scholarly journals Digital Twins for the Circular Economy

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (18) ◽  
pp. 10467
Author(s):  
Anna Preut ◽  
Jan-Philip Kopka ◽  
Uwe Clausen
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Stakeholder Analysis ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Accurate Information ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Digital Twin ◽  
Digital Twins ◽  
The Right

Accurate information plays an important role for the circulation of materials and products. It influences the economically and ecologically successful execution of processes such as reconditioning and the corresponding supply chain management. Digitization concepts, such as digital twins, enable the relevant information to be made available to the right actor at the right time in a decentralized manner. It is assumed that digital twins will play an important role in the future and can contribute, among other things, to the successful implementation of circular economy strategies. However, there is no uniform definition of the term digital twin yet and the exploration and use of digital twins in the context of circular economy products and supply chains is still in its infancy. This article presents potential contributions of digital twins to the circularity of products and the management of circular supply chains. To this end, the derivation and validation of a definition for the term digital twin is described. A stakeholder analysis with a special focus on the processes of the individual stakeholders results in an overview of potentials and information requirements of circular supply chains for a digital twin. The paper concludes that circular supply chains can benefit from digital twins, but that there is still a need for research and development, particularly regarding product and use case-specific implementations of the concept.

scholarly journals Digital Twin for Monitoring of Industrial Multi-Effect Evaporation

Processes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. 537 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael M. Soares ◽  
Maurício M. Câmara ◽  
Thiago Feital ◽  
José Carlos Pinto
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Fluid Dynamic ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Processing Unit ◽  
Digital Twin ◽  
Dynamic Mass ◽  
Digital Twins ◽  
Process Operation ◽  
Energy Balances ◽  
Mass And Energy Balances

Digital twins are rigorous mathematical models that can be used to represent the operation of real systems. This connection allows for deeper understanding of the actual states of the analyzed system through estimation of variables that are difficult to measure otherwise. In this context, the present manuscript describes the successful implementation of a digital twin to represent a four-stage multi-effect evaporation train from an industrial sugar-cane processing unit. Particularly, the complex phenomenological effects, including the coupling between thermodynamic and fluid dynamic effects, and the low level of instrumentation in the plant constitute major challenges for adequate process operation. For this reason, dynamic mass and energy balances were developed, implemented and validated with actual industrial data, in order to provide process information for decision-making in real time. For example, the digital twin was able to indicate failure of process sensors and to provide estimates for the affected variables in real time, improving the robustness of the operation and constituting an important tool for process monitoring.

A right to mislead Parliament?

Legal Studies ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-83
Author(s):  
Adam Tomkins
Keyword(s):  
Relevant Information ◽  
Accurate Information ◽  
House Of Commons ◽  
Central Aspect ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Right ◽  
Made In

The assertion was recently made in the House of Commons that ministers have the right, in certain circumstances, to mislead Parliament, either by telling an outright lie, or by keeping quiet. This astonishing statement concerns a central aspect of the British constitution: namely the essential ability of Parliament to acquire accurate information about government, even (or perhaps especially) when the government does not want to give it. Despite popular cynicism as to the ability of politicians ever to tell the truth, not lying to Parliament has long been regarded as being of the utmost importance. The very survival of politicians in office has often been made dependent on whether it can be shown that they have misled Parliament: ‘John Profumo lost office not because of his sexual misbehaviour but because he lied to Parliament. When Mrs Thatcher narrowly survived the Westland affair the debate was on whether Parliament had been deceived’. The ability to ensure the effective acquisition of relevant information is essential to Parliament's key tasks of engaging in meaningful and effective debate, and of scrutinising the work of the executive:

scholarly journals Concept for a Supply Chain Digital Twin

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 1498-1515 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergey Yevgenievich Barykin ◽  
Andrey Aleksandrovich Bochkarev ◽  
Olga Vladimirovna Kalinina ◽  
Vladimir Konstantinovich Yadykin
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Normal Operation ◽  
Distribution Centers ◽  
Digital Twin ◽  
Operational Risks ◽  
Digital Twins ◽  
The Impact

