This thesis describes direct measurements of equilibrium adsorption of ions in thin (< 100 nm) aqueous films. Adsorption in thin films is important because it is through adsorption that the stability of colloidal suspensions is frequently tuned. The vast majority of measurements of adsorption to date have been to a single interfaces, whereas the subject of this thesis is adsorption in a thin film between two interfaces. There are two isolated interfaces when particles in a suspension are far apart, but during the collision, a thin film forms between the particles, and the properties of the thin film determines the stability of the colloid. Thus, adsorption in the thin film determines the stability of the colloidal dispersion. There is a distinct gap in the scientific literature concerning adsorption in thin films mainly because there is no technique for measuring such adsorption. To fill this gap in knowledge, I first developed of a technique to directly measure adsorption in thin films, and then applied this technique to explore the behavior of co-ions near charged interfaces as a function of bulk solution composition and the thickness of the film. The adsorption behavior of fluorescein, a di-anion, to negatively charged silica interfaces was studied in dilute electrolytes. The focus was on the effect of the electrostatic screening length, or Debye-length. The separation was measured using interference microscopy and the adsorption of fluorescein was measured using fluorescence microscopy. The Debye-length was altered by variation of the background salt (NaCl) concentration in dilute (<1 M) solution. The surface excess of adsorption for fluorescein was shown to depend on both the Debye-length and the separation distance between two interfaces. Increasing the Debye-length from 4 nm to 21 nm increased the plateau surface excess at large separations, and decreasing the separation lead to a monotonically decreasing surface excess. The surface excess varied over a range that scaled with the Debye-length. The results were compared to solution of the Poisson-Boltzmann model and good agreement was found between the model and the experiment. The effect of background salt concentration on fluorescein adsorption was also studied in concentrated electrolytes (2.5 – 10 M) for various monovalent salts (LiCl, NaCl and CsCl). The results showed that the fitted electrostatic screening length showed an opposite trend to predictions from Poisson-Boltzmann, with the screening-length increasing with increasing salt concentration. That is, the Debye-length prediction was quantitatively incorrect and predicts the incorrect trend. For example, in 10 M LiCl where the Debye-length is 0.1 nm, and therefore colloidal chemists would traditionally predict that double-layer forces are negligible, my results show that the actual decay length is about 10 nm, which is about the same as in 10-3 M LiCl solution. The rate of increase of screening-length as a function of concentration was also an ion specific effect. In addition, the results show that there is an inversion of the surface charge in concentrated salt solution. The original device on which all the above measurements were made had two limitations: (1) the maximum film thickness was 50 nm and (2) the film was asymmetric, which hampered calculation of the surface excess and increased the number of degrees of freedom in modeling of the adsorption. In the last part of my thesis, I describe development of a symmetric sample which (1) enables measurement of films up to 1 µm, (2) simplifies modeling of the optics by eliminating optical interference of the fluorescence excitation, and reduces the number of parameters when comparing to models. / Doctor of Philosophy / This thesis aims to understand the behavior of electrically charged molecules and atoms in thin nanometer scale (< 100 nm) liquid films subject to confinement between two charged interfaces. This situation frequently arises in colloidal suspensions, which consist of tiny sub-microscopic particles (colloid), droplets and large molecules dispersed in a second continuous medium. The stability of these suspensions, i.e. whether the colloidal materials agglomerate and sediment out of the suspension or remain stably suspended, depends on the surface forces between their interfaces during collision events, which frequently arise due to Brownian motion. As the fluid between particles thins as they approach each other during these collision events, the behavior of the dissolved molecules can be significantly different than when they are far apart due to the presence two interacting interfaces. Typically the dissolved molecules are used to tune the surface forces and understanding their behavior in confinement is relevant to a colloid scientist whose aim is to tune the behavior of the suspension. In the first part of this work, a technique is developed that serves as the static analogue to colloidal objects colliding with each other. The equilibrium behavior of a negatively charged fluorescent ion is measured as a function of film thickness and background salt concentration between two negatively charged interfaces. The Poisson-Boltzmann model predicts that with decreased salt concentration, there is a greater magnitude of depletion of the fluorescent ion at large separations and the characteristic length over which there is a change in the magnitude of depletion increases. Good agreement is found between the model and the experiment validating the technique developed and providing the first direct observation of molecular behavior subject to confinement as a function of solution composition. This effect of background salt type and concentration was tested for concentrated electrolytes as well. The experimental results showed an opposite trend to predictions from the Poisson-Boltzmann model. The fluorescent ion was now adsorbed to negatively charged interfaces indicating that the negatively charged interfaces were now positively charged. The magnitude of adsorption at large separations and characteristic length over which the magnitude of adsorption changes was a function of the salt concentration and the ion type. Finally, improvements were made to the original device to overcome limitations with the original device. The limitations were that (1) the maximum film thickness was 50 nm and (2) the interfaces were asymmetric which complicated theoretical calculations of the equilibrium behavior of the ions. In the last part of my thesis, I develop a sample which (1) enables measurements of films up to 1 µm and (2) simplifies the optical modeling necessary in the first two sections of this thesis.

