Tailoring cross-sectional energy-efficiency measures to target groups in industry

The improvement of energy efficiency in industrial companies plays a crucial role for the energy transition. Although significant economic potentials have been identified, the concerned actors are still struggling to realize them fully. To support the implementation of energy efficiency measures by passing policies, a deeper understanding of the barriers affecting different kinds of companies is necessary to better match the options to their needs and requirements. This paper considers companies’ characteristics and barriers to draw conclusions on energy efficiency policies and specific recommendations on energy efficiency measures. It recommends compromises for policies between high administrative efforts to design individual solutions for companies and too generic approaches, which are not tackling the specific barriers and companies’ characteristics. Our analysis assesses monitoring data of 263 enterprises of the Learning Energy Efficiency Networks LEEN in Germany. The LEEN support energy audits, company networking and assesses implemented energy efficiency measures. Lack of information combined with unfavourable reasoning in decision-making impedes the adoption of profitable measures. Thus, financial policy instruments should aim at promoting long-term decision-making. Audits turned out to be an effective information tool and are more common in LEs than in SMEs. Accordingly, the number of implemented measures and the choice of specific measures relate to company size. Regarding barriers to energy efficiency measures, we found financial barriers most prevalent, but there was no general correlation with company size. Moreover, financial restrictions are not necessarily caused by a lack of money, but also by risk aversion or unlikely payback periods. LEs are stronger affected by motivational barriers, especially if the expected organizational effort is high. Reducing transaction costs can increase the willingness to invest greater efforts in energy efficiency measures.     

Sustainable reference methodology for energy end-use efficiency data in the EU

One of the most important goals of the European energy policy involves the implementation of energy-efficiency measures in large scale so as to promote sustainable development in the European Union (EU) level. The multidimensional character of energy end-use efficiency (EEE) necessitates the collection of a number of related data, apart from the performance and system parameters data, such as socio-economic (e.g., employment, turnover) and Research and Development (R&D) expenditures. Moreover, improved co-ordination of EEE programmes and policies of the community and the member states so as a unified acceptable system to be developed for the monitoring of the EEE data with respect to the existing targets is of significant importance. Even though data-gathering efforts have been implemented, a lot of fragmented data and deduced findings are currently available, which sometimes lack consistency and verification. In this context, the main aim of the paper is to present a sustainable reference methodology for validating EEE data in EU, through the review of existing approaches and methods, defining of most relevant inconsistencies and gaps and provision of recommendations for improvements in EEE data aggregation and statistical interpretation, taking into consideration the related analysis of statisticians, energy technology experts and energy socio-economists.     

Wave propagation along domain walls in magnetic films

It is shown by theoretical analysis that domain walls can support two different types of waves denoted as "magnetostatic interface waves" and "wall displacement waves". The magnetostatic interface waves are similar in character to magnetostatic surface waves. The wall displacement waves are analogous to displacement waves on strings and to capillary waves on the surface of liquids, Dispersion relations are derived for both types of waves. The displacement waves are approximately dispersion free at high wavenumbers. At low wavenumbers their dispersion diagram reflects the incipient instability of the straight domain wall against sinusoidal displacement, which occurs as the field gradient is reduced.     

Low power mode energy demand of household appliances—SELINA and APP projects

In the last decades, it has been recognized that energy consumption in low power modes for electrical and electronic products is an important issue. There is a need to expand energy efficiency efforts beyond simple standby modes into the new more complex area of networks, thus tackling the new paradigm of living based on the Internet of Things. The European project SELINA carried out a large scale in store monitoring campaign, measuring about 6300 different equipment. Since then, there is no reference to other similar market surveillance studies being carried out in Europe. In Asia, a market surveillance campaign performed by the Asia Pacific Partnership with measurements on a regular basis has been very successful. SELINA results show that 18.5% of the measured products present power values higher than the 2010 EC 1275/2008 regulation threshold in off-mode, and for standby this value reached 31%. When a comparison is made with the 2013 EC 1275/2008 regulation threshold, these values increase twice. The Asia Pacific Partnership results alert policy makers that low passive standby does not guarantee low active standby. Several studies indicate that consumer electronic products are becoming more efficient and their energy consumption is decreasing. However, because the ownership of appliances is also increasing, these improvements in energy efficiency do not seem to have significant impact in the overall consumption of the households. In addition, there is evidence that not all appliances in the market reach the performance announced by the manufacturers. Recent measurements carried out by the Natural Resources Defense Council on flat screen TVs revealed that their real energy consumption seems to be higher than announced in the label. This shows the urgent need for measurement campaigns, since no market surveillance is being carried out on regular basis, and trusting the manufacturer’s data seems to be unreliable.     

Ultimate performance limitations of high-power ferrite circulators and phase shifters

The power-handling capability of circulators and phase shifters in rectangular waveguide is analyzed. It is shown that an appropriate measure of the suitability of microwave ferrites for high-power applications is given by the "high-power figure of merit"F_{hp}* = 4piMgamma^{2}h_{crit}/omega^{2}mu'. Here γ is the gyromagnetic ratio, hcritthe critical RF field, ω the (angular) frequency,mu"the imaginary part of the diagonal component of the permeability tensor. In applications to nonlatching devices,Mis the saturation magnetization; in applications to latching devices it is the remanent magnetization. The figures of merit of various rare-earth substituted garnets are reported. The figures of merit obtained to date are approximately 2. Theoretical analysis indicates that significantly larger figures of merit can be Obtained only at the cost of reducing the saturation magnetization. It is concluded that for circulators using theH-plane configuration and having an insertion loss of 0.5 dB the maximum attainable peak power level is of the order of 50 MW. For latching twin slab phase shifters (E-plane configuration) having an insertion loss of 1 dB the maximum attainable peak power level is estimated to be 80 kW.     

