Orientador: José Antonio Perrella Balestieri / Coorientador: João Andrade Carvalho Jr. / Banca: Ivonete Ávila / Banca: Christian Jeremi Coronado Rodriguéz / Resumo: Os gases siderúrgicos disponíveis em empresas do setor como resultado de seus principais processos de transformação são o gás de coqueria (COG), o gás de alto forno (BFG) e o gás de aciaria (LDG); que são bastante valorizados pelo fato de minimizarem a necessidade de emprego de gás natural ou outra fonte combustível. As centrais termelétricas estão entre as principais consumidoras desses combustíveis, e a distribuição de combustíveis siderúrgicos para as mesmas é um problema discutido na literatura técnica como uma forma de minimizar os desequilíbrios entre a geração e o consumo dos mesmos. Ao mesmo tempo, busca-se maximizar a eficiência energética da empresa e a confiabilidade/disponibilidade do seu suprimento às unidades consumidoras sem queima direta nas torres de queima (flares). A presente proposta de pesquisa tem por objetivo modelar e propor soluções para a otimização da distribuição de gases combustíveis em centrais termelétricas em ciclo combinado gás/vapor considerando os impactos que a troca de combustíveis operam sobre o acionador principal (no caso, o conjunto a gás) em termos de sua resposta à intercambiabilidade entre combustíveis. As modificações propostas neste trabalho otimizam simultaneamente a distribuição de gases subproduto no sistema de gases siderúrgicos; foram avaliadas 56 combinações de combustíveis, o que resultou numa faixa de potência ideal para a aplicação do estudo entre 30 MW e 80 MW, e outra faixa entre 10 MW e 30 MW que deve ser evitada quand... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The steel gases available in companies in the sector because of their main transformation processes are coke oven gas (COG), blast furnace gas (BFG) and steel gas (LDG). These are highly valued for minimizing the need to use natural gas or other fuel source. The thermoelectric power plants are among the main consumers of these fuels and the distribution of steel fuels for them is a problem discussed in the technical literature as a way to minimize the imbalances between generation and consumption. At the same time, it is a way to maximize the energy efficiency of the company and the reliability / availability of its supply to the consumer units without direct burning in the flares. The present research proposal aims to model and propose solutions for the optimization of the distribution of fuel gases in thermoelectric power stations in combined gas / steam cycle considering the impacts that the exchange of fuels operate on the main driver (in this case, the gas turbine) In terms of its response to interchangeability between fuels. The modifications proposed in this work simultaneously optimize the by-product gas distribution in the cogeneration gas system, 56 combinations of fuels were evaluated, which resulted in an ideal power range for the application of the study between 30,000 and 80,000 kW and another between 10,000 and 30,000 kW which should be avoided when the objective is positive net revenue. The case study shows that the proposed model finds the ideal solution in terms of total cost reduction when applying the COG in the NG mixture as well as in the substitution of NG by a mixture of by-products COG and BFG, which resulted in the three best net income results found in this analysis / Mestre

This work includes two different areas of research. Both areas are related to the combustion of the binder-enhanced densified refuse derived fuel (bdRDF) with high sulfur coal and examining trace elements. The first area of this work involved studying the trace metals in the combustion gas of bdRDF/coal blend and the effect of the binder, CA(OH)2, on reducing the trace elements emissions. The second area of work involved studying the trace elements in the fly ash and the effect of the dRDF and the binder of trace metals.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / This is a case study of the impact a future search conference had on Gas Distribution and Delivery, a business within the Public Service of New Jersey utility company as it made a major transition from a regulated monopoly to a competitive, deregulated business. The study found that problems addressed were both technical and socio-technical. The data displayed four "organization ripples." The first ripple shows how large-scale change methodology can align diverse stakeholder groups, faced with complex challenges that require full collaboration to solve. This was a challenge for a traditional utility company that was very hierarchical and operated under a traditional command-and-control culture. The second ripple addressed the need for a new business model predicated on empowerment and the need for both efficiency and effectiveness of execution. Formal systems must be congruent with organization culture if new technology is expected to have a significant, positive impact. The third ripple focused on the importance of organization culture and its influence on collaboration in the wake of deregulation and changes in state regulation that remove historical barriers from competition and open up possibilities for competitive business--leading to an emphasis on customer response time. The fourth ripple highlighted how an organization can address its supervisors' perception of work, and how an empowered workforce can create a more integrative business strategy, where employees work together as one, not as many individual "tribes" within an organization. The concept of organization "fit" is explored as competitive advantage. The study covered a ten-year span from 1997 to 2007. The initial work of the Future Search Conference covered a period of time from approximately 1997 to 2000, creating the foundation of all four ripples. In addition to documenting the conference, itself, the researcher also was able to interview the management team responsible for these initiatives in 2007 and to document the impact of the change effort over the entire ten-year period. Implications are drawn about what role organization development may play in assisting 21st century companies with their learning and developmental needs. / 2031-01-02

