Break-even Conditions Research Articles

Impact of fuel dilution on Lawson parameter by considering relativistic correction of radiation loss in toroidal magnetic configuration

In this paper, the ignition boundary and height of the saddle point as the lowest heating power on the way to ignition for D-3He toroidal magnetic configuration are derived. Fusion fuel cycle involving deuterium and helium-3, along with side reactions is considered. The effect of fuel dilution, incorporating synchrotron radiation and bremsstrahlung power loss with relativistic correction on ignition criteria, is investigated. The results were compared by considering the classical state of bremsstrahlung power. It is found that the height of the saddle point is increased with increasing the ratio of the proton particle density to the fuel deuteron density. The ignition regime shrinks and the minimum value of the Lawson parameter for the breakeven condition and ignition boundaries is reduced due to fuel dilution.

Factor proportions in ensuring the economic resilience of the Egyptian sugar industry

The sugar industry plays an important role in ensuring the economic and food security of Egypt. However, when elaborating plans for its development, it is not taken into account that the decisions made may affect the factor proportions that link the resource potential and production capabilities of the system, and lead to a violation of resilience. As part of our study, we consider the issues of providing resilience to the sugar industry, which enables us to focus on its ability to ensure the continuity of reproduction processes on a constant or increasing scale in the face of changing environmental factors. This article aims at presenting a toolkit for measuring how a change in factorial proportions in the sugar industry will affect the level of its economic resilience. The study proposes the use of a parametric relative break-even model to calculate break-even production conditions. In this paper, we considered factorial proportions between the three main parameters (price, cost, sales volume) that determine the relative break-even of production. We identified factors, which carry both risks and opportunities for the Resilience of the Egyptian sugar industry: changing world demand for sugar; world sugar prices adjustments; etc. The results show that the put-forward model enables to anticipate the after-effect of managerial decisions at the stage of elaborating plans for the development of the sugar producing industry in terms of their impact on resilience in altering market conjuncture.

Electrode durability and sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch fusion energy

The sheared-flow-stabilized (SFS) Z-pinch concept is on a path to commercialization at Zap Energy. Recent experiments on the Fusion Z-pinch Experiment (FuZE) and newly commissioned FuZE-Q devices are advancing the state of the art in pinch current, stable plasma duration, and deuterium–deuterium fusion neutron production. The SFS Z-pinch configuration offers the promise of a compact fusion device owing to its simple geometry, unity beta, and absence of external magnetic field coils. In addition to a robust experimental program pushing plasma performance toward breakeven conditions, Zap Energy has parallel programs developing power handling systems suitable for future power plants. Technologies under development include high-repetition-rate pulsed power, high-duty-cycle electrodes, and liquid metal wall systems. The issue of electrode durability in future SFS Z-pinch power plants is elaborated on and compared with plasma material interaction regimes in other industrial processes and fusion energy systems.

Engineering Paradigms for Sheared-Flow-Stabilized Z-Pinch Fusion Energy

The sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch concept is on a path to commercialization at Zap Energy. Recent experiments on the Fusion Z-pinch Experiment (FuZE) device corroborate expected plasma stability and thermonuclear fusion reaction rates. Experimental campaigns are underway to increase the pinch current, the stable plasma duration, and the DD fusion neutron production. The next-generation device FuZE-Q is currently undergoing commissioning and will begin operation at current levels where scientific breakeven-equivalent conditions are expected in the near future. The Z-pinch configuration offers the promise of a compact fusion device owing to its simple geometry, unity beta, and absence of external magnetic field coils. In addition to a robust experimental program pushing plasma performance toward breakeven conditions, Zap Energy has parallel programs developing power handling systems suitable for future power plants. Technologies under development include high-average-power repetitive pulsed power, high-duty-cycle cathodes, and liquid-metal wall systems. High-level features of the conceptual power plant core design are elaborated and compared with other approaches to fusion energy.

Efficacy of noisy dynamical decoupling

Dynamical decoupling (DD) refers to a well-established family of methods for error mitigation, comprising pulse sequences aimed at averaging away slowly evolving noise in quantum systems. Here we revisit the question of its efficacy in the presence of noisy pulses in scenarios important for quantum devices today: pulses with gate control errors, and the computational setting where DD is used to reduce noise in every computational gate. We focus on the well-known schemes of periodic (or universal) DD and its extension, concatenated DD, for scaling up its power. The qualitative conclusions from our analysis of these two schemes nevertheless apply to other DD approaches. In the presence of noisy pulses, DD does not always mitigate errors. It does so only when the added noise from the imperfect DD pulses does not outweigh the increased ability in averaging away the original background noise. We present break-even conditions that delineate when DD is useful, and further find that there is a limit in the performance of concatenated DD, specifically in how far one can concatenate the DD pulse sequences before the added noise no longer offers any further benefit in error mitigation.

