Techno-economic study of different alternatives for biodiesel production

Biodiesel has become an attractive diesel fuel substitute due to its environmental benefits since it can be made from renewable resource. However, the high costs surrounding biodiesel production remains the main problem in making it competitive in the fuel market either as a blend or as a neat fuel. More than 80% of the production cost is associated with the feedstock itself and consequently, efforts are focused on developing technologies capable of using lower-cost feedstocks, such as recycled cooking oils and wastes from animal or vegetable oil processing operations.     

The influence of raw material characteristics on the industrial pelletizing process and pellet quality

Industrial pelletizing of sawdust was carried out as a designed experiment in the factors: sawdust moisture content, fractions of fresh pine, stored pine and spruce. The process parameters and response variables were energy consumption, pellet flow rate, pellet bulk density, durability and moisture content. The final data consisted of twelve industrial scale runs. Because of the many response variables, data evaluation was by principal component analysis of a 12 × 9 data matrix. The two principal component model showed a clustering of samples, with a good reproducibility of the center points. It also showed a positive correlation of energy consumption, bulk density and durability all negatively correlated to flow rate and moisture content. The stored pine was more related to high durability and bulk density. The role of the spruce fraction was unclear. The design matrix, augmented with the process parameters was a 12 × 6 matrix. Partial least squares regression showed excellent results for pellet moisture content and bulk density. The model for durability was promising. A 12 × 21 data matrix of fatty- and resin acid concentrations measured by GC–MS showed the differences between fresh and stored pine very clearly. The influence of the spruce fraction was less clear. However, the influence of the fatty- and resin acids on the pelletizing process could not be confirmed, indicating that other differences between fresh and stored pine sawdust have to be investigated. This work shows that it is possible to design the pelletizing process for moderate energy consumption and high pellet quality.     

Effect of Wall Surface Properties at Different Drying Kinetics on the Deposition Problem in Spray Drying

Current methods in alleviating the wall deposition problem in spray drying emphasize mainly controlling the stickiness of the drying particles and less attention is placed on the properties of the dryer wall. In this experimental study, the effect of wall surface properties on the deposition mechanism has been investigated. Properties considered in classifying different wall materials were surface energy, roughness, and dielectric properties. The model solution contained sucrose, representing low-molecular-weight sugars commonly encountered in spray drying of fruit and vegetable juices. The effect of wall properties on deposition was explored at different drying rates producing particles of different surface rigidity. Larger surface roughness produced higher deposition fluxes for particles with high impact velocity and moisture. Surface energy and surface roughness were found to have no significant effect for dry rigid particles at the middle and bottom elevation of the drying chamber. However, material with lower surface energy (Teflon) exhibited less deposition for rubbery particles at such elevations. Analysis shows that dielectric wall material (Teflon) tends to enhance deposition of dry particles because of attrition at the surface. Higher wall temperature was found to produce slightly more deposition. The results of this work give a general indication of the effect of wall material on the deposition problem and provide the fundamental understanding for further studies along this line. Proper selection of dryer wall material will provide potential alternatives for reducing the deposition problem.     

Logistic Regression Analysis of Customer Satisfaction Data

Variation exists in all processes. Significant work has been done to identify and remove sources of variation in manufacturing processes resulting in large returns for companies. However, business process optimization is an area that has a large potential return for a company. Business processes can be difficult to optimize due to the nature of the output variables associated with them. Business processes tend to have output variables that are binary, nominal or ordinal. Examples of these types of output include whether a particular event occurred, a customer's color preference for a new product and survey questions that assess the extent of the survey respondent's agreement with a particular statement. Output variables that are binary, nominal or ordinal cannot be modeled using ordinary least‐squares regression. Logistic regression is a method used to model data where the output is binary, nominal or ordinal. This article provides a review of logistic regression and demonstrates its use in modeling data from a business process involving customer feedback. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Non-pinched, minimum energy distillation designs

Non-pinched, minimum energy solutions are important class of distillation designs that offer the potential advantage of a better trade-off between capital investment and operating costs. In this paper, two important tasks associated with non-pinched distillation designs are studied. Thus the novel contributions of this work to the literature are

(1) A comprehensive methodology for finding non-pinched minimum energy designs.

(2) Understanding of the reasons for the existence of non-pinched distillation designs.

