Improving Thermoeconomic and Environmental Performance of District Heating via Demand Pooling and Upscaling

This study evaluates the effects of pooling heat demands in a district for the purpose of upscaling heat production units by means of energy, exergy, economic, exergoeconomic, and environmental indicators, as well as the sensitivity to investment and fuel costs. The following production systems to satisfy the heat demands (domestic hot water production and space heating) of a mixed district composed of office (80%), residential (15%), and commercial (5%) buildings are considered: gas- and biomass-fired boilers, electric boilers and heat pumps (grid-powered or photovoltaic -powered), and solar thermal collectors. For comparison, three system sizing approaches are examined: at building scale, at sector scale (residential, office, and commerce), or at district scale. For the configurations studied, the upscaling benefits were up to 5% higher efficiency (energy and exergy), there was lower levelized cost of heat for all systems (between 20% and 54%), up to 55% lower exergy destruction costs, and up to 5% greater CO2 mitigations. In conclusion, upscaling and demand pooling tend to improve specific efficiencies, reduce specific costs, reduce total investment through the peak power sizing method, and mitigate temporal mismatch in solar-driven systems. Possible drawbacks are additional heat losses due to the distribution network and reduced performance in heat pumps due to the higher temperatures required. Nevertheless, the advantages outweigh the drawbacks in most cases.

REDUCING SHIP EMISSIONS: A REVIEW OF POTENTIAL PRACTICAL IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROPULSIVE EFFICIENCY OF FUTURE SHIPS

Environmental issues such as the emission of greenhouse gases, pollution, wash and noise are having an increasing impact on the design and operation of ships. These environmental issues together with economic factors, such as rising fuel costs, all ultimately lead to the need to minimise ship propulsive power. Various methods and devices for reducing propulsive power are reviewed and discussed. The most favourable methods, from a feasible and practical point of view, are identified and quantified. It is found that potential reductions in the resistance of existing good hull forms are relatively small, but optimising hull-propeller-rudder interaction offers very promising prospects for improvement. The biggest potential savings in power arise from optimised operational strategies such as the use of optimum trim, speed and weather routeing. Potential conflicts of interest when considering both economic and environmental requirements are investigated and discussed. Suitable design methodologies and procedures, taking into account economic and environmental factors, are suggested for the design of future ships.

Design and Implementation of an Electric Skibus Line in North Italy

To enhance the current Public Transport (PT) service in the northern Italian region of Lombardy, this work tries to plan fully a new electric Skibus line connecting the cities of Santa Caterina and Livigno. As a first try outside the city environment, the electrification study is set on a limited mountain zone hence featured by steep grades and cold temperatures. In the first part of the paper, the energy consumed by an electric bus working in such a context is assessed, and from the learned outcomes, proper charging infrastructure is proposed. From the found results, the introduction of a new electric bus line in the chosen region seems feasible. Finally, in the last part of the work the performances of an electric bus fleet are compared with that of a diesel one, in terms of fuel costs and Well-to-Wheel (WTW) emissions. The results prove that an electric fleet would be more convenient for both the economic and the environmental aspects.

MPG Illusion and Vehicle Choice: An Empirical Study of the Japanese Household Survey

Previous studies have shown that people understand the future ancillary cost of durable goods such as an automotive vehicle. However, consumers tend to misunderstand the future benefits and costs of these goods. One of the most interesting discussions about consumer cognitive ability for future energy cost is the miles per gallon (MPG) illusion. In this study, we analyze people’s misunderstanding of the relationship between kilometers per liter (KPL) and the actual amount of fuel saved using vehicle owner survey data. We developed some questions to measure how much each person is involved with the MPG (or KPL) illusion. Additionally, our survey includes questions capturing some preferences affecting future fuel costs, such as time. Controlling for the most important respondent characteristics, such as income or gender, our empirical model analyzes the extent of the misunderstanding of how much actual KPL selections of personal auto vehicles are affected. We found that many Japanese consumers tend to misunderstand the relationship between KPL and actual fuel costs. Our results demonstrate that people who misunderstand the relationship tend to choose a higher 4.324 km per liter car than those who understand. This finding implies that the KPL illusion affects the KPL selection of consumers’ cars.

Modern methods of navigation monitoring and positioning of agricultural machinery

The article considers the state of transport monitoring systems used in agricultural production. The urgency of the problem is explained by the need to increase the profitability of enterprises of the agricultural complex. An effective way to solve the problem is strict control of the operation of transport used in the technological process of agricultural production in order to optimize and increase the efficiency of its operation. The direct dependence of the profitability of an agricultural enterprise on the monitoring of transport is considered and justified. To illustrate, the results of a survey conducted in 2020 by the staff of the Center for Forecasting and Monitoring of the Kuban State Agrarian University are used. It is concluded that monitoring systems make it possible to rationalize the process of cultivating arable land and significantly reduce fuel costs, and agricultural enterprises that do not use digital transformation technologies lose out in the competition to more modern companies. Keywords: AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS, SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS, MONITORING, POSITIONING, TRANSPORT, AGRICULTURE, GLONASS, GPS

Economic Emission Load Dispatch Problem with Valve-Point Loading Using A Novel Quasi-Oppositional-Based Political Optimizer

In the present paper, a novel meta-heuristic algorithm, namely quasi-oppositional search-based political optimizer (QOPO), is proposed to solve a non-convex single and bi-objective economic and emission load dispatch problem (EELDP). In the proposed QOPO technique, an opposite estimate candidate solution is performed simultaneously on each candidate solution of the political optimizer to find a better solution of EELDP. In the bi-objective EELDP, QOPSO is applied to simultaneously minimize fuel costs and emissions by considering various constraints such as the valve-point loading effect (VPLE) and generator limits for a generation. The effectiveness of the proposed QOPO technique has been applied on three units, six units, 10-units, 11-units, 13-units, and 40-unit systems by considering the VPLE, transmission line losses, and generator limits. The results obtained using the proposed QOPO are compared with those obtained by other techniques reported in the literature. The relative results divulge that the proposed QOPO technique has a good exploration and exploitation capability to determine the optimal global solution compared to the other methods provided in the literature without violation of any constraints and bounded limits.

