Innovative Devices That Enable Variable Flow Systems for Energy Savings

Author(s):  
A. Keith Miller ◽  
John R. Bode ◽  
Robert Sachs ◽  
Kirt Jensen

Over the past decade numerous studies both conducted by and authorized by the US Department of Energy Office of Industrial Technology have identified significant energy savings potential by adjusting flow rates to meet process demands. As much as 40% energy savings have been achieved when variable flow pumping systems were implemented in some DOE demonstration projects. To date, only a small fraction of the identified companies in various industries which can benefit in energy savings resulting from adjustable pumping flow rates have installed the requisite capabilities. One reason for the slow rate of adoption of variable pumping is that there are few commercially available methods for adjusting pump rates. Electronic Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) are the most commonly implemented method of varying pump speeds, usually resulting in reduced operating life of the electric drive motors and sometimes in significant costs of plant modifications. Veritran Inc. with the support of Team Technologies, Inc. is developing low-cost mechanical devices for varying electric motor speeds without the large initial investment associated with VFDs nor the other detracting features of the need to install larger electric motors and reduced motor life expectancy. Veritran’s Infinitely Variable Transmissions (IVTs), such as SM-15IVT (www.veritraninc.com) are installed between the motor and the load, which allows for soft starts, and precise output set speeds, all under programmable microprocessor control. The amount of power demanded from the motor varies as the output speed of the transmission is changed or the load torque is changed. This paper will describe the engineering development that Veritran has been pursuing over the past decade of their novel IVTs, and will present some of the test data collected to date. Results will also be presented of systems analyses where IVTs are inserted into various industrial operations and significant energy savings result.

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 26-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas Meckling

Over the past decade, carbon trading has emerged as the policy instrument of choice in the industrialized world to address global climate change. In this article I argue that a transnational business coalition, representing mostly energy firms and energy-intensive manufacturers, actively promoted the global rise of carbon trading. In this process, business was able to draw on the support of government allies and business-oriented environmental groups, particularly in the UK and the US. Alongside its allies, the coalition had pivotal influence in the internationalization of carbon trading through the Kyoto Protocol, in the U-turn of the EU from skeptic to frontrunner on carbon trading and in the re-import of carbon trading to the US. While business was not able to prevent mandatory emission controls, it was able to critically affect the regulatory style of climate policy in favor of low-cost, market-based options.


2021 ◽  
Vol 247 ◽  
pp. 10033
Author(s):  
Briana Hiscox ◽  
Benjamin Betzler ◽  
Vladimir Sobes ◽  
William J. Marshall

To demonstrate that nuclear reactors can be built faster and more economically than they have been in the past, the US Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy is sponsoring the development of a small nuclear reactor called the Transformational Challenge Reactor (TCR) [1–2]. An important part of the design and licencing process of a new reactor is validation of the software used to analyze the reactor using established reactor physics benchmarks. This paper discusses validation of the neutronics software used to model four preliminary designs of the TCR core [2]. Because the TCR core design uses innovative technology and methods, comparable established benchmarks are limited or do not exist. For this effort, established benchmarks from the International Handbook of Evaluated Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiments (ICSBEP) [3] were considered to be suitable for this design based on analysis using the SCALE/TSUNAMI-computed similarity indices to determine the amount of shared uncertainty between the design and each selected benchmark experiment. This paper addresses the challenges faced in benchmarking a unique reactor for licensing and construction, a task that will become more common as a new generation of innovative nuclear reactors are designed and built.


2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Bogdan Daraban

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt; text-align: justify; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 6.0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Over the past twenty years the US airline industry has been marked by the intense competition between the Low-Cost Carriers (LCCs) and the Full-Service Carrier (FSCs). The fundamental differences between the two business models are reflected in considerable cost advantages of the LCCs. In this paper, I use a set of model specific metrics to investigate whether the competitive process has led to convergence in some of the key features of the competing models. I conclude that despite some evidence of convergence along certain dimensions, the LCCs </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; mso-themecolor: text1;">are not ready to abandon the core LCC model.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span>


2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Garvey

Asthma rates in the US have risen during the past 25 years, as have asthma-related morbidity and healthcare costs. Professional organizations involved in asthma care have identified the need to assure that an advanced level of asthma knowledge and skill is available to patients with asthma, their families, and insurers. This need led to development of the certification for asthma educators. The Certified Asthma Educator (AE-C) must meet specific clinical criteria and pass a standardized examination designed to evaluate knowledge and skill for providing competent asthma education and coordination. The development and current status of the Certified Asthma Educator examination process and content are discussed, as are goals of the certification