There is currently a discussion going on in the scientific community about using digital twins and modeling to manage risks in the supply chains. This need for constructing digital twins is caused by the low reliability and stability of supply chains due to the faults in their operation. These faults are a result of risks in the supply chains which can be consolidated into two types. The first type is operational risks. These are the current risks of the supply chain itself caused by an uncer-tainty of supply and demand as well as by an obstructed flow of information along the supply chain. The second type is critical risks caused by force majeure. These risks disrupt the normal operation of the supply chain and critically reduce the most important performance indicators of the company such as annual income and profits. Risks happen due to natural or man-made causes such as fires and floods in the distribution centers or at production facilities, legal disputes with sup-pliers, strikes, terrorist attacks on logistics facilities and others. Dynamic simulation and analytical optimization are two dominant technologies for managing risks of the supply chains, which helps to increase their reliability and stability if failures occur. Through optimizing and simulating of the supply chains, companies can generate new information about the impact of failure and influence the supply chain and its performance by looking at various scenarios that simulate the locations of failures, the duration and recovery policies. An analysis of the literary sources shows that there is no single approach to build the concept for a supply chain digital twin. This article gives an overview of the literature according to this problem and offers the author's point of view on the concept for a supply chain digital twin.

A Critical Overview of Digital Twins

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-61
Author(s):  
Princess Adjei ◽  
Reza Montasari
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Competitive Advantage ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Emerging Technologies ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Digital Twin ◽  
Digital Twins ◽  
Critical Overview

In recent years, organisations have invested heavily in the digitisation of their processes to maximise productivity. A digital twin is one of the most recent emerging technologies that is to disrupt business models and to leverage competitive advantage; applications can be found in many industries including, but not limited to healthcare, manufacturing and supply chains, and engineering. This article provides a critical perspective to the benefits of digital twins, their applications as well as the challenges encountered following their use. Cybersecurity risks as one of these key challenges will be further discussed within the article.

scholarly journals Paving the Way for Circular Supply Chains: Conceptualization of a Circular Supply Chain Maturity Framework

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Montag ◽  
Timo Klünder ◽  
Marion Steven
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Implementation Process ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Gas Emissions ◽  
Chain Level ◽  
The Way

The European Green Deal aims to make Europe climate neutral by 2050. According to this ambitious plan, 50% of greenhouse gas emissions are to be saved through a wide implementation of a circular economy. With supply chains responsible for four-fifths of greenhouse gas emissions, their role in the transition from linearity to a circular economy, and thus in the successful implementation of circular systems, is critical and requires the attention of academia, policymakers, and practitioners. Maturity models are suitable for monitoring, assessing, and evaluating the transformation process and determining the status quo of a supply chain. However, as the implementation of circular supply chains is still in its infancy, circular maturity frameworks at the supply chain level are not available yet. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to conceptualize a framework for analyzing the maturity level of circular economy adoption in the supply chain context. From an extensive and systematic literature review of overall 1,372 articles on supply chains, circular economy and maturity the following findings can be drawn: (i) circular economy and circular supply chains are massively growing research streams; (ii) the link between circular economy, supply chains and maturity assessment is so far missing; (iii) three constructs (organization, products, processes) characterize and influence circular supply chain maturity; (iv) a 3-layered maturity grid covering six archetypal elements of the circular economy enables the assessment of a circular supply chain maturity. The developed circular supply chain maturity framework paves the way for circular economy adoption at supply chain level by understanding current level of circular maturity and thus supporting the circular economy implementation process at supply chain level.

