Search results for "efficiency"
showing 10 items of 1430 documents
Eco-efficiency assessment of wastewater treatment plants using a weighted Russell directional distance model
2016
Abstract Improving the performance of wastewater treatment plants is essential to ensuring their long-term sustainability. Most of the previous studies on this topic have assessed the techno-economic efficiency of wastewater treatment plants and ignored the emission of greenhouse gases. For the first time, the weighted Russell directional distance model was applied to estimate the eco-efficiency of a sample of real wastewater treatment plants. Moreover, this approach allowed an inefficiency score to be obtained for each variable (cost factors, pollutant removal and greenhouse gases) involved in the model. Subsequently, a second stage of analysis was applied to identify factors influencing t…
Analysing the efficiency of wastewater treatment plants: The problem of the definition of desirable outputs and its solution
2020
Abstract Evaluating the efficiency of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is highly relevant to improve their performance from an economic and environmental perspective. The issue is even more critical in countries where WWTPs are benchmarked to regulate water companies and define WWTPs’ economic and environmental objectives. Despite the large number of previous studies on this topic, none has considered that the amount of outputs produced by the WWTPs is restricted by the concentration of pollutants in the effluent. To overcome this limitation, the study’s main objective was to propose a new variant of the Weighted Russell Directional Distance Model (WRDDM) that would solve problems regard…
Impact of Industrial SMEs in the Environment Conservation : A Systematic Mapping Study
2020
Small and medium-sized companies have an impact on the environment where they operate. In some cases, the effects on the environment can be significant within local communities leading to a series of negative processes, such as emission pollution into the atmosphere, the discharges to rivers and seas, the production of waste; in some cases, it makes the contamination to the soil. This paper presents the results of the systematic mapping study aimed at assessing environmental management in industrial SMEs. Descriptive studies of SMEs emphasize their poor environmental commitment, describing them as primarily interested in controlling pollutant emissions just to comply with regulations. Ninet…
Optimizing Fuel Consumption and Pollutant Emissions of a Spark Ignition Engine for Eco-driving Applications
2018
VPPC 2018, Vehicle Power and Propulsion Conference, Chicago, ETATS-UNIS, 27-/08/2018 - 30/08/2018; The transportation sector is a major contributor to both air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. While optimizing fuel consumption reduces CO2 emissions, it can increase fuel-rich operation and cause higher HC and CO emissions. A simplified emissions model is thus introduced in order to account for the impact of air/fuel ratio on both the exhaust concentration of regulated pollutants and the catalyst efficiency. This model is used to solve the eco-driving problem with dynamic programming and a weighted objective function. An emission-centered and a consumption-centered scenario are compare…
Innovative Computational Approach to Harmonic Mitigation for Seven-level Cascaded H-Bridge Inverters
2020
Low frequency modulation strategies are a good solution to increase the energy conversion efficiency in high power applications. The paper is devoted to presents an innovative way to low order harmonics mitigation for seven-level Cascaded H-Bridge Inverters. In particular, this approach is based on the mitigation of selected harmonics without solve non-linear equations for an extended range of the fundamental amplitude. In fact, in real-Time operation to evaluate the control angles the polynomial equations have been identified. Through circuit simulation analysis in MatLab/PLECS environment, the effectiveness of the harmonic mitigation method has been tested and compared with theoretical re…
Relative efficiency revealed: Equations for k<inf>1</inf>&#x2013;k<inf>6</inf> of the PVGIS model
2014
The European PV Geographical Information System (PVGIS) describes module performance in terms of the relative efficiency with respect to Standard Testing Conditions (STC). The efficiency's dependence on irradiance and operating temperature is modeled with a bi-quadratic polynomial with respect to the relative temperature and the logarithm of relative irradiance. In earlier works, the present author derived relations between two model coefficients describing the irradiance dependence at 25°C, k 1 and k 2 , and I–V curve model parameters such as the series resistance RS and the ideality factor n. There was good agreement between the theoretical and fitted values of k 1 , but the fitted values…
Rootstock and fruit canopy position affect peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch] (cv. Rich May) plant productivity and fruit sensorial and nutritional q…
2013
The right combination of rootstock and training system is important for increased yield and fruit sensorial and nutritional homogeneity and quality with peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch]. We investigated the effects of rootstock and training system on these parameters, testing the effect of vigorous GF677 and weaker Penta - rootstock on 'Rich May' peach cultivar. Fruit position effects regarding photosynthetically active radiation availability, along the canopy profile using the Y training system, were investigated. The positive relationships between total polyphenols content and antioxidant capacity according to canopy vigour and architecture were determined for the two scion/stock combin…
Rainwater Reuse in Urban Areas: A Mathematical Model and a Long-Term Modelling Approach
2018
Natural water resources are becoming increasingly limited due to global-scale climate change and water availability issues have become so severe that they must be addressed. Given these issues, reuse of wastewater and rainwater provides a promising way to cope with water shortages. This paper describes an investigation into the efficiency of rainwater usage systems. A conceptual model was built to assess the behaviour of rainwater tanks and their effectiveness in coping with water shortages. The study is based on a long-term simulation (12 years) of different rainwater reuse tank schemes. The associated reductions in residential freshwater demand (water reuse efficiency) and wet-weather run…
Strategies and Techniques for Powering Wireless Sensor Nodes through Energy Harvesting and Wireless Power Transfer
2019
The continuous development of internet of things (IoT) infrastructure and applications is paving the way for advanced and innovative ideas and solutions, some of which are pushing the limits of state-of-the-art technology. The increasing demand for Wireless Sensor Nodes (WSNs) able to collect and transmit data through wireless communication channels, while often positioned in locations that are difficult to access, is driving research into innovative solutions involving energy harvesting (EH) and wireless power transfer (WPT) to eventually allow battery-free sensor nodes. Due to the pervasiveness of radio frequency (RF) energy, RF EH and WPT are key technologies with the potential to power …
Jet Engine Design Optimization Using a Knowledge-Based Master Model
2012
This paper presents a preliminary design optimization study of a jet engine structure using a knowledge-based master modeling approach. The objective function is derived based on input-output relationships of a cost-performance model, where specific fuel consumption, pressure loss and direct cost are considered. The advantage of this problem formulation is that it entails a single composite objective function that takes into account mass, structural characteristics, dynamic response and translates them to a direct operational cost function to be minimized. A fan-blade-off scenario is considered as the loading case in this paper. The loss of one fan blade during nominal operation causes a ro…