The greater competition and concentration in South Africa's financial sector has put South African banks under more constraints and led to questioning of their present performance. With a greater demand for financial services and more complains about the low quality of financial services and charges being too high, there has been increasing debate about how efficient South African banks really are. This study discusses performance evaluation, the traditional financial and non-financial measures used, and their limitations. The concept of bank efficiency is also briefly discussed, including scale efficiency, scope efficiency, X-efficiency, cost efficiency, standard profit efficiency, alternative profit efficiency and the risk component of bank efficiency. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was chosen as the most appropriate method to estimate the scale efficiency and technical efficiency of 37 districts (and 10 provinces) of one of the largest banks in South Africa. 'DEA involves solving linear programming problems that generate a non-parametric, piecewise linear convex frontier that envelops the input and output data relative to which cost is minimized' (Fare et al., 1985b:193). The intermediation approach was used incorporating both the input- and output-orientated approach under variable returns to scale. The analyses indicated that 19 districts out of the 37 districts were not at least once fully technically efficient during the 22 months (input- and output-orientated). The same results were found with regard to scale efficiency: 17 districts out of the 37 districts were not at least once fully scale efficient (input-orientated) and 19 districts out of the 37 districts were not at least once fully scale efficient (output-orientated), during the 22 months. Synergy was found in 6 provinces out of the 10 provinces (input- and output-orientated). / Thesis (M.Com. (Risk Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

The greater competition and concentration in South Africa's financial sector has put South African banks under more constraints and led to questioning of their present performance. With a greater demand for financial services and more complains about the low quality of financial services and charges being too high, there has been increasing debate about how efficient South African banks really are. This study discusses performance evaluation, the traditional financial and non-financial measures used, and their limitations. The concept of bank efficiency is also briefly discussed, including scale efficiency, scope efficiency, X-efficiency, cost efficiency, standard profit efficiency, alternative profit efficiency and the risk component of bank efficiency. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was chosen as the most appropriate method to estimate the scale efficiency and technical efficiency of 37 districts (and 10 provinces) of one of the largest banks in South Africa. 'DEA involves solving linear programming problems that generate a non-parametric, piecewise linear convex frontier that envelops the input and output data relative to which cost is minimized' (Fare et al., 1985b:193). The intermediation approach was used incorporating both the input- and output-orientated approach under variable returns to scale. The analyses indicated that 19 districts out of the 37 districts were not at least once fully technically efficient during the 22 months (input- and output-orientated). The same results were found with regard to scale efficiency: 17 districts out of the 37 districts were not at least once fully scale efficient (input-orientated) and 19 districts out of the 37 districts were not at least once fully scale efficient (output-orientated), during the 22 months. Synergy was found in 6 provinces out of the 10 provinces (input- and output-orientated). / Thesis (M.Com. (Risk Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

自金融風暴之後，不論是政府或是企業，皆意識到產業結構轉型之重要與迫切性，而產學合作於其中扮演不可或缺之角色。事實上，政府推動產學合作多年，過去產學合作之投入與產出、衍生效益不符，經探究，發現主要原因在於大學研發成果與市場端中間存有缺口（Gap），研究與技術對企業來說不具誘因，中間需要商管知識協助技術之商品化；此外，隨著產業結構之轉型，很大契機來自於商業模式之創新。 然而，過去學術界與實務業皆鮮少談論商管領域之產學合作，成功案例更是少之又少。商管知識相對無形，要執行產學合作勢必有所困難，但是，一旦成功將對企業甚至是社會作出貢獻。 是以，本研究透過文獻回顧探討促成產業界與學術界成功合作之主要因素，以及影響產學合作績效之重要要素，並藉由個案研究組織之分析提出關於商管領域產學合作之關鍵成功要素，作為未來執行商管產學合作之參考。此外，本研究更以關鍵成功因素為基礎，由現行產學合作相關績效評估模式中選取適合之模式，以商管學者於文化創意產業之產學合作為例，探究合作過程中商管學者應有之功能與角色，據以說明績效評估構面與關鍵績效指標應如何訂定，希冀架構一系統化之商管領域產學合作之績效評估模式，驅動更多之商管學者投入產學合作，為台灣產業之突破與創新做出貢獻。 / After the financial crisis，both government and enterprises are aware of the importance and urgency of industry structure transformation, and the industry-university collaboration in which plays essential roles. In fact, the government has promoted industry-university collaboration for many years. However, there is a discrepancy in the inputs and outputs of industry-university collaboration. From related researches’, the main problem is the gap between universities’ R & D results and market side. In other words, enterprises have no incentives to buy universities’ research results. Indeed, business and management knowledge can minimum the gap. In addition, with the transformation of industry structure, there’s a huge need for innovation of business model. However, academic and industry rarely talk about the managerial industry-university collaboration. And there are few success cases about it. In fact, managerial knowledge is more invisible than technology. It is difficult to implement managerial industry-university collaboration cases. But, if it succeeds, it will make great contribution to enterprise and industry. Therefore, this research is to explore the key success factors and performance evaluation of industry-university collaboration from literatures review, and to establish the key success factors and performance evaluation of managerial industry-university collaboration by case study. Hope of the research is to provide some guidance for related parties. Moreover, this research takes the key success factors of managerial industry-university collaboration as a basis of building up performance evaluation. Because of a lack of industry-university collaboration in cultural and creative industries, the research explores managerial scholars’ function and role in it, and then designs the structure and index of performance evaluation. The main object of the research is to systematize performance evaluation for managerial scholars in implementing managerial industry-university collaboration cases. Without right performance evaluation, managerial scholars have no incentives to help industry improve and solve practical problems.

