Optimization of a continuous ultrasound assisted oxidative desulfurization(UAOD) process of diesel using response surface methodology(RSM) considering operating cost

A continuous-flow ultrasound-assisted oxidative desulfurization(UAOD)of partially hydro-treated diesel has been investigated using hydrogen peroxide-formic acid as simple and easy to apply oxidation system.The effects of different operating parameters of oxidation stage including residence time(2–24 min),formic acid to sulfur molar ratio(10–150),and oxidant to sulfur molar ratio(5–35)on the sulfur removal have been studied using response surface methodology(RSM)based on Box–Behnken design.Considering the operating costs of the continuous-flow oxidation stage including chemical and electrical energy consumption,the appropriate values of operating parameters were selected as follows:residence time of 16 min,the formic acid to sulfur molar ratio of 54.47,and the oxidant to sulfur molar ratio of 8.24.In these conditions,the sulfur removal and the volume ratio of the hydrocarbon phase to the aqueous phase were 86.90%and 4.34,respectively.By drastic reduction in the chemical consumption in the oxidation stage,the volume ratio of the hydrocarbon phase to the aqueous phase was increased up to 10.Therefore,the formic acid to sulfur molar ratio and the oxidant to sulfur molar ratio were obtained 23.64 and 3.58,respectively,which lead to sulfur removal of 84.38%with considerable improvements on the operating cost of oxidation stage in comparison with the previous works.

IMPACT OF OPERATING COSTS ON INVESTMENT STRATEGIES IN NEW TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION WITH A FURTHER NEW TECHNOLOGY ANTICIPATED

The adoption of new technologies often represents a crucial component of firms＇ investment decisions. This paper studies a dynamic duopoly model in which two firms compete in adoption of current technology with a further new technology anticipated. Here it is assumed that the operating costs are not zero which has more explanatory power of the real world. There exist three kinds of equilibria that may occur in adoption of current technology, which mainly depends on the level of operating costs and the first-move advantage. It shows that the faster technological substitution or innovation encourages the leader to invest earlier while induces the follower to invest later. Furthermore,like the investment costs,with the increase of operating costs the follower tends to invest later while the leader tends to invest earlier ,the investment thresholds are more sensitive to the change of operating costs than that of investment costs.

The Calculation Model for Operation Cost of Coal Resources Development Based on ANN

On the basis of analysis and selection of factors influencing operation cost of coal resources development, fuzzy set method and artificial neural network (ANN) were adopted to set up the classification analysis model of coal resources. The collected samples were classified by using this model. Meanwhile, the pattern recognition model for classifying of the coal resources was built according to the factors influencing operation cost. Based on the results achieved above, in the light of the theory of information diffusion, the calculation model for operation cost of coal resources development has been presented and applied in practice, showing that these models are reasonable.

Determining Administrative Costs in Greek Public Administration

The purpose of this paper is to approach the administrative costs in the field of education and to answer questions such as:How are administrative costs measured and evaluated?Is it taken into account in the analysis of policy options?Administrative costs affect all areas of public education and absorb a large part of the state budget appropriations intended for education.Through the presentation of the general and specific objectives but also the European participation in the rational management of the management costs of the educational units,we lead to a holistic approach to the operational costs of the education that is part of the social costs.

Study on Control of Operation Cost on College Libraries

libraries are universally accepted as the symbols of college and every university invests large sum of money into libraries. According to the criteria in EUCT （Evaluation in Undergraduate Course Teaching）, college libraries should meet certain standards and the cost will be large. Given the current condition that governmental funding is inadequate, we have to control the cost by ourselves. Our solutions to cost control will focus on three aspects： manpower of stuffs, hardware of library and the maintenance of library.

A Novel Two-Stage Scheduling Approach for a Hybrid Floating Photovoltaic-Battery-Hydropower Plant Considering Uncertainties

The application of floating photovoltaics (PVs) in hydropower plants has gained increasing interest in forming hybrid energy systems (HESs). It enhances the operational benefits of the existing hydropower plants. However, uncertainties of PV and load powers can present great challenges to scheduling HESs. To address these uncertainties, this paper proposes a novel two-stage optimization approach that combines distributionally robust chance-constrained (DRCC) and robust-stochastic optimization (RSO) approaches to minimize the operational cost of an HES. In the first stage, the scheduling of each device is obtained via the DRCC approach considering the PV power and load forecast errors. The second stage provides a robust near real time energy dispatch according to different scenarios of PV power and load demand. The solution of the RSO problem is obtained via a novel double-layer particle swarm optimization algorithm. The performance of the proposed approach is compared to the traditional stochastic and robust-stochastic approaches. Simulation results de- monstrate the superiority of the proposed two-stage approach and its solution method in terms of operational cost and execution time.