CFD analysis of variable geometric angle winglets

Purpose Winglets play a major role in saving fuel costs because they reduce the lift-induced drag formed at the wingtips. The purpose of this paper is to obtain the best orientation of the winglet for the Office National d’Etudes et de Recherches Aérospatiales (ONERA) M6 wing at Mach number 0.84 in terms of lift to drag ratio. Design/methodology/approach A computational fluid dynamics analysis of the wing-winglet configuration based on the ONERA M6 airfoil on drag reduction for different attack angles at Mach 0.84 was performed using analysis of systems Fluent. First, the best values of cant and sweep angles in terms of aerodynamic performance were selected by performing simulations. The analysis included cant angle values of 30°, 40°, 45°, 55°, 60°, 70° and 75°, while for the sweep angles 35°, 45°, 55°, 65° and 75° angles were used. The aerodynamic performance was measured in terms of the obtained lift to drag ratios. Findings The results showed that slight alternations in the winglet configuration can improve aerodynamic performance for various attack angles. The best lift to drag ratio for the winglet was achieved at a cant angle of 30° and a sweep angle of 65°, which caused a 5.33% increase in the lift to drag ratio. The toe-out angle winglets as compared to the toe-in angles caused the lift to drag ratio to increase because of more attached flow at its surface. The maximum value of the lift to drag ratio was obtained with a toe-out angle (−5°) at an angle of attack 3° which was 2.53% greater than the zero-toed angle winglet. Originality/value This work is relatively unique because the cant, sweep and toe angles were analyzed altogether and led to a significant reduction in drag as compared to wing without winglet. The wing model was compared with the results provided by National Aeronautics and Space Administration so this validated the simulation for different wing-winglet configurations.

Analysis of the Impact of no Passing Zones on Fuel Costs

The primary task of traffic and transportation planning is to improve the conditions of traffic and level of service on the entire road network. On three sections, which were analyzed in this paper, the possibility of reducing the precentage of no passing zones was noticed, by changing the horizontal signalization on the segments of road section where the clear visibility for overtaking was determined for one direction of the two-way highway. In the first part of the paper, the analysis of traffic conditions on the existing and on the newly designed variants of all three observed road sections was performed. Analysis of the level of service on the intersections that are part of this research are done in chapter 2. Increasing the speed on the newly designed section results in a reduced travel time and this leads to savings in fuel costs as shown in chapter 3. Traffic forecast for the planning 2029 is done in chapter 4, the forecasted traffic load implies future traffic volumes for which adequate capacities of the road network need to be provided. Chapter 5 is based on determination of the relationship between the benefits brought by the newly designed variant and the costs that are realized during its construction. The results of this analysis were used as input data for the economic evaluation of the project solutions, where the savings in fuel costs were analyzed.

Cooperative- and Eco-Driving: Impact on Fuel Consumption for Heavy Trucks on Hills

Greenhouse gas emissions are the cause of climate change, which in turn has a negative impact on people and the environment. Reducing the fuel consumption of conventional engines reduces climate-damaging emissions and can, thus, contribute to achieving climate protection goals. In addition, fuel costs are a major cost factor for long-haul trucking. Eco-driving helps to reduce fuel costs when driving on inclines and declines. Due to the high mass and, therefore, high kinetic and potential energy of heavy trucks, fuel can be saved by coasting before slopes and before speed limits. However, energy-efficient and non-cooperative driving, i.e., without considering other road users, can lead to increased fuel consumption as vehicles impede each other. To resolve conflicts in road traffic, a variety of methods that enable cooperative driving exist. In general, vehicles communicate with vehicle-to-everything (V2X) and negotiate a joint driving strategy. This paper presents a method that combines cooperative and energy-efficient driving and examines the impact on fuel consumption during uphill driving. The method relies on the exchange of trajectories for cooperative maneuver coordination. By computing a strategic trajectory, energy-efficient driving with long coasting maneuvers is enabled. In the simulative evaluation, travel over hills with two and three trucks is investigated. It is shown that the combination of cooperative and eco-driving reduces the fuel costs for traffic.

OTIMIZAÇÃO DE ROTAS DE AUTOMÓVEIS E ESCALAS PARA ATENDIMENTO DE HOME CARE

The Brazilian vehicle fleet has been growing year by year. This increase in the number of vehicles brings with it some problems, such as congestion and an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. In almost all urban centers, parking outside private establishments is a difficult task, and the time spent on commuting is increasingly high. As an alternative to reduce the number of vehicles in circulation, the sharing of vehicles, as a kind of ride between people who make similar journeys, is gaining ground in urban centers around the world. With an eye on the financial and environmental benefits offered by this alternative, some companies are beginning to adhere to its use, groupingprofessionals who follow similar paths in groups that use the same vehicle. This work aims to seek ways to optimize the route that this group of professionals takes in each work cycle, mitigating vehicle maintenance costs and reducing fuel costs, which consequently reduces pollutant gas emissions. For customers, this can offer greater punctuality in the provision of the service and greater availability of professionals' time. At the end of the work, it is expected that an application will be developed thatperforms the route calculation in the best possible way, allowing its users to have a better use of time when using it.