The field buses, and particularly the ‘PROFIBUS’, are currently widely used in automation systems, with the intention to automate industrial applications. It is of the utmost importance that one should understand how these systems operate, because failure to understand may result in improper applications, which can ultimately lead to intense network problems and, consequently, lead to potential catastrophic failures in industrial equipment, as well as compromising the health and safety of the people. This research was the performance evaluation of SAMANCOR PROFIBUS network that controls the chrome manufacturing plant. The problem with the network was that it was failing intermittently. These network failures resulted in loss of production, loss of throughput, compromised quality, downtime due to reworks, high costs in energy used to rework, and equipment damage or failure. One of the OBJECTIVES of the research was to carry out a performance evaluation of the PROFIBUS network in terms of the possible electromagnetic interference (EMI) within the plant’s PLC network. This topic emanated from the network service providers that kept insisting that the network was unstable, due to possible electromagnetic interference caused by possible high voltage cables running next to the plant network cables. This assumption was without fact, and hence the research was conducted. The QUANTITATIVE research method was used to conduct the research, where simulation of the plant network, using external parameters, were used to carry out the research. Furthermore, experiments were conducted and the physical measurements were performed on the network, where parameters derived from these measurements were used to compare the two networks. In essence, the network was tested under known configurations. The manner in which the network was simulated was that of stepping up the electrical current from the external device, and recording the response of the network. A stand-alone network rig was built and used to carry out the tests, and the results were compared with those obtained from the plant network. / Electrical and Mining Engineering / M. Tech. (Electrical Engineering)

Within the context of technological development, the needs and preferences of the 21st century student (Generation Y), the changing higher education environment, the increasing use of technology in teaching and learning, and the significant role of online learning facilitators in e-learning, the e-readiness of academic employees became imperative. Thus, considering the importance of academic employees' e-readiness, the primary objective of the study aims to determine the role of key human factors in their e-readiness, with specific focus on personal work profile patterns, preferred learning style and pace and style of technology adoption. The research problem therefore is how to determine the role of these key human factors in the e-readiness of academic employees. In this respect the study argues that the e-readiness assessment of academic employees must be included in the human resource performance appraisal process. The purpose of this research is to develop a framework for assessing the ereadiness of academic employees during their performance appraisals, as well as determining and assessing the role of key human factors in their e-readiness in order to draft an e-profile which will provide guidance in terms of structuring unique training and development approaches for each e-profile. Once accademic employees' e-readiness has been assessed during their performance appraisals, they can be plotted on the framework. The outcome of their e-readiness assessments will reveal their e-profiles, which will portray insight into the presence or absence of particular ereadiness indicators, outlined in an e-readiness construct. Subsequently, a personal development plan can be drafted, making provision for uniquely structured training and development interventions, best suited for each accademic employees' e-profile. The most suitable motivating factors for each employee will also be considered during the drafting of the personal development plan. The empirical research by means of a self-administered questionnaire and a focus group discussion revealed two prominent e-profiles indicating various levels of ereadiness, namely an early adopter-pragmatist-compliance e-profile and an early majority-theorist-steadiness e-profile. The findings made it evident that the traits portrayed by a person belonging to a certain technology adoption category show similarities to traits portrayed by particular learning styles and personal work profile patterns. Certain profiles could be identified, based on trends and similarities pertaining to interpersonal traits. The findings further revealed that with an increase in age and teaching experience of respondents (which also imply an increase in age), the willingness to be assessed on e-readiness declined. It was also determined that the human resource performance management policies and practices at the North-West University (NWU) (which is used as case study), do not make provision for the inclusion