2013 ◽  
pp. 109-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Rühl

This paper presents the highlights of the third annual edition of the BP Energy Outlook, which sets out BP’s view of the most likely developments in global energy markets to 2030, based on up-to-date analysis and taking into account developments of the past year. The Outlook’s overall expectation for growth in global energy demand is to be 36% higher in 2030 than in 2011 and almost all the growth coming from emerging economies. It also reflects shifting expectations of the pattern of supply, with unconventional sources — shale gas and tight oil together with heavy oil and biofuels — playing an increasingly important role and, in particular, transforming the energy balance of the US. While the fuel mix is evolving, fossil fuels will continue to be dominant. Oil, gas and coal are expected to converge on market shares of around 26—28% each by 2030, and non-fossil fuels — nuclear, hydro and renewables — on a share of around 6—7% each. By 2030, increasing production and moderating demand will result in the US being 99% self-sufficient in net energy. Meanwhile, with continuing steep economic growth, major emerging economies such as China and India will become increasingly reliant on energy imports. These shifts will have major impacts on trade balances.


2012 ◽  
pp. 61-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Ershov

According to the latest forecasts, it will take 10 years for the world economy to get back to “decent shape”. Some more critical estimates suggest that the whole western world will have a “colossal mess” within the next 5–10 years. Regulators of some major countries significantly and over a short time‑period changed their forecasts for the worse which means that uncertainty in the outlook for the future persists. Indeed, the intensive anti‑crisis measures have reduced the severity of the past problems, however the problems themselves have not disappeared. Moreover, some of them have become more intense — the eurocrisis, excessive debts, global liquidity glut against the backdrop of its deficit in some of market segments. As was the case prior to the crisis, derivatives and high‑risk operations with “junk” bonds grow; budget problems — “fiscal cliff” in the US — and other problems worsen. All of the above forces the regulators to take unprecedented (in their scope and nature) steps. Will they be able to tackle the problems which emerge?


Author(s):  
Volker Scheid

This chapter explores the articulations that have emerged over the last half century between various types of holism, Chinese medicine and systems biology. Given the discipline’s historical attachments to a definition of ‘medicine’ that rather narrowly refers to biomedicine as developed in Europe and the US from the eighteenth century onwards, the medical humanities are not the most obvious starting point for such an inquiry. At the same time, they do offer one advantage over neighbouring disciplines like medical history, anthropology or science and technology studies for someone like myself, a clinician as well as a historian and anthropologist: their strong commitment to the objective of facilitating better medical practice. This promise furthermore links to the wider project of critique, which, in Max Horkheimer’s definition of the term, aims at change and emancipation in order ‘to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them’. If we take the critical medical humanities as explicitly affirming this shared objective and responsibility, extending the discipline’s traditional gaze is not a burden but becomes, in fact, an obligation.


2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (50) ◽  
pp. 115
Author(s):  
Marcelo Da Silva Leite ◽  
Celeste Gaia

Over the past decade due the expansion of globalization there has been an increasing emphasis on internationalization among faculty, administration and accrediting agencies in the Higher Education.  Although to promote internationalization in the Higher Education, costs are a big challenge, one way to have the international actions with low cost, it is seeking for grants from different governmental agencies and foundations.The Fulbright Scholar program provides a long-standing and externally-funded means for internationalizing college and university curriculum. This article is going to share the perspective   of a Brazilian Fulbright Scholar at an American college and the institution perspective of the Fulbright scholar participation at the College.


2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauricio Tenorio-Trillo

By identifying two general issues in recent history textbook controversies worldwide (oblivion and inclusion), this article examines understandings of the United States in Mexico's history textbooks (especially those of 1992) as a means to test the limits of historical imagining between U. S. and Mexican historiographies. Drawing lessons from recent European and Indian historiographical debates, the article argues that many of the historical clashes between the nationalist historiographies of Mexico and the United States could be taught as series of unsolved enigmas, ironies, and contradictions in the midst of a central enigma: the persistence of two nationalist historiographies incapable of contemplating their common ground. The article maintains that lo mexicano has been a constant part of the past and present of the US, and lo gringo an intrinsic component of Mexico's history. The di erences in their historical tracks have been made into monumental ontological oppositions, which are in fact two tracks—often overlapping—of the same and shared con ictual and complex experience.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 913-926
Author(s):  
Kakyom Kim ◽  
Giri Jogaratnam

Research findings on generations have been becoming useful for event organizers and destination developers over the past decades. The current study investigated generational differences in exhibition dimensions, satisfaction, and future intentions along with trip characteristics of visitors to the NASCAR Hall of Fame Exhibition event held in a medium-sized city in the southeastern region of the US. Analysis confirmed the existence of six exhibition dimensions labeled as "exhibits," "staff," "facility," "concessions," "audio tours," and "hard cards" on the event. As part of the most substantial results, there were both dissimilarities and similarities in the exhibition dimensions across four generations including "Matures," "Baby Boomers," "Generation X," and "Generation Y." Analysis also suggested significant differences in exhibition visitors' overall satisfaction, future intentions, and trip characteristics across the generations. Some useful implications are discussed for exhibition event managers and organizers.


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