A methodology for validating the renewable energy data in EU

The multidimensional character of renewable energy sources (RES) necessitates the collection of a number of related data in order to support EU policy needs. Apart from the technology and techno-physical data also socioeconomic (e.g. employment, turnover) data and R&D expenditures are of critical relevance. The monitoring of the above RES data with respect to the existing targets for RES is of significant importance. In addition to this, even though significant data gathering efforts have been implemented, a lot of fragmented data and deduced findings are currently available, which sometimes lack consistency and verification. As a result, RES data validation and completion capacity is needed in the framework of the European Union (EU) energy policy. In addition to this, agreed and validated RES data can help energy policy makers and relevant stakeholders answering to pressing energy socio-economics’ and sustainability issues. In this context, the main aim of the paper is to present a reference methodology for validating the RES Data in the EU. The development of the methodology is mainly based on the review of existing methods and ends up with recommendations for improvements in RES data aggregation and statistical interpretation, taking into consideration the related analysis of statisticians, energy technology experts and energy socio-economists.     

ADAM8-Dependent Extracellular Signaling in the Tumor Microenvironment Involves Regulated Release of Lipocalin 2 and MMP-9

The metalloprotease-disintegrin ADAM8 is critically involved in the progression of pancreatic cancer. Under malignant conditions, ADAM8 is highly expressed and could play an important role in cell–cell communication as expression has been observed in tumor and immune cells of the tumor microenvironment (TME) such as macrophages. To analyze the potential role of ADAM8 in the TME, ADAM8 knockout PDAC tumor cells were generated, and their release of extracellular vesicles (EVs) was analyzed. In EVs, ADAM8 is present as an active protease and associated with lipocalin 2 (LCN2) and matrix metalloprotease 9 (MMP-9) in an ADAM8-dependent manner, as ADAM8 KO cells show a lower abundance of LCN2 and MMP-9. Sorting of ADAM8 occurs independent of TSG101, even though ADAM8 contains the recognition motif PTAP for the ESCRTI protein TSG101 within the cytoplasmic domain (CD). When tumor cells were co-cultured with macrophages (THP-1 cells), expression of LCN2 and MMP-9 in ADAM8 KO cells was induced, suggesting that macrophage signaling can overcome ADAM8-dependent intracellular signaling in PDAC cells. In co-culture with macrophages, regulation of MMP-9 is independent of the M1/M2 polarization state, whereas LCN2 expression is preferentially affected by M1-like macrophages. From these data, we conclude that ADAM8 has a systemic effect in the tumor microenvironment, and its expression in distinct cell types has to be considered for ADAM8 targeting in tumors.     

Theory of domain wall motion induced by microwave magnetic fields

A general theory is developed that applies to arbitrary polarization and takes account of damping and of the dipolar interaction between domains. The effect of the microwave field on the domain structure can be characterized by a pressure on the domain walls and by an alignment energy, both of which are proportional to the square of the rf magnetic field and become large in the vicinity of a resonance. For circular polarization the pressure tends to decrease the Larmor-domains (domains in which the imposed sense of polarization coincides with the sense of the natural spin precession) for frequencies outside the resonance region. Inside the resonance region, however, the pressure tends to increase the Larmor-domains. A linearly polarized field also exerts a pressure on the domain walls, with the polarity dependent upon the orientation of the field to the wall normal. In a linearly polarized magnetic field the domain walls tend to become aligned parallel to the rf field at frequencies ω near the low-frequency resonance (ω =γHa, γ = gyromagnetic ratio, Ha= anisotropy field) and perpendicular to the rf field at frequencies near the high-frequency resonance (ω = γ[Ha(Ha+ 4πM0)]^1/2, M0= saturation magnetization).     

Theory of magnetographic printing

The magnetic force of attraction between a recording surface and magnetic particles (the "developer" or "toner") is analyzed. The recording medium is assumed to be magnetically hard, the toner particles to be magnetically soft. The distribution of recording magnetization is taken to be periodic in the interior of an image area and uniform in an image free area. The toner particles are assumed to be part magnetic, part nonmagnetic material. In most of the calculations it is assumed that the magnetic susceptibility of the toner particles is small compared to unity. In the interior of an image area the force density has primarily a component perpendicular to the recording plane. This component decreases exponentially with distance from the recording plane, if the distribution of magnetization is sinusoidal. Near the edge of an image area the force density also has a tangential component, but this is generally smaller than the normal component. For toner particles with similar internal structure the force per unit mass always decreases with increasing particle size. Considered as a function of recording wavelength (at constant particle size) it shows a maximum at a wavelength comparable to the particle diameter.The force acting on a small particle (simeq 10mum) in the immediate vicinity of the recording surface can be several hundred times the force of gravity. The implications of these results in regard to color printing are discussed.