of e-readiness in performance appraisals of academic employees. Further it became evident that training and development interventions should not only focus on the technical skill of e-learning, but follow a broader teaching and learning approach, also including the philosophy of e-learning and the use and adaptation of teaching and learning strategies to obtain optimal learner learning. The findings of the study thus supported the need for a framework, providing guidance in this regard. Presently, neither the literature of human resource performance appraisal nor the literature of e-readiness or e-learning makes provision for assessing the e-readiness of academic employees. The study thus contributes to the scholarly discourse and knowledge in the field of public human resource management, as sub-field of Public Administration, by developing a theoretical framework (that currently does not exist), consisting of three matrixes for this purpose to determine the role of the key human factors in the e-readiness of academic employees. / Public Administration and Management / D. Litt. et Phil. (Public Administration)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:06:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 5247.pdf: 4506683 bytes, checksum: c96faa985ac336ef47e06d250cb3dc14 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-09-25 / The distributed interactive simulations can be used to train human actions and behaviors in dangerous situations, which way reduce the risks to life and/or patrimony. As part of the training in virtual environments, is important that learners are assessed not only after exercise virtual training, but also during this period that there may be occasional interventions by the coach in the learning process. However, the development of training simulations is complex and not always the human evaluation, post and share in real time, is offered to the learner as a learning resource and training support as coach. A computer systemis being developed in the WINDIS Laboratory at UFSCar s Computer Department, to support the modeling, construction, execution, management and control of complex training simulations, using emergency preparedness and response as application areas. This work is part of that system and aims to create an individual and/or group performance evaluation sub system in distributed interactive simulations in order to better train apprentices in emergency management processes. It had been used theories, methods and best practices for evaluating human performance to create this sub system. During the preparation of simulations and human performance evaluations, it had been used preparedness and response to emergencies standards and protocols for conducting drills accordingly to São Paulo State, as well as the support of professional experts (São Carlos Fire Department). The modeling, simulations and ontologies used in this project were developed by the students in an integrated manner at WINDIS laboratory. As an individual part of this paper, it has been developed three modules that enable, respectively, the training assessments configuration, the monitoring and evaluation at runtime (with proper measurement for the proposed scenario, the instructor interaction in the simulation and analysis of competences Individual and team), and the analysis and after-action orientation. Two scenarios were developed a concept proof, one for fire department truck s control panel and other to conduct fire-fighting with indirect attack. / As simulações interativas distribuídas podem ser utilizadas para treinar ações e comportamentos humanos em situações de emergência, podendo reduzir os riscos à vida e/ou ao patrimônio. Como parte do treinamento em ambientes virtuais, é importante que os aprendizes sejam avaliados não só após os exercícios virtuais de treinamento, mas também durante este período para que possa haver intervenções pontuais do treinador no processo de aprendizagem. Entretanto, o desenvolvimento de simulações de treinamentos é complexo e nem sempre a avaliação humana, pós-ação e em tempo real, é oferecida ao aprendiz como recurso de aprendizagem e ao treinador como apoio ao treinamento. Um sistema está sendo desenvolvido no Laboratório WINDIS do Departamento de Computação da UFSCar, para apoiar a modelagem, construção, execução, gerenciamento e controle de simulações complexas de treinamento, tendo a preparação e resposta à emergência como uma das áreas de aplicação. O presente trabalho é parte desse sistema e tem como objetivo criar um subsistema de avaliação de desempenho individual e/ou em equipe em simulações interativas distribuídas, com a finalidade de melhor treinar aprendizes nos processos de gerenciamento da emergência. Para a criação desse subsistema foram utilizados teorias, métodos e boas práticas de avaliação de desempenho humano. Na elaboração das simulações e avaliações de desempenho humano foram utilizadas normas de preparação e resposta a emergências e protocolos para realização de exercícios simulados, vigentes no Estado de São Paulo, além do apoio de profissionais especialistas (Corpo de Bombeiros de São Carlos). A modelagem, as simulações e as ontologias utilizadas neste projeto foram desenvolvidas de maneira integrada pelos alunos do laboratório WINDIS. Como parte individual deste trabalho, foram desenvolvidos três módulos que possibilitam, respectivamente, a configuração de avaliações de treinamentos, o monitoramento e avaliação de treinamentos em tempo de execução (com medição adequada para o cenário proposto, interação do instrutor com a simulação e análise de competências individuais e em equipe) e a análise e orientação pós-ação. Dois cenários foram desenvolvidos como prova de conceito, um para o treinamento do painel de controle do caminhão do corpo de bombeiros e outro de combate a incêndio com ataque indireto.