经外周穿刺中心静脉导管置管、维护及拔管操作的成本核算

目的对经外周置入中心静脉导管(peripherally inserted central catheter,PICC)置管、维护及拔管的单项操作成本进行核算,为制定合理的操作收费价格提供依据。方法通过横断面调查,采用项目成本阶梯分摊法,于2019年1—5月在复旦大学附属肿瘤医院血管通路门诊测算PICC各单项操作人力成本、设备折旧费及未单独计价材料费,测算直接成本,并通过分摊测算间接成本,最后测算PICC置管、维护及拔管的单项操作成本。结果PICC置管、维护及拔管的各单项操作实际成本分别为(157.03±4.73)元、(33.66±3.04)元、(32.38±3.11)元,与上海市医疗机构对PICC各项操作的收费标准(分别为150元、30元、30元)基本相符。结论建议将PICC维护及拔管的操作收费纳入收费标准中,促进PICC输液技术的可持续发展并确保护理服务的持续供给。

Application of Linear Programming for Optimal Investments in Software Company

We apply the simplex algorithm which is a branch of linear programming to efficiently determine the allocation of resources required to operate a company in the software development field. The main aim of applying this technique is to maximize the profit of a company under certain limitations. This can be done using the trial-and-error approach. However, this tedious process can be replaced by user-level tools such as Excel which are based on linear programming that will give more accurate results. Small software companies cannot afford to hire a high number of senior programmers to produce the required level of quality and to keep up with the demand for adding new features. On the other hand, lowering the quality of the product will reduce the number of customers and decrease profit. Another aspect is maximizing the utilization of hosting servers which are required for providing the services to customers since the cost of buying servers and maintaining them is extremely high. The simplex algorithm in linear programming will take the specified constraints into account to compute the optimal allocation of the available resources to maximize profit and limit the cost. This paper will present a model that uses the simplex algorithm with a set of constraints to determine how many projects of each type a company should take in one period of time.

Application of reliability-centered maintenance for productivity improvement of open pit mining equipment:Case study of Sungun Copper Mine

Equipment plays an important role in open pit mining industry and its cost competence at efficient operation and maintenance techniques centered on reliability can lead to significant cost reduction.The application of optimal maintenance process was investigated for minimizing the equipment breakdowns and downtimes in Sungun Copper Mine.It results in the improved efficiency and productivity of the equipment and lowered expenses as well as the increased profit margin.The field operating data of 10 trucks are used to estimate the failure and maintenance profile for each component,and modeling and simulation are accomplished by using reliability block diagram method.Trend analysis was then conducted to select proper probabilistic model for maintenance profile.Then reliability of the system was evaluated and importance of each component was computed by weighted importance measure method.This analysis led to identify the items with critical impact on availability of overall equipment in order to prioritize improvement decisions.Later,the availability of trucks was evaluated using Monte Carlo simulation and it is revealed that the uptime of the trucks is around 11000 h at 12000 operation hours.Finally,uncertainty analysis was performed to account for the uncertainty sources in data and models.

Multi-objective optimization scheduling for new energy power system considering energy storage participation

For the low utilization rate of photovoltaic power generation,taking a new energy power system constisting of concentrating solar power(CSP),photovoltaic power(PP)and battery energy storage system as an example,a multi-objective optimization scheduling strategy considering energy storage participation is proposed.Firstly,the new energy power system model is established,and the PP scenario generation and reduction frame based on the autoregressive moving average model and Kantorovich-distance is proposed.Then,based on the optimization goal of the system operation cost minimization and the PP output power consumption maximization,the multi-objective optimization scheduling model is established.Finally,the simulation results show that introducing energy storage into the system can effectively reduce the system operation cost and improve the utilization efficiency of PP.