It is shown that the recent shortest stripping line distance approach of Lucia et al. [Lucia, A., Amale, A. and Taylor, R., 2007, Distillation pinch points and more. Comput Chem Eng, available on-line] is capable of systematically and reliably finding non-pinched, minimum energy distillation designs. In addition, we provide an understanding of the reasons behind the existence of non-pinched designs, which include trajectories that follow unstable branches of a pinch point curve in azeotropic systems, the inherent looping structure of trajectories in hydrocarbon separations, and the presence of ancillary constraints in multi-unit processes like extraction/distillation. Several distillation examples are studied and many numerical results and geometric illustrations are presented that show the shortest stripping line distance methodology is indeed a powerful and systematic tool for computing non-pinched, minimum energy designs and that support the underlying reason we provide for the existence of non-pinched designs.     

CO2 emissions in Greece for 1990–2002: A decomposition analysis and comparison of results using the Arithmetic Mean Divisia Index and Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index techniques

This paper deals with the decomposition analysis of energy-related CO₂ emissions in Greece from 1990 to 2002. The Arithmetic Mean Divisia Index (AMDI) and the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) techniques are applied and changes in CO₂ emissions are decomposed into four factors: income effect, energy intensity effect, fuel share effect and population effect. The period-wise and time series analyses show that the biggest contributor to the rise in CO₂ emissions in Greece is the income effect; on the contrary, the energy intensity effect is mainly responsible for the decrease in CO₂ emissions. A comparison of the results of the two techniques gave an insight in the intricacies of energy decomposition. Finally, conclusions and future areas of research are presented.     

Automating application software generation

Many approaches have been proposed to enhance software productivity and reliability. These approaches typically fall into three categories: the engineering approach, the formal approach and the knowledge-based approach. But the optimal gain in software productivity cannot be obtained if one relies on only one of these approaches. This paper describes the work in knowledge-based software engineering conducted by the authors for the past 10 years. The final goal of the research is to develop a paradigm for software engineering which integrates the three approaches mentioned above. A knowledge-based tool which can support the whole process of software development is provided in this paper.     

An analysis of shielding against DC magnetic fields generated by electric railways. Evaluation of effective permeability of fine structure

This paper describes an effective analysis of magnetic shielding based on homogenization. The analyses become time‐consuming if the problems include the magnetic substances having fine structure. The homogenization of the structure makes it possible to analyze effectively the magnetic fields. The authors introduce a method to estimate the effective permeability of the homogenized substance. This method can be applied to any periodic structure made of magnetic substance. The magnetic shielding effects by the structures against direct‐current (DC) fields generated by electric railways are analyzed by using the present method. As a result, it is found that the overhead way and the protective fence near the railway work as a magnetic shield, whose effects can be improved by appropriate arrangement of those constructions. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 160(4): 7–15, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20310     

A preliminary analysis of the biomass energy production potential in Africa in 2025 considering projected land needs for food production

This paper provides a preliminary examination of present and projected land use in Africa to estimate the potential availability of land in 2025 for use in producing biomass energy. Fifty countries are included in the analysis. Future cropland requirements are projected on the basis of average African cereal crop yield improvements since 1972, and minimum nutritional requirements are assumed to be met in 2025 without increasing imports above present absolute levels. Cropland, natural forests and other wilderness areas are excluded from consideration for biomass energy use. Woody biomass energy yields are estimated on the basis of nationally averaged precipitation, using a yield-precipitation correlation for commercial eucalyptus plantations in Brazil. The total African bioenergy production potential in 2025 is estimated to be about 18 EJ per year for a set of baseline assumptions that includes planting only 10% of the available non-crop, non-forest, non-wilderness area with biomass energy crops. A preliminary cost assessment suggests that much of this biomass could be produced for $1–2 GJ⁻¹. A number of uncertainties in the modelling assumptions are examined through a sensitivity analysis. Despite limitations in the model used here, one robust conclusion is that Africa as a whole has a significant biophysical potential for producing biomass energy. This result suggests that more detailed country and sub-country level assessments would be worthwhile to understand better the practical prospects for future biomass energy production in Africa.     

Analysis of brushless three-phase synchronous generator without exciter

Recently, a demand for small-capacity generators has been increasing as electric sources in small ships and automobiles or as portable electric sources driven by engines. It is desired that the structure of small-capacity generators be simple and robust, and that the generators be highly reliable, easily maintained and controlled. This paper describes an analysis of the original brushless synchronous generator without exciter. The output voltage can be adjusted in the wide range by controlling the stator dc current. To analyze the characteristics of this generator, the finite element method is applied. It is found that the results of theoretical analysis agree well with the experimental results.