scholarly journals Digital twins are coming: Will we need them in supply chains of fresh horticultural produce?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thijs Defraeye ◽  
Chandrima Shrivastava ◽  
Tarl Berry ◽  
Pieter Verboven ◽  
Daniel Onwude ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Food Quality ◽  
Fresh Produce ◽  
Marketing Strategies ◽  
Quality Loss ◽  
Digital Twin ◽  
Physiological Processes ◽  
Digital Twins ◽  
Gas Atmosphere ◽  
Postharvest Life

Background. Digital twins have advanced fast in various industries, but are just emerging in postharvest supply chains. A digital twin is a virtual representation of fresh horticultural produce. This twin is linked to the real-world product by sensors supplying data of the environmental conditions near the target fruit or vegetable. Statistical and data-driven twins quantify how fresh-produce quality loss occurs by grasping patterns in the data. Physics-based twins provide an augmented insight into the underlying physical, biochemical, microbiological and physiological processes, enabling to explain also why this quality loss occurs.Scope and Approach. We identify what the key advantages are of digital twins and how the fresh-produce supply chain can benefit from them in the future. Key Findings and Conclusions. A digital twin has a huge potential to help horticultural produce to tell its history as it drifts along throughout its postharvest life. The reason is that each shipment is subject to a unique and unpredictable set of temperature and gas atmosphere conditions from farm to consumer. Digital twins help to identify the resulting, largely uncharted, postharvest evolution of food quality. The benefit of digital twins particularly comes forward for perishable species and at low airflow rates. Digital twins provide actionable data for exporters, retailers, and consumers, such as the remaining shelf life for each shipment, on which logistics decisions and marketing strategies can be based. The twins also help diagnose and predict potential problems in supply chains that will reduce food quality and induce food loss. Twins can even suggest preventive shipment-tailored measures to reduce retail and household food losses.

scholarly journals Represent me: please! Towards an ethics of digital twins in medicine

2021 ◽  
pp. medethics-2020-106134
Author(s):  
Matthias Braun
Keyword(s):  
Special Focus ◽  
Digital Twin ◽  
Digital Twins ◽  
Different Types

Simulations are used in very different contexts and for very different purposes. An emerging development is the possibility of using simulations to obtain a more or less representative reproduction of organs or even entire persons. Such simulations are framed and discussed using the term ‘digital twin’. This paper unpacks and scrutinises the current use of such digital twins in medicine and the ideas embedded in this practice. First, the paper maps the different types of digital twins. A special focus is put on the concrete challenges inherent in the interactions between persons and their digital twin. Second, the paper addresses the questions of how far a digital twin can represent a person and what the consequences of this may be. Against the background of these two analytical steps, the paper defines first conditions for digital twins to take on an ethically justifiable form of representation.

RELEVANT ISSUES OF SCIENTIFIC AND PERSONNEL SUPPORT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAND RECLAMATION IN THE NON-BLACK EARTH REGION

1970 ◽  
pp. 14-19
Author(s):  
N. N. Dubenok ◽  
А. I. Ivanov ◽  
Yu. V. Chesnokov ◽  
Yu. G. Yanko
Keyword(s):  
Program Development ◽  
Land Reclamation ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Highly Qualified ◽  
Staff Support ◽  
Federal Target Program ◽  
Russian Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Target Program ◽  
The Right ◽  
Academy Of Sciences

The reclamation complex of the Nonchernozem zone of Russia has been under the influence of a combination of unfavourable factors for a long time. The problems of scientific and staff support today limit the development of the complex and create risks for the successful implementation of the Federal Target Program "Development of Land Reclamation". In order to analyze the situation and find the right solutions, a study was carried out using the method of expert assessments. Twenty-four highly qualified specialists took part in it: 2 Academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 4 Corresponding Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 10 Doctors of Sciences and 9 Candidates of Sciences. To preserve and build up the agro-resource potential within the framework of the Federal Target Program "Development of Land Reclamation" in the next decade, it is necessary to develop 300-400 thousand hectares of shrubby fallow, to carry out major repairs of drainage systems on an area of up to 300 thousand hectares and their reconstruction on an area of up to 100 thousand hectares, carry out chemical reclamation on an area of up to 5 million hectares on average per year. The need for qualified personnel to solve these problems will amount to 18–20 thousand professional workers and up to 5 thousand specialists, including 1.0 thousand people in research and development, 1.5 thousand people in exploration and design sphere, 2.5 thousand people in the construction and operational sphere. The fundamental importance belongs to the scientific support of the innovative reclamation complex, the renewal of which should be carried out on the principles of resource and energy conservation, nature likeness, informational support and digitalization of management processes.