Optimization on bicriterion policies for M/G/1 system with second optional service

We compare the optimal operating cost of the two bicriterion policies, <p,T> and <p,N>, for an M/G/1 queueing system with second optional service, in which the length of the vacation period is randomly controlled either by the number of arrivals during the idle period or by a timer. After all the customers are served in the queue exhaustively, the server immediately takes a vacation and may operate <p,T> policy or <p,N> policy. For the two bicriterion policies, the total average cost function per unit time is developed to search the optimal stationary operating policies at a minimum cost. Based upon the optimal cost the explicit forms for joint optimum threshold values of (p,T) and (p,N) are obtained.

Performance of Wuxi WWTP in China

In Wuxi Wastewater Treatment Plant, the Anaerobic, anoxic and oxic (A2/O) process was employed to remove the nitrogen and phosphorus, which exhibited the positive results of the high removal efficiency for phosphorus with a range of 67.7% to 89.9% and an average value of 78.0. The effluent of phosphorus met the national discharge standard. The removal of TN was effected by both BOD variation of influent and wastewater temperature. TN removal was in the range of 28.5% to 55.8% with an average value of 39.4%. The energy cost was 0.15 kWh(m3d)-1 or 1.35 kWh(kgBOD@d)-1. The annual average sludge production was 46.3 m3d-1, the annual average dosage for the dewatering was 40 kg d-1 .

Operation Cost Optimization Method of Regional Integrated Energy System in Electricity Market Environment Considering Uncertainty

In the electricity market environment,the regional integrated energy system(RIES)can reduce the total operation cost by participating in electricity market transactions.However,the RIES will face the risk of load and electricity price uncertainties,which may make its operation cost higher than expected.This paper proposes a method to optimize the operation cost of the RIES in the electricity market environment considering uncertainty.Firstly,based on the operation cost structure of the RIES in the electricity market environment,the energy flow relationship of the RIES is analyzed,and the operation cost model of the RIES is built.Then,the electricity purchase costs of the RIES in the medium-and long-term electricity markets,the spot electricity market,and the retail electricity market are analyzed.Finally,considering the risk of load and electricity price uncertainties,the operation cost optimization model of the RIES is established based on conditional value-at-risk.Then it is solved to obtain the operation cost optimization strategy of the RIES.Verification results show that the proposed operation cost optimization method can reduce the operation cost of high electricity price scenario by optimizing the energy purchase and distribution strategy,constrain the risk of load and electricity price uncertainties,and help balance the risks and benefits.

Optimization of Internal Thermally Coupled Distillation Columns of Nonideal Mixture

Internal thermally coupled distillation column(ITCDIC) is a frontier in energy saving distillation research. In this paper, the optimal assessment on the energy saving and the operating cost for ITCDIC of nonideal mixture is explored. An evaluating method is proposed, and the pertinent optimization model is then derived. The ethanol-water system is studied as an illustrative example. The optimization results show that the maximum energy saving in ITCDIC process is about 35% and the maximum operating cost saving in ITCDIC process is about 30%,as compared with a conventional distillation column(CDIC) under the minimum reflux ratio operating; the optimal operating pressure of the rectifying section is found to be around 0.25 MPa; the effects of the feed composition,operating pressure and the heat transfer rate on operation are also found and analyzed. It is revealed that ITCDIC process possesses high energy saving potential and promising economical prospect.

Effect of Ordering Policies on Complex Dynamics Behaviours in a Discrete-Type Manufacturing Industry Supply Chain System

The beer game model is a typical paradigm used to study complex dynamics behaviours in production–distribution systems. The model, however, does not accord with current practical supply chain system models in discrete?type manufacturing industry, which are generally composed of retailers, distributors, manufacturers with internal sup?ply chain, and suppliers. To describe how ordering policies influence the complex dynamics behaviour modes and operating cost in a general discrete?type manufacturing industry supply chain system, a high dimension piecewise?linear dynamics model is built for the supply chain system. Five kinds of ordering policy combination are considered. The distribution of both the largest Lyapunov exponent of e ective inventory and average operating cost per cycle is obtained by simulation in a policy space. The simulation shows that for the general discrete?type manufacturing industry supply chain system, the upper chaotic corners emerge besides the lower chaotic corners in the policy space expressing the distribution of system behaviour mode, and that the ordering policies at each supply chain node as well as their combination have very significant e ect on the topology of the distribution of both system behaviour mode and operating cost in the policy space. We find that chaos is not always corresponding to high cost, and the "chaos amplification" is not completely relevant to the "cost amplification".