Rail and truck freight transportation systems provide vital logistics services today. Rail systems are generally used to transport heavy and bulky commodities over long distances, while trucks tend to provide fast and flexible service for small and high-value products. In this dissertation, we study two different distribution planning problems that arise in rail and truck transportation systems. In the railroad industry, shipments are often grouped together to form a block to reduce the impact of reclassification at train yards. We consider the time and capacity constrained routing (TCCR) problem, which assigns shipments to blocks and train-runs to minimize overall transportation costs, while considering the train capacities and shipment due dates. Two mathematical formulations are developed, including an arc-based formulation and a path-based formulation. To solve the problem efficiently, two solution approaches are proposed. The sequential algorithm assigns shipments in order of priority while considering the remaining train capacities and due dates. The bump-shipment algorithm initially schedules shipments simultaneously and then reschedules the shipments that exceed the train capacity. The algorithms are evaluated using a data set from a major U.S. railroad with approximately 500,000 shipments. Industry-sized problems are solved within a few minutes of computational time by both the sequential and bump-shipment algorithms, and transportation costs are reduced by 6% compared to the currently used trip plans. For truck transportation systems, trailer fleet planning (TFP) is an important issue to improve services and reduce costs. In this problem, we consider the quantities and types of trailers to purchase, rent, or relocate among depots to meet time varying demands. Mixed-integer programming models are developed for both homogeneous and heterogeneous TFP problems. The objective is to minimize the total fleet investment costs and the distribution costs across multiple depots and multiple time periods. For homogeneous TFP problem, a two-phase solution approach is proposed. Phase I concentrates on distribution costs and determines the suggested fleet size. A sweep-based routing heuristic is applied to generate candidate routes of good quality. Then a reduced mathematical model selects routes for meeting customer demands and determines the preferred fleet size. Phase II provides trailer purchase, relocation, and rental decisions based on the results of Phase I and relevant cost information. This decomposition approach removes the interactions between depots and periods, which greatly reduces the complexity of the integrated optimization model. For the heterogeneous TFP problem, trailers with different capacities, costs, and features are considered. The two-phase approach, developed for the homogeneous TFP, is modified. A rolling horizon scheme is applied in Phase I to consider the trailer allocations in previous periods when determining the fleet composition for the current period. Additionally, the sweep-based routing heuristic is also extended to capture the characteristics of continuous delivery practice where trailers are allowed to refill products at satellite facilities. This heuristic generates routes for each trailer type so that the customer-trailer restrictions are accommodated. The numerical studies, conducted using a data set with three depots and more than 400 customers, demonstrate the effectiveness of the two-phase approaches. Compared to the integrated optimization models, the two-phase approaches obtain quality solutions within a reasonable computational time and demonstrate robust performance as the problem sizes increase. Based on these results, a leading industrial gas provider is currently integrating the proposed solution approaches as part of their worldwide distribution planning software. / Ph. D.

We estimate cost functions to derive productivity growth using a unique database on costs and outputs of essentially all regulated Austrian gas distribution companies over the period 2002-2013, covering the times before and after the introduction of incentive regulation in 2008. We estimate a concave relation between total costs and time, and a significant one-off but permanent reduction in real costs after an imposed reduction in granted costs in the course of the introduction of incentive regulation. Our results imply that technological opportunities were higher in the early years of the sample than in later years, and that productivity growth grinded to a halt from 2008 on. We conclude that technological opportunities are exhausted (for the time being) in the Austrian gas distribution sector giving rise to an optimal general X factor (X-gen) of zero for the foreseeable future. (authors' abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

The history of natural gas in Turkey started in 1970s by the usage of domestic gas in cement factories. However, natural gas began penetrating the energy market in 1980s with the usage of natural gas in Ankara. In the following years, the number of cities using natural gas reached six. Then, a new era started with the enactment of Natural Gas Market Law in 2001 and 53 distribution tenders have been realized by Energy Market Regulatory Authority until 2009. This thesis analyzes the performance of 38 Turkish natural gas distribution companies by using a non-parametric method, Data Envelopment Analysis. The results are used to determine the most proper model specification, to detect the important criteria affecting the efficiency levels and to find the common characteristics of the most inefficient firms. The results show that public firms compared to private firms, non-tender firms compared to tender firms, large firms compared to small firms and firms operating in more developed areas compared to firms operating in underdeveloped areas utilize resources and manage costs more efficiently. However, we can not get a certain conclusion about the comparison of old firms and new firms. Lastly, we try to detect the common characteristics of the most inefficient firms and find that the major problem is low delivery amount.