Este trabalho de pesquisa teve por objetivo avaliar o efeito do descarte de lodo aeróbio no desempenho do reator UASB. Em paralelo, foi verificado o efeito dessa operação na qualidade do efluente final da ETE, no desempenho operacional da unidade de pós-tratamento e nas características do biogás produzido no reator UASB. De modo geral, não houve impacto negativo no processo de digestão anaeróbia em termos de DQO filtrada no efluente, que foi semelhante quando o afluente era composto essencialmente de esgoto bruto, na ordem de 60 a 80 mg/L. Por outro lado, os resultados indicaram uma tendência de redução da qualidade do efluente do reator UASB em termos de DQO total e sólidos em suspensão, quando da alimentação desse reator com excesso de lodo aeróbio. Em 2016, a concentração média de DQO total no efluente foi da ordem de 529 mg/L e a concentração média de SST foi na ordem de 672 mg/L quando o afluente do reator UASB era composto com excesso de lodo aeróbio, ao passo que, sem excesso de lodo aeróbio no afluente, a DQO total média no efluente foi de 269 mg/L e a concentração média de SST foi de 349 mg/L. Porém, essa redução da qualidade pareceu estar relacionada a uma sobreposição de efeitos associado a presença de lodo aeróbio no afluente, e a sistemática adotada na estação para remoção de lodo anaeróbio do reator UASB. Quando não havia remoção de excesso de lodo anaeróbio de fundo do reator UASB, a qualidade do efluente se manteve durante a maior parte do tempo monitorado compatível com os períodos onde o afluente do reator UASB era composto essencialmente de esgoto bruto, indicando que o lodo de fundo, mais concentrado, exerce papel fundamental na retenção do lodo aeróbio na zona de digestão do reator UASB. Essa constatação se mostrou mais explícita quando as operações de descarte de excesso de lodo aeróbio e remoção de lodo anaeróbio do reator UASB ocorriam em períodos distintos. Nessa condição, a concentração média de DQO total no efluente foi de 254 mg/L e a concentração média de SST foi de 314 mg/L, ao passo que sem lodo aeróbio no afluente do reator UASB, a concentração média de DQO total no efluente foi de 191 mg/L e a concentração de SST foi de 258 mg/L. As características do biogás produzido variaram quando o sistema era alimentado com excesso de lodo aeróbio no afluente, apresentando, nessa condição, maior concentração de CO2 e menor concentração de H2S. Não houve, alteração da concentração média de metano quando da presença de excesso de lodo aeróbio no afluente. Outro aspecto observado foi a falta de correlação entre os parâmetros DQO removida e produção volumétrica de biogás quando o afluente do reator UASB continha excesso de lodo aeróbio. Na ausência de excesso de lodo aeróbio no afluente, houve correlação entre essas variáveis, porém uma correlação fraca, na ordem de 0,40, que pode ser explicada por uma captação ineficaz do biogás produzido, devido a vazamentos pela linha de quebra-escuma do separador trifásico, e por perdas de metano dissolvido com o efluente. Com relação ao impacto na unidade de pós-tratamento, a baixa capacidade de remoção de lodo de excesso da ETE devido a dificuldades de ordem operacional e contratual, condicionaram a operação do sistema de lodo ativado com elevadas concentrações de sólidos em suspensão. Nessa condição, o sistema de aeração apresentou baixa eficiência de transferência de oxigênio para o licor misto, o que impactou negativamente no consumo de energia elétrica do processo de lodo ativado, aumentando o custo operacional da ETE. A qualidade do efluente final da ETE, de modo geral, não foi impactada pela operação de descarte de lodo aeróbio no reator UASB, tendo mantido durante a maior parte do tempo DQO média na ordem de 40 mg/L no efluente e concentração de sólidos em suspensão totais em média na ordem de 25 mg/L. A nitrificação e desnitrificação foi variável ao longo do período do estudo, sendo que o processo apresentou eficiência média de remoção de nitrogênio em