This study was developed in the master s program from Universidade Federal de Uberlândia (UFU) on the field State, Policy and Management Education. It has as goal to analise the (re)definition of the role of the State and the changes of the public management from Minas Gerais (MG) State. Therefore, it was taken as methodology a literature and documental review of the subjects proposed in this study, also an analysis of official government documents. In the study, it is specially analyzed the State and the educational Policies developed during both terms of Aécio Neves as governor of Minas Gerais, the research seeks to understand the assumptions of the implemented reform; the purposes of the management and their instruments through the Choque de Gestão Program. It was focused in the study the process of the implementation of the Individual Performance Evaluation (IPE) of the Education employees from public schools of MG in Uberlândia city, under the logic of the new public management called managerial as an economical, social, political strategy. A qualitative research was developed by applying open questionnaires from the visit to five public schools of Uberlândia city (MG). It is analyzed in a subjective way, among the actors, the prospects of implementing and developing the IPE in the schools and how it has influenced the day-to-day teaching practice of education professionals. / Esta dissertação desenvolvida no curso de Mestrado, na Linha Estado, Política e Gestão da Educação do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação da Universidade Federal de Uberlândia (UFU), busca analisar a (re) definição do papel do Estado e as mudanças ocorridas na administração pública estadual mineira. Faz-se uma leitura bibliográfica e documental dos temas propostos e, analisa os documentos oficiais do governo. Analisando de forma especial o Estado e as políticas educacionais desenvolvidas durante as duas gestões do governo Aécio Neves como governador do Estado de Minas Gerais (MG), a pesquisa busca compreender os pressupostos da reforma implantada; as finalidades da gestão e seus instrumentos através do Programa Choque de Gestão. Focalizamos este estudo em torno do processo de implementação da Avaliação de Desempenho Individual (ADI) dos servidores da educação do Estado de Minas Gerais nas escolas da rede estadual mineira da cidade de Uberlândia (MG) sob a lógica da nova administração pública denominada gerencial como uma estratégia política, social e econômica do governo. Desenvolve como mecanismo final, uma pesquisa qualitativa através da aplicação de questionário aberto a partir de visita a cinco escolas da Rede Estadual de Ensino de Uberlândia (MG). Analisa de forma subjetiva, entre os atores, quanto às perspectivas de implementação e desenvolvimento da ADI nas escolas e como ela tem influenciado o dia-a-dia da prática pedagógica dos profissionais da educação. / Mestre em Educação

In advanced process control, the Model Predictive Control (MPC) may be considered the most important innovation in recent years and the standard tool for industrial applications due to the fact that it keeps the plant operating in the constraints more profitable. However, like every control algorithm, the MPC after some time in operation rarely works as originally designed. Thus, to preserve the benefits of MPC systems for a long period of time, their performance needs to be monitored and evaluated during the operation. This task require the presence of reliable and effective tools to detect when the controller performance is below of the desirable, to define the need, or not, of recommissioning the system. Thus, the objective of this work is development of techniques for monitoring and evaluating the performance of multivariable predictive controllers, being developed two new tools: LQG benchmark Modified and IHMC benchmark. The results obtained from numerical simulations were satisfactory and consistent with the technical literature applied in the developments of the evaluators, which were used in the monitoring of the control system MPC of the oil-water-gas three-phase separation process, offering an appropriate solution and providing subsidies for implementations in real industrial systems. / Em controle avançado de processos, o controlador preditivo ou MPC (Model Predictive Control) pode ser considerado como a mais importante inovação dos últimos anos e a ferramenta padrão para aplicações industriais, devido ao fato do MPC manter a planta operando dentro das suas restrições de forma mais lucrativa. Entretanto, como todo algoritmo de controle, o MPC depois de algum tempo em operação dificilmente funciona como quando fora inicialmente projetado. Desta forma, com o objetivo de manter os benefícios dos