In this dissertation, we present and evaluate algorithms for statistical gas distribution modelling in mobile robot applications. We derive a representation of the gas distribution in natural environments using gas measurements collected with mobile robots. The algorithms fuse different sensors readings (gas, wind and location) to create 2D or 3D maps. Throughout this thesis, the Kernel DM+V algorithm plays a central role in modelling the gas distribution. The key idea is the spatial extrapolation of the gas measurement using a Gaussian kernel. The algorithm produces four maps: the weight map shows the density of the measurements; the confidence map shows areas in which the model is considered being trustful; the mean map represents the modelled gas distribution; the variance map represents the spatial structure of the variance of the mean estimate. The Kernel DM+V/W algorithm incorporates wind measurements in the computation of the models by modifying the shape of the Gaussian kernel according to the local wind direction and magnitude. The Kernel 3D-DM+V/W algorithm extends the previous algorithm to the third dimension using a tri-variate Gaussian kernel. Ground-truth evaluation is a critical issue for gas distribution modelling with mobile platforms. We propose two methods to evaluate gas distribution models. Firstly, we create a ground-truth gas distribution using a simulation environment, and we compare the models with this ground-truth gas distribution. Secondly, considering that a good model should explain the measurements and accurately predicts new ones, we evaluate the models according to their ability in inferring unseen gas concentrations. We evaluate the algorithms carrying out experiments in different environments. We start with a simulated environment and we end in urban applications, in which we integrated gas sensors on robots designed for urban hygiene. We found that typically the models that comprise wind information outperform the models that do not include the wind data.

No description available.

The demand for high performance electronic devices is ever increasing in today's world with advent of digital technology in every field. In order to support this fast paced growth and incursion of digital technology in society, smarter, smaller integrated circuits are required at a lower cost. This primary requirement drives semiconductor industries towards the integration of larger number of smaller transistors on a given circuit area. The past decades have seen a rapid evolution of material processing and fabrication techniques, as focus shifts from submicron to sub-nanometer length scales in device configuration. As the functional feature size of an integrated circuit decreases, the threshold of defect causing impurities rises drastically. Huge amount of resources are spent in downstream and upstream processing in order to restore system from contamination upsets and in the upkeep of Ultra-High-Purity (UHP) process streams to meet these stringent requirements. Contamination once introduced into the system also drastically reduces process yield and throughput resulting in huge losses in revenue. Regular UHP fluid distribution system maintenance as well as restorative operations involve a purging operation typically known as Steady State Purge (SSP). This purge operation involves large amount of expensive UHP gas and time. Depending on the scale of the system and type of process involved this results in significant tool, process downtimes and can have a wide range of environment, health and safety (ESH) ramifications. A novel purge process, referred to as Pressure Cyclic Purge (PCP) was studied for establishing gas phase contamination control in UHP applications. In understanding the basic mechanism of this technique and to analyze its extent of application in aiding purging operations, a coupled approach involving experimental investigation and computational process modelling was used. Representative and generic distribution sections such as main supply lines and sections with laterals were contaminated with a known amount of moisture as impurity. The dynamics of the impurity transport through the system from purging with SSP as well as PCP was captured by a highly sensitive analyzer. The surface interactions between the moisture and EPSS were characterized in terms of adsorption and desorption rate constants and surface site density. A computational process model trained using experimental data was then validated and used to study the steady and cyclic purge mechanisms and predict complex purge scenarios. Industrially relevant and applicable boundary conditions and system definitions were used to increases the utility of the computational tool. Although SSP compared closely with PCP on simple systems without laterals, a drastic difference in dry-down efficiency was noticed in systems with dead volumes in the form of capped laterals. Studies on system design parameters revealed that the disparity in performance was observed to increase with larger number and surface area of dead volumes, opening a path to critical understanding of the differences in process mechanisms. Beneficial transient pressure gradient induced convective flow in the dead volumes during cyclic purge was identified to be the main factor driving the enhanced dry down rate. Similar trends were observed on using surface concentration as the purge metric. Hybrid purge schemes involving a combination of SSP and PCP were found to yield higher benefit in terms of efficient use of purge gas. Removal of strongly interacting contaminant species showed a higher benefit from use of controlled PCP scheme. Although, parametric analysis carried out on the operating factors of cyclic purge suggested that the enhancement in dry down increased with higher pressure range, it was highly conditional towards configurational factors in design and operation such as system dimensions, holding time, cycling pattern, valve loss coefficients and the complex inter coupling between them. The robustness of the process simulator allows the development of optimal purge scenarios for a given set of system parameters in order to perform a controlled purge. The benefit of using a hybrid PCP scheme was evaluated in terms of UHP purge gas and process time as a function of purity baseline required. Apart from UHP gas distribution systems, process vessels, chambers