Adaptive Modeling for Security Infrastructure Fault Response

Based on the analysis of inherent limitations in existing security response decision-making systems, a dynamic adaptive model of fault response is presented. Several security fault levels were founded, which comprise the basic level, equipment level and mechanism level. Fault damage cost is calculated using the analytic hierarchy process. Meanwhile, the model evaluates the impact of different responses upon fault repair and normal operation. Response operation cost and response negative cost are introduced through quantitative calculation. This model adopts a comprehensive response decision of security fault in three principles--the maximum and minimum principle, timeliness principle, acquiescence principle, which assure optimal response counter- measure is selected for different situations. Experimental results show that the proposed model has good self- adaptation ability, timeliness and cost-sensitiveness.

Optimal Scheduling for Flexible Regional Integrated Energy Systemwith Soft Open Point

The Regional Integrated Energy System(RIES)has brought new modes of development,utilization,conversion,storage of energy.The introduction of Soft Open Point(SOP)and the application of Power to Gas(P2G)technology will greatly deepen the coupling of the electricity-gas integrated energy system,improve the flexibility and safety of the operation of the power system,and bring a deal of benefits to the power system.On this background,an optimal dispatch model of RIES combined cold,heat,gas and electricity with SOP is proposed.Firstly,RIES architecture with SOP and P2G is designed and its mathematical model also is built.Secondly,on the basis of considering the optimal scheduling of combined cold,heat,gas and electricity,the optimal scheduling model for RIES was established.After that,the original model is transformed into a mixed-integer second-order cone programming model by using linearization and second-order cone relaxation techniques,and the CPLEX solver is invoked to solve the optimization problem.Finally,the modified IEEE 33-bus systemis used to analyze the benefits of SOP,P2G technology and lithium bromide absorption chillers in reducing systemnetwork loss and cost,as well as improving the system’s ability to absorb wind and solar and operating safety.

Development Trend and Revelations Regarding the Oil and Gas Upstream Sector

Since July 2014,when the international oil price slumped,the upstream sector of global oil and gas industry has experienced a tough transformation phase lasting over two years.In terms of the development trend,the global upstream sector has demonstrated six characteristics since 2017:firstly,global upstream investment will probably demonstrate the trend of "touching the ground and rising again";secondly,upstream operating costs will continually decline;thirdly,more favorable finance and taxation clauses will be offered for some resources to be developed through foreign cooperation;fourthly,global oil and gas output will probably further increase;fifthly,upstream exploration efficiency is anticipated to steadily increase;and sixthly,upstream geological understandings,theory and technology will continue to advance.In accordance with the above-mentioned development trends,Chinese oil enterprises must be prepared in four aspects for future rejuvenation.Firstly,persistent upstream investment has to be guaranteed,particularly in the exploration field;secondly,upstream operation efficiency must be promoted through the enhancement of technical research;thirdly,overseas upstream property must be purchased within the "time window";and fourthly,reforms have to be carried out to realize transformation in the petroleum industry.

Experimental Design Approach with Response Surface Methodology for Removal of Indigo Dye by Electrocoagulation

Treatment of Indigo dye (leuco form), reduced in the industrial conditions of the SITEX (Textile Industrial Company), by a batch electrocoagulation using aluminum electrodes. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) and Box-Behnken design were used to optimize for Color Removal (CR(%)). Our results showed that the quadratic second order equation provided the best correlation for the decolorization of Indigo dye (CR(%)). On the other hand, the ANOVA analysis proved the large interaction between the current intensity and the initial concentration of the dye. Experiments were conducted to find the desired conditions for removal of particular concentration of the dye and lower Operation Cost. The results showed that CR(%) = 88.3% (R2) of color removal for initial dye concentration of 12.31 mg/l, with a current density of 2.81 A/m2, solution concentration of NaCl of 2.67 g/l. Under these conditions, Electrical Energy Consumption (EEC) and Electrode Consumption (EMC) and Operation Cost were 0.01999 kWh/m3 (R2 = 93.1%), 0.00142768 Kg/m3 (R2 = 79.4%) and 0.000558 US$/m3, respectively.