sistemas MPC por um longo período de tempo, seu desempenho precisa ser monitorado e avaliado durante a operação. Esta tarefa requer a presença de ferramentas efetivas e confiáveis para detectar quando o desempenho do controlador estiver abaixo do desejável, para definir a necessidade, ou não, de um recomissionamento do sistema. Destarte, aborda-se neste trabalho o desenvolvimento de técnicas para monitoramento e avaliação de desempenho de controladores preditivos multivariáveis, sendo desenvolvidas duas novas ferramentas: LQG benchmark Modificado e IHMC benchmark. Os resultados obtidos a partir de simulações numéricas foram satisfatórios e coerentes com a literatura técnica aplicada no desenvolvimento dos avaliadores, os quais foram utilizados no monitoramento do sistema de controle MPC do processo de separação trifásica água-óleo-gás, oferecendo assim uma solução apropriada e fornecendo subsídios para implementações em sistemas industrias reais.

Submitted by Marco Antônio Amaral (marco.amaral@fgv.br) on 2013-08-30T16:43:10Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Marco Antônio Teixeira de Amaral.pdf: 2105372 bytes, checksum: 22ca9c4fb5f213a3960d00b580e590de (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Janete de Oliveira Feitosa (janete.feitosa@fgv.br) on 2013-09-02T12:23:00Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Marco Antônio Teixeira de Amaral.pdf: 2105372 bytes, checksum: 22ca9c4fb5f213a3960d00b580e590de (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2013-09-10T12:22:12Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Marco Antônio Teixeira de Amaral.pdf: 2105372 bytes, checksum: 22ca9c4fb5f213a3960d00b580e590de (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-09-10T12:22:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Marco Antônio Teixeira de Amaral.pdf: 2105372 bytes, checksum: 22ca9c4fb5f213a3960d00b580e590de (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-07-31 / A preocupação com o esgotamento dos recursos naturais e a conscientização sobre as questões ligadas à sustentabilidade provocaram o estudo em um setor que tem sido apontado como de grande importância para a transformação do meio ambiente: a construção civil. Com isso percebemos o surgimento de um conjunto de práticas e procedimentos visando as chamadas 'construções sustentáveis', que introduziram uma nova realidade comercial no segmento da construção civil. Para avaliar se uma construção é ou não sustentável surgiram os eco-labellings, que através de sistema de pontuação ou conceitos permitem avaliar qualitativamente em que grau de sustentabilidade uma edificação encontra-se. Em especial, o mercado brasileiro vem, desde 2004, buscando a certificação ambiental LEED; sendo assim, a presente dissertação tem como objetivo identificar, após quase uma década desde a primeira submissão de projeto brasileiro ao USGBC, quais ainda são as dificuldades enfrentadas no processo de certificação LEED. O referencial teórico reforçou que o segmento da construção civil contribui de duas formas para a degradação do meio ambiente: no consumo de recursos naturais e energéticos, e na geração de grande quantidade de resíduos. Por esse motivo, estudos nessa área são extremamente importantes para a transformação do meio ambiente, que, através da adoção de práticas construtivas sustentáveis poderá minimizar os impactos gerados. Neste trabalho, optou-se pela utilização de pesquisa exploratória quanto aos fins, uma vez que existe pouco conhecimento acumulado sobre a avaliação do processo de certificação LEED, e bibliográfica, complementada com pesquisa de campo, quanto ao meio, pois fundamenta-se em estudo desenvolvido com base em material publicado, complementado por entrevistas no campo. Este trabalho caracteriza-se por se um estudo introdutório à compreensão do tema e convida a estudos complementares mais abrangentes, dada a relevância do assunto nas três esferas de sustentabilidade: social, ambiental e econômica. / Concern about the depletion of natural resources and awareness of sustainability issues led the study in an industry that has been shown to be important for the transformation of the environment: construction. Thus we see the emergence of a set of practices and procedures for so-called 'sustainable buildings', which introduced a new commercial reality in the construction segment. To assess whether or not a building is sustainable eco-labellings emerged that through scoring system or concepts allow qualitatively evaluate the degree to which sustainability is a building. In particular, the Brazilian market has, since 2004, seeking LEED certification, so in this thesis aims to identify, after nearly a decade since the first submission to the USGBC Brazilian project, which