torno de 66%. / The objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of aerobic sludge discard on UASB reactor performance. In parallel, the effect of this operation on the final effluent quality of the WWTP, the operational performance of the post-treatment plant and the characteristics of the biogas produced in the UASB reactor were verified. In general, there was no negative impact on the anaerobic digestion process in terms of dissolved COD in the effluent, which was similar when the influent was composed essentially of raw sewage, in the order of 60 to 80 mg / L. On the other hand, the results indicated a tendency to reduce the quality of the UASB reactor effluent in terms of total COD and suspended solids when feeding this reactor also with excess aerobic sludge. In 2016, the mean concentration COD in the effluent was of the order of 529 mg / L and the mean concentration SST was 672 mg / L when the UASB reactor inflow was composed of excess aerobic sludge, while, without excess of aerobic sludge in the influent, the mean COD in the effluent was 269 mg / L and the mean concentration of SST was 349 mg / L. However, this quality reduction seemed to be related to an overlap of effects associated with the presence of aerobic sludge in the influent, and the system adopted at the WWTP to remove anaerobic sludge from the UASB reactor. When there was no removal of excess anaerobic bottom sludge from the UASB reactor, the quality of the effluent remained for most of the monitored time consistent with the periods where the UASB reactor inflow was essentially composed of raw sewage, indicating that the sludge from deep, more concentrated, plays a fundamental role in the retention of aerobic sludge in the digestion zone of the UASB reactor. This finding was more explicit when the operations of excess aerobic sludge and anaerobic sludge removal from the UASB reactor occurred at different periods. In this condition, the mean COD concentration in the effluent was 254 mg / L and the mean SST concentration was 314 mg / L, whereas without aerobic sludge in the UASB reactor, the mean total COD concentration in the effluent was 191 mg / L and the concentration of SST was 258 mg / L. The characteristics of the biogas produced varied when the system was fed with excess of aerobic sludge in the influent presenting, in this condition, a higher concentration of CO2 and a lower concentration of H2S. There was, fortunately, no change in the average concentration of methane when there was an excess of aerobic sludge in the influent. Another important aspect observed was the lack of correlation between the COD removal parameters and volumetric biogas production when the UASB reactor inflow contained excess aerobic sludge. In the absence of excess aerobic sludge in the influent, there was a correlation between these variables, but a weak correlation, in the order of 0.40, which can be explained by an inefficient capture of the biogas produced, due to leaks by the three-phase separator, and for losses of methane dissolved with the effluent. Regarding the impact on the post-treatment unit, the low sludge removal capacity of the WWTP due to operational and contractual difficulties, conditioned the operation of the activated sludge system with high concentrations of suspended solids. In this condition, the aeration system presented low oxygen transfer efficiency for the mixed liquor, which negatively impacted the electric power consumption of the activated sludge process, increasing the operational cost of the WWTP. The final effluent quality, in general, was not affected by the aerobic sludge discharge operation in the UASB reactor, having maintained for the most part the average COD in the order of 40 mg / L in the effluent and the solids concentration in suspension on average in the order of 25 mg / L. Nitrification and denitrification were variable throughout the study period, with the average nitrogen removal efficiency around 66%.

