Search results for "efficiency"
showing 10 items of 1430 documents
Operational efficiency of a pilot plant for wastewater reuse
1996
Reuse of wastewaters for non-potable uses needs a higher than normal reliability in treatment plant operation and management, in order to ensure higher safety margins for public health and environmental protection. After a two-years research project on a pilot plant designed for agricoltural reuse, all control parameters used for the plant operation have been examined, in order to obtain useful observations on efficiency of each of the treatment units, for best overall performance. It was concluded that this type of package plant was able to produce a high quality effluent under various conditions, providing a good confidence on the reliability of the system. Reuse of wastewaters for non-po…
Environmental externalities and efficiency measurement.
2009
Production of desirable outputs often produces by-products that have harmful effects on the environment. This paper investigates technologies where the biggest good output producer is not the greatest polluter, i.e. technologies located on the downward-sloping segment of the frontier depicted in Fare et al. (1989). Directional distance functions and Data Envelopment Analysis techniques are used to define an algorithm that allows them to be identified empirically. Furthermore, we show that in such situations producers can contribute social goods, i.e. reducing polluting wastes, without limiting their capacity to maximise production of marketable output. Finally, we illustrate our methodology…
Finite difference thermal model of a latent heat storage system coupled with a photovoltaic device: Description and experimental validation
2014
Abstract The use of photovoltaic (PV) systems has been showing a significant growth trend but for a more effective development of this technology it is essential to have higher energy conversion performances. Producers of PV often declare an higher efficiency respect to real conditions and this deviation is mainly due to the difference between nominal and real temperature conditions of the PV. To improve the solar cell energy conversion efficiency many authors have proposed a methodology to keep lower the temperature of a PV system: a modified PV system built with a normal PV panel coupled with a Phase Change Material (PCM) heat storage device. In this paper is described a thermal model ana…
Rolling resistance contribution to a road pavement life cycle carbon footprint analysis
2016
Purpose Although the impact of road pavement surface condition on rolling resistance has been included in the life cycle assessment (LCA) framework of several studies in the last years, there is still a high level of uncertainty concerning the methodological assumptions and the parameters that can affect the results. In order to adopt pavement carbon footprint/LCA as a decision-making tool, it is necessary to explore the impact of the chosen methods and assumptions on the LCA results. Methods This paper provides a review of the main models describing the impact of the pavement surface properties on vehicle fuel consumption and analyses the influence of the methodological assumptions related…
Cost and safety issues of emerging technologies against conventional techniques
2015
Abstract The industrialization of recovery processes is governed by several factors such as scale-up boundaries, product safety, and overall cost. Thereby, improved process efficiency is considered in terms of cost minimization via reducing processing steps and restricting overall energy consumption. The emerging nonthermal technologies promise to overcome the obstacles of conventional techniques with regard to energy requirements, but in some cases this has not yet been achievable. In this chapter, an attempt to clarify cost issues of conventional and emerging technologies is conducted. Moreover, other aspects such as safety issues are discussed, as the facilitation of healthy food additiv…
Analysis of Thermal Comfort Conditions and Actual Energy Efficiency for Different Heating Systems in Test Buildings
2015
The aim of this study is detailed analysis of long-term monitoring data on thermal comfort conditions and energy efficiency in small test buildings equipped with different heating systems. Calculations of PPD index and local thermal discomfort factors, as well as actual energy efficiency ratios for different heat pump systems are provided for the test buildings during three weeks of the heating season. It is shown that the type of heating system has an influence not only on heating energy needs, but also on thermal comfort conditions in the room.
Hierarchical control with virtual resistance optimization for efficiency enhancement and State-of-Charge balancing in DC microgrids
2015
This paper proposes a hierarchical control scheme which applies optimization method into DC microgrids in order to improve the system overall efficiency while considering the State-of-Charge (SoC) balancing at the same time. Primary droop controller, secondary voltage restoration controller and tertiary optimization tool formulate the complete hierarchical control system. Virtual resistances are taken as the decision variables for achieving the objective. simulation results are presented to verify the proposed approach.
The impact of Kaizen Events on improving the performance of automotive components' first-tier suppliers
2009
Purpose - The aim of this paper is to explore the possibility of improving production indicators by implementing Kaizen Events. The teams are composed of both managers and operators with the aim of developing and/or implementing improvements in three to five days. Methodology - The empirical research will consists of the description of the results obtained in 11 industrial companies from the automotive components industry. In each company, we have followed up different interventions over a 9-12-month period. Findings - We shall present the initial situation, the activities carried out by the companies and the evolution of manufacturing performance approximately three months after the activi…
Planning Rehabilitation Actions on Water Distribution Networks in Condition of Data Scarcity
2011
The paper shows a viable approach to the selection of water networks rehabilitation actions, in condition of data scarcity and uncertainty, based on the use of four concise performance literature indices, allowing the analysis and identification of efficient, reliable and robust rehabilitation alternatives, even if assessed on the basis of a relatively small amount of data. A promising statistical sampling method of water consumptions is also described, that may be fruitfully employed within the proposed approach for drafting water balances at network district scale in order to quantify the extent of leakages. The illustrated case study shows that the selected indices are capable to describ…
A new innovative cooling law for simulated annealing algorithms
2015
The present paper proposes an original and innovative cooling law in the field of Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithms. Particularly, such a law is based on the evolution of different initial seeds on which the algorithm works in parallel. The efficiency control of the new proposal, executed on problems of different kind, shows that the convergence quickness by using such a new cooling law is considerably greater than that obtained by traditional laws. Furthermore, it is shown that the effectiveness of the SA algorithm arising from the proposed cooling law is independent of the problem type. This last feature reduces the number of parameters to be initially fixed, so simplifying the prelimin…