still are the difficulties faced in the process LEED certification. The theoretical stressed that the construction industry contributes in two ways to the degradation of the environment: the consumption of energy and natural resources, and the generation of large amounts of waste. Therefore, studies in this area are extremely important for the transformation of the environment, which, through the adoption of sustainable building practices can minimize the impacts. In this work, we chose to use exploratory research as to the purposes, since there is little accumulates knowledge on the evaluation of the LEED certification process, and literature, complemented with field research, about the middle, because is based on a study supported on published material, supplemented by interviews in the field. This work is characterized by an introductory study to the understanding of the topic and invites further studies are more comprehensive, given the relevance of the subject in the three spheres of sustainability: social, environmental and economic.

The present work focuses on the study of biomass gasification process for generating hydrogen rich synthetic gas with oxy-steam as reactants using experiments and modeling studies. Utilization of the syngas as a fuel in general applications like fuel cells, Fischer-Tropsch FT) process and production of various chemicals like DME, etc. are being considered to meet the demand for clean energy. This study comprises of experiments using an open top down draft reactor with oxygen and steam as reactants in the co-current configuration. Apart from the standard gasification performance evaluation; parametric study using equivalence ratio, steam-to-biomass ratio as major variables towards generation of syngas is addressed towards controlling H2/CO ratio. The gasification process is modeled as a packed bed reactor to predict the exit gas composition, propagation rate, bed temperature as a function of input reactants, temperature and mass flux with variation in thermo-physical properties of biomass. These results are compared with the present experiments as well as those in literature. Experiments are conducted using modified open top downdraft configuration reactor with lock hoppers and provision for oxy-steam injection, and the exit gas is connected to the cooling and cleaning system. The fully instrumented system is used to measure bed temperatures, steam and exit gas temperature, pressures at various locations, flow rates of fuel, reactants and product gas along with the gas composition. Preliminary investigations focused on using air as the reactant and towards establishing the packed bed performance by comparing with the experimental results from the literature and extended the study to O2-N2 mixtures. The study focuses on determining the propagation rate of the flame front in the packed bed reactor for various operating conditions. O2 is varied between 20-100% (vol.) in a mixture of O2-N2 to study the effect of O2 fraction on flame propagation rate and biomass conversion. With the increase in O2 fraction, the propagation rates are found to be very high and reaching over 10 mm/s, resulting in incomplete pyrolysis and poor biomass conversion. The flame propagation rate is found to vary with oxygen volume fraction as XO22.5, and stable operation is achieved with O2 fraction below 30%. Towards introducing H2O as a reactant for enhancing the hydrogen content in the syngas and also to reduce the propagation rates at higher ER, wet biomass is used. Stable operating conditions are achieved using wet biomass with moisture-to-biomass (H2O:Biomass) ratio between 0.6 to 1.1 (mass basis) and H2 yield up to 63 g/kg of dry biomass amounting to 33% volume fraction in the syngas. Identifying the limitation on the hydrogen yield and the criticality of achieving high quality gas; oxy-steam mixture is introduced as reactants with dry biomass as fuel. An electric boiler along with a superheater is used to generate superheated steam upto 700 K and pressure in the range of 0.4 MPa. Steam-to-biomass ratio (SBR) and ER is varied with towards generating hydrogen rich syngas with sustained continuous operation of oxy-steam gasification of dry biomass. The results are analysed with the variation of SBR for flame propagation rates, calorific value of product syngas, energy efficiency, H2 yield per kg of biomass and H2/CO ratio. Hydrogen yield of 104 g per kg of dry casuarina wood is achieved amounting to 50.5% volume fraction in dry syngas through oxy-steam gasification process compared to air gasification hydrogen yield of about 40 g per kg of fuel and 20% volume fraction. First and second law analysis for energy and exergy efficiency evaluation has been performed on the