Este trabalho de pesquisa teve por objetivo avaliar o efeito do descarte de lodo aeróbio no desempenho do reator UASB. Em paralelo, foi verificado o efeito dessa operação na qualidade do efluente final da ETE, no desempenho operacional da unidade de pós-tratamento e nas características do biogás produzido no reator UASB. De modo geral, não houve impacto negativo no processo de digestão anaeróbia em termos de DQO filtrada no efluente, que foi semelhante quando o afluente era composto essencialmente de esgoto bruto, na ordem de 60 a 80 mg/L. Por outro lado, os resultados indicaram uma tendência de redução da qualidade do efluente do reator UASB em termos de DQO total e sólidos em suspensão, quando da alimentação desse reator com excesso de lodo aeróbio. Em 2016, a concentração média de DQO total no efluente foi da ordem de 529 mg/L e a concentração média de SST foi na ordem de 672 mg/L quando o afluente do reator UASB era composto com excesso de lodo aeróbio, ao passo que, sem excesso de lodo aeróbio no afluente, a DQO total média no efluente foi de 269 mg/L e a concentração média de SST foi de 349 mg/L. Porém, essa redução da qualidade pareceu estar relacionada a uma sobreposição de efeitos associado a presença de lodo aeróbio no afluente, e a sistemática adotada na estação para remoção de lodo anaeróbio do reator UASB. Quando não havia remoção de excesso de lodo anaeróbio de fundo do reator UASB, a qualidade do efluente se manteve durante a maior parte do tempo monitorado compatível com os períodos onde o afluente do reator UASB era composto essencialmente de esgoto bruto, indicando que o lodo de fundo, mais concentrado, exerce papel fundamental na retenção do lodo aeróbio na zona de digestão do reator UASB. Essa constatação se mostrou mais explícita quando as operações de descarte de excesso de lodo aeróbio e remoção de lodo anaeróbio do reator UASB ocorriam em períodos distintos. Nessa condição, a concentração média de DQO total no efluente foi de 254 mg/L e a concentração média de SST foi de 314 mg/L, ao passo que sem lodo aeróbio no afluente do reator UASB, a concentração média de DQO total no efluente foi de 191 mg/L e a concentração de SST foi de 258 mg/L. As características do biogás produzido variaram quando o sistema era alimentado com excesso de lodo aeróbio no afluente, apresentando, nessa condição, maior concentração de CO2 e menor concentração de H2S. Não houve, alteração da concentração média de metano quando da presença de excesso de lodo aeróbio no afluente. Outro aspecto observado foi a falta de correlação entre os parâmetros DQO removida e produção volumétrica de biogás quando o afluente do reator UASB continha excesso de lodo aeróbio. Na ausência de excesso de lodo aeróbio no afluente, houve correlação entre essas variáveis, porém uma correlação fraca, na ordem de 0,40, que pode ser explicada por uma captação ineficaz do biogás produzido, devido a vazamentos pela linha de quebra-escuma do separador trifásico, e por perdas de metano dissolvido com o efluente. Com relação ao impacto na unidade de pós-tratamento, a baixa capacidade de remoção de lodo de excesso da ETE devido a dificuldades de ordem operacional e contratual, condicionaram a operação do sistema de lodo ativado com elevadas concentrações de sólidos em suspensão. Nessa condição, o sistema de aeração apresentou baixa eficiência de transferência de oxigênio para o licor misto, o que impactou negativamente no consumo de energia elétrica do processo de lodo ativado, aumentando o custo operacional da ETE. A qualidade do efluente final da ETE, de modo geral, não foi impactada pela operação de descarte de lodo aeróbio no reator UASB, tendo mantido durante a maior parte do tempo DQO média na ordem de 40 mg/L no efluente e concentração de sólidos em suspensão totais em média na ordem de 25 mg/L. A nitrificação e desnitrificação foi variável ao longo do período do estudo, sendo que o processo apresentou eficiência média de remoção de nitrogênio em torno de 66%. / The objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of aerobic sludge discard on UASB reactor performance. In parallel, the effect of this operation on the final effluent quality of the WWTP, the operational performance of the post-treatment plant and the characteristics of the biogas produced in the UASB reactor were verified. In general, there was no negative impact on the anaerobic digestion process in terms of dissolved COD in the effluent, which was similar when the influent was composed essentially of raw sewage, in the order of 60 to 80 mg / L. On the other hand, the results indicated a tendency to reduce the quality of the UASB reactor effluent in terms of total COD and suspended solids when feeding this reactor also with excess aerobic sludge. In 2016, the mean concentration COD in the effluent was of the order of 529 mg / L and the mean concentration SST was 672 mg / L when the UASB reactor inflow was composed of excess aerobic sludge, while, without excess of aerobic sludge in the influent, the mean COD in the effluent was 269 mg / L and the mean