Comparative Performance Evaluation of Gas Brayton Cycle for Micro–Nuclear Reactors

Gas Brayton cycles have been considered the next promising power cycles for microreactors. Especially the open-air and closed supercritical CO2 (S-CO2) Brayton cycles have received attention due to their high thermal efficiency and compact component sizes when compared to the steam Rankine cycle. In this research, the performances of the open-air and closed S-CO2 Brayton cycle at microreactor power range are compared with polytropic turbomachinery efficiency. When optimizing the cycle, three different optimization parameters are considered in this paper: maximum efficiency, maximum cycle specific work, and maximum of the product of both indicators. For the air Brayton cycle, the maximum of the product of both indicators allows to consider both efficiency and specific work while optimizing the cycle. However, for the S-CO2 Brayton cycle, the best performing conditions follow either maximum efficiency or the maximum cycle specific work conditions. In general, the S-CO2 power cycle should be designed and optimized to maximize the cycle specific work for commercial-scale application. The results show that the air Brayton cycle can achieve near 45% efficiency when it can couple with a microreactor with a core outlet temperature higher than 700 °C. However, the S-CO2 power cycle can still achieve above 30% efficiency when it is coupled with a microreactor with a core outlet temperature higher than 500 °C, whereas the air Brayton cycle cannot even reach breakeven condition.

Functional Materials for Fusion Nuclear Power Cores (A Technical Memorandum)

Nuclear energy science is nothing new, since World War II (WW II) and the successful Manhattan Project started in the deserts of New Mexico around 1940’s with Fermi introducing his experimental fission reactor in basement of University of Chicago in state of Illinois. Following that project and the exploring application of atom energy for peaceful goals using famous Einstein’s theory E=mc^2 has turned a new chapter for nuclear power energy by introducing a new source for electricity production. Fusion nuclear power generation that totally works in opposite direction that of fission nuclear power by splitting atoms nuclei of high Z-materials such as Uranium (U) or Plutonium (Pu), it uses the technology of thermonuclear reaction concepts driven by two isotopes of Hydrogen elements mainly Deuterium (D) and Tritium (T). Recent progress in research towards the development of fusion power driven by means of magnetic confinement approach, using reactor such as Tokamak device and the impressive advances research made in this particular reactor in the past few years, seems very promising to strike break-even of thermonuclear driven fusion reaction taking into consideration approach of Magnetic Confinement Fusion (MCF). Tokamak devices currently under construction will demonstrate the break-even condition or scientific feasibility of fusion power. Exciting and innovative ideas in mirror magnetic confinement are expected to culminate in high-Q devices making open-ended confinement a serious contender for fusion reactors. However, with such an innovative approach comes its own technical challenges associated with the machinery such as Tokamak that internally requires in a harsh temperature that in nature can be seen at the surface of our Sun, thus we are in need of materials that can sustain such high-temperature heat and be able to maintain their integrity and extend the life-cycle of such device while in full commercial operation within period of 24x7x360. Here in this Technical Memorandum (TM), we discuss potential materials that are possibly can deliver such sustainability one need them to operate within high-temperature and maintain their both physical and chemical properties from physics of solid-states point of view. With also today’s research in Nanotechnology and Memory-metals reaching to such a goal seems to be achievable, which is subject of this Technical Memorandum (TM)

Overview of the SPARC physics basis towards the exploration of burning-plasma regimes in high-field, compact tokamaks

The SPARC tokamak project, currently in engineering design, aims to achieve breakeven and burning plasma conditions in a compact device, thanks to new developments in high-temperature superconductor technology. With a magnetic field of 12.2 T on axis and 8.7 MA of plasma current, SPARC is predicted to produce 140 MW of fusion power with a plasma gain of Q ≈ 11, providing ample margin with respect to its mission of Q > 2. All tokamak systems are being designed to produce this landmark plasma discharge, thus enabling the study of burning plasma physics and tokamak operations in reactor relevant conditions to pave the way for the design and construction of a compact, high-field fusion power plant. Construction of SPARC is planned to begin by mid-2021.