and components along the process stream are also prone to molecular contamination and pose a threat to product integrity. The dead volumes acting as areas of contaminant accumulation represent cavities or dead spaces in flow control elements such as mass flow controllers (MFCs), gauges, valves or dead spaces in process chambers. Steady purge has very little effect in cleanup of such areas and more efficient methods are necessitated to raise purge efficiency. The analysis of application of PCP is extended to such components through the development of a robust and comprehensive process simulator. The computational model applies a three dimensional physical model to analyze purge scenarios with steady and cyclic purge. The results presented pertain to any generic gas phase contaminant and electronic grade steel surfaces. Close investigation of the purge process helped elaborate the cleaning mechanism. Critical steps driving the purge process were identified as - dilution of chamber by introduction of fresh gas during re-pressurization and chamber venting during depressurization. Surface and gas phase purging of chambers with dead spaces using steady and cyclic purge were studied and compared. Cyclic purge exhibited a higher rate of dry down. The effect of system, design and purge operating parameters on surface cleaning were studied. Although higher frequency cycles and larger operating pressure ranges optimized for a given geometry are found to deliver better pressure cyclic purge (PCP) performances, the benefit is found to be contingent to a strong interplay between system parameters. PCP is found to be advantageous than steady state purge (SSP) in terms of purge gas usage and operation time in reaching a certain purity baseline. Specialty process gases supplied to the fabrication facility are typically stored in the form of liquids in enormous tanks outside the fab. Ammonia is a widely used in UHP concentrations for a variety of process including epitaxial growth, MOCVD, etching and wet processes in the semiconductor industry. The recent development in LED research has risen the demand and supply for Ammonia based compounds. Stringent baselines are maintained for the impurities associated with the manufacturing of such gases (e.g. Moisture in Ammonia). Apart from the difference in the rates of evaporation of the individual species from the storage cylinder causing accumulation of slower evaporating species, external temperature fluctuations also generate unsteady flux of desired species. When concentrations rise above this threshold additional purification or in most cases discarding large volumes of unused gas is warranted, causing loss of resources and causing ESH issues. Bulk gases are usually delivered over long lengths of large diameter pipes which produce large density of adsorption sites for contaminants to accumulate and eventually release into the gas stream. In order to establish contamination control in the gas delivery system, the surface interactions of the multispecies system with the delivery line surface was characterized. Desired concentrations of moisture in ammonia and UHP nitrogen mixtures were produced in a gas mixing section capable of delivering controlled mass flow rates to an EPSS test bed. Transient moisture profiles during adsorption and desorption tests at various test bed temperatures, mass flow rates and moisture concentration were captured by a highly sensitive analyzer. A mathematical model for single and multi-species adsorption was used in conjunction with experimental data to determinate kinetics parameters for moisture, ammonia system in EPSS surface. The results indicate competitive site binding on EPSS between ammonia and water molecules. Also, the concentration distribution of each species between surface, gas phase is interdependent and in accordance to the kinetic parameters evaluated. Back diffusion of impurity is a major source of contaminant introduction into UHP streams. Back diffusion refers to the transport of contaminants against the flow of bulk process stream. Molecular species can back diffuse from dead volumes, during mixing operations etc., simply when there is a gradient of concentration. A steady state approach was used to analyze the mechanism and effects of various geometrical and operational parameters on back diffusion. High sensitivity moisture detectors were used to capture the dynamics of contamination in a section of a generic distribution system. Results showed that back diffusion can occur through VCR fittings, joints and valves under constant purge. General trends on the effect of design parameters on back diffusion were derived from studies on various orifice sizes, system dimensions, flow rates and test moisture concentrations. Coupled parametric studies helped identify critical variable groups to perform dimensionless analysis on back diffusion of moisture. Crucial points where back diffusion can be minimized or completely eliminated are identified to help set up guidelines for cyclic and steady purge parameters without excessive use of expensive UHP gas or installation of unnecessarily large factors of safety. Wet cleaning of micro/nano sized features is a highly frequent process step in the semiconductor industry. The operation is a huge consumer of ultra-pure water and one of the main areas where process time minimization is focused. Comprehensive process model is developed to simulate the mechanism and capture the dynamics of rinsing high aspect ratio Silicon features in the nanometer scale. Rinsing of model trench, post etch contaminated with ammonium residue is studied. Mass transport mechanisms such as convection, diffusion are coupled with surface processes like adsorption and desorption. The effect of charged species on the trench surface and in the bulk, the resultant induced electric field on the rinse dynamics and decay of surface species concentration is studied. General rinsing trends and critical points in change in mechanisms were identified with critical groups such as mass transfer coefficient and desorption coefficient. The model is useful in evaluating process efficiency in terms of rinse time and DI water consumption under varying process temperature, contaminant concentration, and rinse fluid flow rate. The generic build of the model allows extension of its functionality to other impurity-substrate material couples.