concentration of SST was 349 mg / L. However, this quality reduction seemed to be related to an overlap of effects associated with the presence of aerobic sludge in the influent, and the system adopted at the WWTP to remove anaerobic sludge from the UASB reactor. When there was no removal of excess anaerobic bottom sludge from the UASB reactor, the quality of the effluent remained for most of the monitored time consistent with the periods where the UASB reactor inflow was essentially composed of raw sewage, indicating that the sludge from deep, more concentrated, plays a fundamental role in the retention of aerobic sludge in the digestion zone of the UASB reactor. This finding was more explicit when the operations of excess aerobic sludge and anaerobic sludge removal from the UASB reactor occurred at different periods. In this condition, the mean COD concentration in the effluent was 254 mg / L and the mean SST concentration was 314 mg / L, whereas without aerobic sludge in the UASB reactor, the mean total COD concentration in the effluent was 191 mg / L and the concentration of SST was 258 mg / L. The characteristics of the biogas produced varied when the system was fed with excess of aerobic sludge in the influent presenting, in this condition, a higher concentration of CO2 and a lower concentration of H2S. There was, fortunately, no change in the average concentration of methane when there was an excess of aerobic sludge in the influent. Another important aspect observed was the lack of correlation between the COD removal parameters and volumetric biogas production when the UASB reactor inflow contained excess aerobic sludge. In the absence of excess aerobic sludge in the influent, there was a correlation between these variables, but a weak correlation, in the order of 0.40, which can be explained by an inefficient capture of the biogas produced, due to leaks by the three-phase separator, and for losses of methane dissolved with the effluent. Regarding the impact on the post-treatment unit, the low sludge removal capacity of the WWTP due to operational and contractual difficulties, conditioned the operation of the activated sludge system with high concentrations of suspended solids. In this condition, the aeration system presented low oxygen transfer efficiency for the mixed liquor, which negatively impacted the electric power consumption of the activated sludge process, increasing the operational cost of the WWTP. The final effluent quality, in general, was not affected by the aerobic sludge discharge operation in the UASB reactor, having maintained for the most part the average COD in the order of 40 mg / L in the effluent and the solids concentration in suspension on average in the order of 25 mg / L. Nitrification and denitrification were variable throughout the study period, with the average nitrogen removal efficiency around 66%.

In 2018 the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) funded a study in which data were collected to evaluate performance measures for UDOT's Incident Management Team (IMT) program. After that study was completed, UDOT received funding to expand the size of its IMT program. Additionally, TransSuite, a data source used by the UDOT Traffic Operations Center to log incident-related data, was reconfigured to provide a higher quantity of performance measure data. This study made use of the new data source, in addition to Computer Aided Dispatch logs provided by the Utah Highway Patrol that were used in the first study, to collect performance measure data of the expanded program and measure the impacts of the IMT program expansion. Using these two datasets, a reanalyzed 2018 dataset and a new 2020 dataset, a comparison of performance measures was made. Performance measures studied included those defined as important by the Federal Highway Administration's Focus States Initiative in 2009, namely Roadway Clearance Time, Incident Clearance Time, and Response Time. These performance measures were calculated for IMT responders at 320 incidents in 2018 and 289 incidents in 2020. In addition, data regarding the affected volume associated with incidents, the excess travel time accumulated due to incidents, and the excess user cost associated with incident congestion were gathered. In 2018, 188 incidents were analyzed for these user impacts, and in 2020 144 incidents were analyzed. Statistical analyses were conducted to compare IMT performance between the two years and to determine relationships between performance measures and user impacts. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic affected traffic volumes during this study, and statistical analyses were adjusted to account for volume differences between the two years. Results indicated that the expansion of the IMT program has allowed UDOT to respond faster to incidents, and respond to a larger quantity of incidents over a larger coverage area and in extended operating hours. Performance of the expanded IMT program has had significant effects in reducing incident-related congestion and its costs.