scholarly journals Nanocomposites for Food Packaging Applications: An Overview

Nanomaterials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Jawad Sarfraz ◽  
Tina Gulin-Sarfraz ◽  
Julie Nilsen-Nygaard ◽  
Marit Kvalvåg Pettersen
Keyword(s):  
Polymer Nanocomposites ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Food Packaging ◽  
Antioxidant Properties ◽  
Nanocomposite Materials ◽  
Consumer Acceptability ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Packaging Materials ◽  
Mechanical And Thermal Properties ◽  
Low Concentrations

There is a strong drive in industry for packaging solutions that contribute to sustainable development by targeting a circular economy, which pivots around the recyclability of the packaging materials. The aim is to reduce traditional plastic consumption and achieve high recycling efficiency while maintaining the desired barrier and mechanical properties. In this domain, packaging materials in the form of polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) can offer the desired functionalities and can be a potential replacement for complex multilayered polymer structures. There has been an increasing interest in nanocomposites for food packaging applications, with a five-fold rise in the number of published articles during the period 2010–2019. The barrier, mechanical, and thermal properties of the polymers can be significantly improved by incorporating low concentrations of nanofillers. Furthermore, antimicrobial and antioxidant properties can be introduced, which are very relevant for food packaging applications. In this review, we will present an overview of the nanocomposite materials for food packaging applications. We will briefly discuss different nanofillers, methods to incorporate them in the polymer matrix, and surface treatments, with a special focus on the barrier, antimicrobial, and antioxidant properties. On the practical side migration issues, consumer acceptability, recyclability, and toxicity aspects will also be discussed.

scholarly journals Measuring Canopy Geometric Structure Using Optical Sensors Mounted on Terrestrial Vehicles: A Case Study in Vineyards

Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 208
Author(s):  
Daniel Queirós da Silva ◽  
André Silva Aguiar ◽  
Filipe Neves dos Santos ◽  
Armando Jorge Sousa ◽  
Danilo Rabino ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Leaf Area Index ◽  
Leaf Area ◽  
Optical Sensors ◽  
Precision Agriculture ◽  
Real Data ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Normal Operation ◽  
Area Index ◽  
Sensory Data ◽  
The Right

Smart and precision agriculture concepts require that the farmer measures all relevant variables in a continuous way and processes this information in order to build better prescription maps and to predict crop yield. These maps feed machinery with variable rate technology to apply the correct amount of products in the right time and place, to improve farm profitability. One of the most relevant information to estimate the farm yield is the Leaf Area Index. Traditionally, this index can be obtained from manual measurements or from aerial imagery: the former is time consuming and the latter requires the use of drones or aerial services. This work presents an optical sensing-based hardware module that can be attached to existing autonomous or guided terrestrial vehicles. During the normal operation, the module collects periodic geo-referenced monocular images and laser data. With that data a suggested processing pipeline, based on open-source software and composed by Structure from Motion, Multi-View Stereo and point cloud registration stages, can extract Leaf Area Index and other crop-related features. Additionally, in this work, a benchmark of software tools is made. The hardware module and pipeline were validated considering real data acquired in two vineyards—Portugal and Italy. A dataset with sensory data collected by the module was made publicly available. Results demonstrated that: the system provides reliable and precise data on the surrounding environment and the pipeline is capable of computing volume and occupancy area from the acquired data.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document