₂ films are investigated. The highest photocurrent is obtained for the optimized 0.10 M NiS-sensitized TiO₂ film, which resulted in eventually decreasing the electron-hole recombination during CO₂ photoreduction. The NiS-sensitized TiO₂ film exhibits superior photocatalytic behavior compared to that of a pure TiO₂ film. A model for investigating the catalytic activity of the NiS-sensitized TiO₂ film for CO₂ photoreduction is proposed.     

Production planning in automotive powertrain plants: a case study

Based on a real case study from the automotive industry, this paper deals with production planning in powertrain plants. We present an overview of the production planning process and propose a mixed integer linear programme to determine the production quantities of each product over a planning horizon of several days. Then, using real data of an engine assembly line, we simulate the performance obtained through the proposed model within a rolling horizon planning process. We perform multiple tests in order to evaluate the impact of two parameters involved in this process: planning frequency and frozen horizon length. Furthermore, in order to illustrate the value of improving coordination between engine plants and their customers, we evaluate the impact of the quality of demand information (orders and forecasts). We analyse the simulation results and provide insights and recommendations in order to achieve a good trade-off between service level, inventory, and planning stability.     

Long-term water balance and sustainable production of Miscanthus energy crops in the Loess Plateau of China

Sustainable production of second-generation energy crops on marginal land holds a great potential for renewable energy development. Because a vast area of marginal land is located in the arid and semiarid regions of the world, water shortage is the most serious environmental limitation. In this study, we developed a water balance model to address the question of whether Miscanthus energy crops can be sustainably produced in the Loess Plateau of China, a region of more than 60 million hectares particularly abundant in semiarid marginal land. The simulation of 20-year soil water content in bare soil, the winter wheat field, and the Miscanthus field across the Loess Plateau suggested that the long-term production of Miscanthus would not cause water depletion in deep soil. This finding addressed a serious concern that growing high-biomass plants in the Loess Plateau might lead to deep-soil water depletion, which was suggested to be the cause of previous failure of afforestation. Planting Miscanthus was effective in reducing surface runoff and consequently preventing water and soil loss in this heavily eroded region. The model and analyses illustrated where in the Loess Plateau this perennial energy crop could be produced with stable and sufficient yield.     

Integration of wind turbine with heliostat based CSP/CPVT system for hydrogen production and polygeneration: A thermodynamic comparison

In this study, two wind-solar-based polygeneration systems namely CES-1 and CES-2 are developed, modeled, and analyzed thermodynamically. CES-1 hybridizes a heliostat based CSP system with wind turbines while CES-2 integrates heliostat-based CPVT with wind turbines. This study aims to compare the production and thermodynamics performance of two heliostat based concentrated solar power technologies when hybridized with wind turbines. The systems have been modeled to produce, freshwater, hot water, electricity, hydrogen, and cooling with different cycles/subsystems. While the overall objective of the study is to model two polygeneration systems with improved energy and exergy performances, the performances of two solar technologies are compared. The wind turbine system integrated with the comprehensive energy systems will produce 1.14 MW of electricity and it has 72.2% energy and exergy efficiency. Also, based on the same solar energy input, the performance of the heliostat integrated CPVT system (CES-2) is found to be better than that of the CSP based system (CES-1). The polygeneration thermal and exergy efficiencies for the two systems respectively are 48.08% and 31.67% for CES-1; 59.7% and 43.91% for CES-2. Also, the electric power produced by CES-2 is 280 kW higher in comparison to CES-1.