In 2009 the Federal Highway Administration published a report regarding a Focus States Initiative that had been conducted with 11 states to discuss the development of national Traffic Incident Management (TIM) standards. Performance measures were defined, and a national TIM dashboard created, but very little data has been added to the dashboard since. In this research study, performance measures of the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) TIM program were analyzed. Data availability was first assessed to determine whether these performance measures could be calculated. It was determined that crash response data available from the Utah Highway Patrol (UHP) could be used to calculate the performance measures of Incident Management Teams (IMT) and UHP units; however, roadway clearance data were missing. UHP personnel agreed to collect additional data regarding crash roadway clearance for six months of the study. Performance measures of response time (RT), roadway clearance time (RCT), and incident clearance time (ICT) were calculated for responding units at 168 crashes. Using the crash response data from UHP and traffic speed, travel time, and volume data from UDOT databases, 83 of the 163 crashes that met additional criteria were evaluated to determine the volume of traffic affected (AV) by each incident and the associated user cost (EUC). Statistical analyses to determine relationships between different measures such as RT, RCT, ICT, AV, and EUC were conducted to assist UDOT in optimizing the allocation of their IMT resources.

[pt] Este trabalho investiga empiricamente como as taxas de negociação no mercado secundário de debêntures se correlacionam com mudanças na atividade econômica do país. A base de dados analisada se refere a debêntures com remuneração indexada a CDI (mais) spread de janeiro de 2010 até dezembro de 2019. Para isso, criou-se um Índice de Spread de Crédito, visando ser um indicador da atividade econômica. Em um segundo passo, o Índice é decomposto em um componente que captura a expectativa de default das companhias, observando seus dados dos balanços financeiros, e um componente residual – o Excess Bond Premium. Em linha com a literatura, o estudo sugere que um aumento do Excess Bond Premium evidencia uma redução na oferta de crédito, assim como uma alta nas taxas das debêntures, o que, segundo a teoria estudada, leva a uma desaceleração na atividade econômica. O estudo sugere que um aumento de 100 basis points no Excess Bond Premium leva a uma retração de aproximadamente 4,2 por cento na taxa de crescimento do PIB. / [en] This paper empirically investigates how trading rates in the secondary corporate bond s market correlate with changes in the country s economic activity. The database consists of corporate bonds with floating rates tied to CDI (plus) spread from January 2010 to December 2019. For this purpose, a Credit Spread Index was created, aiming to be an indicator of economic activity. The second step was to decompose the Index into a component that captures companies default expectations, observing their financial statement data, and a residual component – the Excess Bond Premium. In line with references, the paper suggests that an increase in Excess Bond Premium, generates a reduction in the supply of credit, as well as an increase in the rates of corporate bonds, which, according to the theory studied, leads to a slowdown in economic activity. The study suggests that an increase of 100 basis points in the Excess Bond Premium leads to a drop of 4.2 percent in GDP growth rate.

In 2019, the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) funded a research study evaluating the performance measures of UDOT's expanded Incident Management Team (IMT) program. The number of IMTs patrolling Utah roadways increased from 13 to 25 between 2018 and 2020. Crash data were collected from the Utah Highway Patrol's Computer Aided Dispatch database and from the UDOT TransSuite database to compare IMT performance measures between the two years and to evaluate the benefits of the expanded IMT program. However, these data were compromised due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study collected data for 2022 using the same methodology as the Phase II study to compare IMT performance measures in 2022 with those of 2018 after traffic volumes had returned to a similar level as those of pre-pandemic levels. There were 283 and 307 incidents for the years of 2018 and 2022, respectively, that were analyzed for IMT performance measures which include response time, roadway clearance time, and incident clearance time. There were 172 and 236 incidents for the years of 2018 and 2022, respectively, that were analyzed for user impacts which were affected volume, excess travel time, and excess user costs. Results of the statistical analyses conducted on the 2018 and 2022 datasets show that IMTs can respond more quickly to incidents in a larger coverage area with significantly reduced user impacts. The expanded IMT program is also able to respond to more incidents, including those of high severity, while significantly decreasing congestion.