O polietileno de média densidade (PEMD) é um polímero termoplástico parcialmente cristalino, cujo uso tem crescido bastante em aplicações de engenharia, como em tubos plásticos para sistemas de distribuição de água e de gás. Sob carga constante, entretanto, este material pode eventualmente apresentar fratura por fluência, por meio de um mecanismo de crescimento lento de trincas, provocando acentuadas perdas por vazamento nos sistemas. Os métodos atuais empregados pela indústria para estimar a durabilidade dos tubos são caros, demorados, pouco práticos e imprecisos. Busca-se o desenvolvimento de técnicas mais eficientes, sendo que os métodos da mecânica da fratura são promissores no sentido de descrever a etapa de propagação da trinca. Ensaios de mecânica da fratura, entretanto, requerem a introdução de pré-trincas nos corpos de prova. Sabe-se que as técnicas artificiais de introdução de pré-trincas causam algum tipo de dano na matriz polimérica, que pode ou não afetar os resultados dos ensaios, dependendo dos eventos que ocorrerem após o carregamento inicial. A principal propriedade requerida de um método de introdução de pré-trinca, portanto, é reprodutibilidade. Neste estudo foram aplicados três importantes métodos de mecânica da fratura ao PEMD e investigados os efeitos de diferentes técnicas de introdução de pré-trincas sobre os resultados dos ensaios e sobre as estruturas de deformação na matriz do material na ponta da trinca. Os ensaios de tenacidade à fratura no estado plano de deformação - KIc - foram realizados em condições criogênicas, em vista do comportamento dúctil do material à temperatura ambiente, sendo que a estratégia mostrou-se satisfatória. Os resultados dos ensaios de Integral-J sugerem que o método pode não ser aplicável ao PEMD, devido ao peculiar mecanismo de fratura do material. O método do trabalho essencial de fratura - EWF - se aplica bem ao PEMD. Os resultados dos ensaios de KIc e EWF demonstraram que diferentes técnicas de introdução de pré-trincas provocam diferentes estruturas de deformação no material na ponta da trinca e afetam os resultados de ensaios de fratura no PEMD. Os resultados de EWF demonstraram ainda que o processamento também afeta as propriedades de fratura do material. É proposta uma nova técnica para a introdução de pré-trincas, com características mais naturais, a qual requer estudos complementares para seu aperfeiçoamento. / Medium density polyethylene (MDPE) is a semicrystalline thermoplastic polymer that has been increasingly used in engineering applications, as plastic pipes for water and gas distribution systems. Under constant load, however, this material may occasionally present creep failure, by means of a mechanism of slow crack growth, leading to leakage losses in the systems. Current methods used by industry to estimate durability of pipes are expensive, time consuming, non practical and inaccurate. The development of more efficient methods is a common target and fracture mechanics methods are promising in describing the crack propagation stage. Fracture mechanics testing methods, however, require the introduction of pre-cracks into the specimens. It is known that artificial methods of introducing pre-cracks produce some damage on the polymeric matrix, which may or not affect the results of tests, depending on the events that occur after the initial loading. Main propriety required of a pre-crack introducing method, therefore, is reproducibility. In this study three important fracture mechanics methods were applied to MDPE and the effects of different methods of pre-cracking over test results and over deformation structures of material matrix at the crack tip were investigated. Plane-strain fracture toughness - KIc tests were performed under cryogenic conditions, in view of the ductile behavior of material at room temperature and this strategy was well succeed. Results of Integral-J tests suggest that this method may not be applicable to MDPE, due to the peculiar fracture mechanism of the material. The essential work of fracture method EWF is well suited to study MDPE. The results of KIc and EWF tests showed that different pre-cracking methods cause different deformation structures in the material at the crack tip and affect the fracture tests with MDPE. EWF results showed also that the processing affect the fracture properties of materials too. It is proposed a new method for introducing pre-cracks, with more natural characteristics that requires complementary studies for its improving.