experimental results and compared with air gasification. Individual components of the energy input and output are analysed and discussed. H2 yield is found to increase with SBR with the reduction in energy density of syngas and also energy efficiency. Highest energy efficiency of 80.3% has been achieved at SBR of 0.75 (on molar basis) with H2 yield of 66 g/kg of biomass and LHV of 8.9 MJ/Nm3; whereas H2 yield of 104 g/kg of biomass is achieved at SBR of 2.7 with the lower efficiency of 65.6% and LHV of 7.4 MJ/Nm3. The energy density of the syngas achieved in the present study is roughly double compared to the LHV of typical product gas with air gasification. Elemental mass balance technique has been employed to identify carbon boundary at an SBR of 1.5. Controlling parameters for arriving at the desired H2/CO ratio in the product syngas have been identified. Optimum process parameters (ER and SBR) has been identified through experimental studies for sustained continuous oxy-steam gasification process, maximizing H2 yield, controlling the H2/CO ratio, high energy efficiency and high energy density in the product syngas. Increase in ER with SBR is required to compensate the reduction in O2 fraction in oxy-steam mixture and to maintain the desired bed temperature in the combustion zone. In the range of SBR of 0.75 to 2.7, ER requirement increases from 0.18 to 0.3. The sustained continuous operation is possible upto SBR of 1.5, till the carbon boundary is reached. Operating at high SBR is required for high H2 yield but sustained highest H2 yield is obtained as SBR of 1.5. H2/CO ratio in the syngas increases from 1.5 to 4 with the SBR and depending on the requirement of the downstream process (eg., FT synthesis), suitable SBR and ER combination is suggested. To obtain high energy density in syngas and high energy efficiency, operations at lower SBR is recommended. The modeling study is the extension of the work carried by Dasappa (1999) by incorporating wood pyrolysis model into the single particle and volatile combustion for the packed bed of particles. The packed bed reactor model comprises of array of single particles stacked in a vertical bed that deals with the detailed reaction rates along with the porous char spheres and thermo-physical phenomenon governed by the mass, species and energy conservation equations. Towards validating the pyrolysis and single particle conversion process, separate analysis and parametric study addressing the effects of thermo-physical parameters like particle size, density and thermal conductivity under varying conditions have been studied and compared with the available results from literature. It has been found that the devolatilisation time of particle (tc) follows closely the relationship with the particle diameter (d), thermal conductivity (k), density () and temperature (T) as: The complete combustion of a single particle flaming pyrolysis and char combustion has been studied and validated with the experimental results. For the reactor modeling, energy, mass and species conservation equations in the axial flow direction formulate the governing equations coupled to the detailed single particle analysis. Gas phase reactions involving combustion of volatiles and water gas shift reaction are solved in the packed bed. The model results are compared with the experimental results from wood gasification system with respect to the propagation rate, conversion times, exit gas composition and other bed parameters like conversion, peak bed temperatures, etc. The propagation rates compare well with experimental data over a range of oxygen concentration in the O2- N2 mixture, with a peak at 10 mm/s for 100 % O2. In the case of oxy-steam gasification of dry biomass, the results clearly suggest that the char conversion is an important component contributing to the bed movement and hence the overall effective propagation rate is an important parameter for co-current reactors. This is further analyzed using the carbon boundary points based on elemental balance technique. The model predictions for the exit gas composition from the oxy-steam gasification matches well with the experimental results over a wide range of equivalence ratio and steam to biomass ratio. The output gas composition and propagation rates are found to be a direct consequence of input mass flux and O2 fraction in oxy-steam mixture. The present study comprehensively addresses the oxy-steam gasification towards generating hydrogen rich syngas using experimental and model studies. The study also arrives at the parameters for design consideration towards operating an oxy-steam biomass gasification system. The following flow chart provides the overall aspects that are covered in the thesis chapter wise.