I takt med en ökande befolkning ökar användningen av energi. Samtidigt som energianvändandet ökar, avvecklas kärnkraftverken och därmed ökar kolkraftverkens användning vilket leder till utsläpp av främst koldioxid. Många industrier släpper ut mängder av överskottsvärme i naturen utan att den återanvänds. Ett sätt att ta tillvara på överskottsvärme, som annars går till spillo, är att lagra den. Om värme kan lagras och användas vid en annan tidpunkt kan den ersätta andra energikällor och onödiga utsläpp kan förhindras. Det finns idag tre olika metoder att lagra värmeenergi. Dessa är sensibelt värme, latent värme och kemisk värme. Inom varje metod finns olika system som beskrivs vidare i denna rapport. Bharat Forge Kilsta Kilsta är ett smidesföretag i Karlskoga. Deras smidesugn avger stora mängder värme som dels går till lokaluppvärmning men en del av värmen går till spillo. Skulle överskottsvärmen, som nu går till spillo, kunna lagras på ett effektivt sätt skulle både miljömässiga och kostnadsmässiga besparingar kunna göras. Syftet med rapporten är att redogöra och jämföra olika värmelagringsmetoder i en litteraturstudie för att se vilken typ som passar för industriell överskottsvärme i fallet med Bharat Forge Kilsta. Målet är att översiktligt redovisa olika lagringsmetoder samt olika system inom dessa med avseende på lagringskapacitet och kostnad. Utifrån simulering och reglering av bergrumslager och ackumulatortankar kan en passande metod, med avseende på energidistribution och energieffektivitet samt kostnad, för det specifika fallet väljas. Den mest utvecklade och kommersiellt använda metoden är sensibelt värme, den latenta och kemiska värmelagringen är fortfarande i forskning- och utvecklingsstadiet då de är mer kostsamma. Val av lagringsmetod avgörs utifrån lagringskapacitet, lagringstemperatur, kostnad, geografisk placering samt lagringslängd. Sensibelt värme passar bäst till långtidslagring, vid lägre temperaturer och där lagringskapaciteten måste vara stor till ett lågt pris. Latent och kemisk värme passar bäst för högre temperaturer då värmeförlusterna är små och energidensiteten är hög, kostnaden för dessa är dock hög och de tillämpas enbart i liten skala än så länge. Ur litteraturstudien kunde vissa system uteslutas, de system som skulle passa en industri som Bharat Forge Kilsta var bergrum och ackumulatortank. Resultatet visade att bergrummen har störst värmeförluster jämfört med den totala energin, däremot är lagringskapaciteten större. För att garanterat tillgodose värmebehovet vid extremdagar är det mest lämpligt att använda bergrummen. Kostnadsmässigt är de befintliga tankarna bäst lämpade, däremot klarar de enbart tillgodose värmebehovet i sex timmar vid extrembelastning. Om de befintliga tankarna används som system och 200 m3 tanken tilläggsisoleras kan omkring 100 000 kr per år sparas, räknat med att förlusterna skulle ersätta inköpt fjärrvärme och att skillnaden i värmeförluster enbart sker vinterhalvåret. Återbetalningstiden var kortast för de befintliga takarna, 1,4 år medan en ny ackumulatortank hade längst återbetalningstid, 3,2 år. / When the population increases also the energy use will rise. At the same time the nuclear power plants is decommissioned and the use of coal-fired power plants increases, which leads to large amount of mainly carbon dioxide emissions. Many industries get a lot of excess heat that is released in the nature instead of being reused. One way to reuse excess heat could be to store the heat in a suitable storage for later use. If the excess heat can be stored and be used at a different time it can replace other energy sources and decrease the emissions. Today there is three ways to storage heat, they are sensible heat, latent heat, and chemical heat. In each method there are different systems, these will be described further in this report. Bharat Fore is a large forging company in Karlskoga, Sweden. From their furnace a lot of heat is emitted, some of the heat is used to heat the buildings, but still a lot of excess heat goes to waste.  The aim of this report is to compare different heat storage systems and see which one is best suited to industrial excess heat. The goal is to investigate if there is any heat storage method that is effective and cost-saving that fits a larger industry. The purpose of this work is to do a literature study to account and compare different heat storage methods to find the best suitable system for the case with Bharat Forge Kilsta. The goal is to present different storage methods and the different system for each method with respect of cost and storage capacity. From simulation and regulation find the best fitting method for the real case with respect of cost, efficient and storage capacity. The most developed and commercially used method is the sensible heat. Latent heat and chemicals are very costly and still in the research and development stage. Geographic location, using area and operating temperature is parameters that need to be considered when choosing heat storage system. Sensible heat is best suited for long-term storage, at lower temperatures and when the storage capacity needs to be large to a small cost. Latent and chemical heat is best suited for higher temperatures because the heat losses are small and the energy density is high and they are only applied in small scale for now. The result of the literature study showed that storage tanks and cavern storage is most fitting for the case with Bharat Forge Kilsta. The cavern has much larger heat loss compared to the total energy, however the storage capacity is much larger. To guarantee that the heat requirements when there are extreme days it is most appropriate to use the cavern as heat storage. From a coast view it is most fitting to use the already existing tanks, however they could only cater the heat requirement for six hours of heat peak when the production is not running. If the existing tanks is used as heat storage, and the 200 m3 tank will be additional insulated, if the heat loss, in the winter, is replaced with purchased district heating as much as 100 000 SEK per year could be spared. The payback time is shortest for the existing tanks, 1.4 years and almost 3.2 years for the new storage tank.

Banks face market pressure when determining their capital structures because they are subject to strict regulations. CFOs are willing to adjust their company’s capital structures in order to obtain higher ratings. The credit ratings are highly valuable not only because they assess the creditworthiness of the borrowers but also because those agencies take advantage of the information asymmetry and have access to data that companies might not disclose publicly. Also, this industry gained much interest after the BIS proposals back in 1999 and 2001 that the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision should consider the borrower’s credit ratings when examining banks’ solvency and adequacy. Factors used to determine the credit ratings are banks’ asset quality which is fundamental measure for the creditworthiness, banks’ capital which is related to the asset quality in relation to the RWA, banks’ profitability, and liquidity measurements. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the banks that keep excess equity to balance sheet receive better credit ratings, given the predictors capital, banks size and defaulted to total exposures. The European Banking Authority (EBA) stress test results are used as a benchmark for determining banks’ capital adequacy and solvency, whereas the credit ratings are obtained shortly after the EBA’s reports publication. The sample size is 73 and 95 banks for the years 2011 and 2014, respectively. The results from the multivariate ordinal regression do not show significant correlation results between the excess equity to balance sheet and the credit ratings, even though the estimated coefficient is negative, namely excess equity is associated with lower credit ratings. An explanation to this one can find in the low-quality capital relative to the banks’ capital base. Also, banks which plan to implement risker projects or currently hold risker assets are subject to higher capital requirements. Moreover, banks currently being rated low but with the potential of being upgraded would be more willing to issue equity than debt in order to avoid the corresponding risk and achieve the higher rating. The equity ratio and the defaulted to total exposures ratio show significant correlation to the banks’ credit ratings. Overall, since the results of the regression are insignificant, we do not have reasons to believe that holding excess equity is not beneficial for banks. When banks make changes in their leverage ratios they would either carry the cost of being downgraded or the cost related to issuing more equity, therefore at the end they will balance the leverage ratio close to the optimal and keep as much capital as required by regulations.

Purpose: This study aims to find how the integration between marketing and operations can improve demand management in order to have efficient inventory level and avoid excess inventory. Method used: In order to have optimize inventory level and managing demand, integrating business process between marketing, supply planning and inventory management team was considered in this study. Qualitative data from nine interviews among three direct sales cosmetics companies was gathered. Findings: Empirical findings address excess inventory is caused by several issue in the company as poor management of demand forecasting, wide product portfolio, long lead time, the lack of sharing information between the company and its suppliers and ineffective strategy to avoid excess inventory within the company. Regarding to improve forecast accuracy and manage demand, findings indicate the role of marketing in obtaining knowledge about customer insight is not good enough. Practical Implication: It is critical that works and plans from each function be integrated to optimize inventory. In order to support optimize inventory strategy all pertinent departments must continue reviewing meeting with the aim to reach a consensus about the products planning for the both side of demand and operation align with overall strategic goals of the company. Contribution: Empirical data demonstrate the best way for effective implication of demand management occurs when marketing can provide demand information in time, as well as supply chain management can react flexibly to demand changes in time. Moreover, the lack of integration between marketing and supply chain management is a major barrier in optimizing inventory.