Performance Evaluation of Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Recompression Cycle for High Temperature Electric Thermal Energy Storage

As interests in low carbon power generation are growing, the share of renewable energy power generation is increasing. Naturally, research on energy storage system is being conducted worldwide as a system to solve the intermittency problem of renewable energy. When renewable energy increases significantly, it is important to secure sufficient operating reserve with energy storage capability. In this paper, the performance of electric thermal energy system using 10MWe supercritical carbon dioxide recompression cycle is analyzed to investigate the feasibility of the proposed concept. Among many performance indicators, this paper mainly focused on the required thermal power for the system to stay in the stand-by mode, and the dynamic behavior of the proposed system during fast power ramp-up so that the potential of the system for providing ancillary services can be revealed. To investigate these issues, an on-design analysis is first conducted to determine the performance of the proposed system followed by component design to evaluate off-design performances and transient responses of the system. From the quasi-steady state analysis, break-even conditions are found for various inventory levels. In the transient analysis for power increasing operation from 0% to 100%, fluctuations in physical parameters are observed due to the sudden change in properties near pseudocritical pressure conditions. However, this issue can be mitigated with an appropriate inventory control system as shown in this paper. Thus, the proposed system shows promising transient performances for fast power ramp-up operation. This means that the electric thermal energy storage system with a dedicated supercritical carbon dioxide power cycle can be utilized as an operating reserve. The conclusions of this study are not only limited for the electric energy storage system application but also has an implication to the concentrating solar power or the advanced nuclear power plant application of the supercritical carbon dioxide recompression cycle.

Justification of the level of competition on urban passenger routes

The components of the market competition of carriers on passenger transport routes of the city transport system are considered. It is shown that the demand for transportation can be presented in the form of matrices of passenger correspondence. Due to its fluctuations within some limits, the main issue is its distribution among the routes that form the urban route network. The essence of the level of competition between carriers, which has a growing tendency, has been revealed. It is proposed to use the Likert method and the results of a sociological survey to build a model of the attractiveness of routes as its assessment. The utility function of the route, the optimization function of Lagrange and the model of the choice of the passenger movement path were constructed. It is taken into account that transport enterprises operate in break-even conditions, and profit is a limitation when solving the task of improving the quality of public service.

Equilibrium Defaultable Corporate Debt and Investment

In dynamic capital structure models with an investor break-even condition, the firm's Bellman equation may not generate a contraction mapping, so the standard existence and uniqueness conditions do not apply. First, we provide an example showing the problem in a classical trade-off model. The firm can issue one-period defaultable debt, invest in capital and pay a dividend. If the firm cannot meet the required debt payment, it is liquidated. Second, we show how to use a dual to the original problem and a change of measure, such that existence and uniqueness can be proved. In the unique Markov-perfect equilibrium, firm decisions reflect state-dependent capital and debt targets. Our approach may be useful for other dynamic firm models that have an investor break-even condition.

Energy breakeven in thermonuclear fusion. An advanced concept for efficient energy input with positive implications for energy saving and the geoscience of climate change

The motivation of the present study is energy generation with thermonuclear fusion. Specifically, it is the attainment of breakeven conditions with a fusionable plasma whereby the output fusion energy is at least equal to the energy expended in creating the plasma and bringing it to fusionable conditions. This objective has eluded the physics community for the past seven decades. It is here suggested that perhaps the reason is that ever-bigger fusion machines are built, which unfortunately have brought results not in line with the expectations, in terms of desired fusion output. The opposite view is taken here, where attention is paid to the energy input, with the objective of minimizing the energy losses. One of the most important losses is a consequence of the limited thermodynamic efficiency of conventional engines that convert heat to work, thus generating the electricity involved in the energy input. This preliminary study shows that the efficiency can be improved if a novel thermodynamic cycle is used with heat recovery and recirculation. No attention is paid in the present study to the applicability of the novel cycle to a working engine but only to its feasibility. After the delineation of the concept, we use a simulation program to confirm that such approach is promising, and the objective of improving the thermodynamic efficiency of conventional heat-engines by at least 10% is realistic. Finally, the economic benefits are quantified of such substantial efficiency improvement on a world-wide scale. Mitigation of the damage to our environment due to the reduced heat rejection is also quantified.

Setting the natural gas selling price through pipeline network optimization and project feasibility study

Natural gas will play an important role in the energy revolution, but its construction is still costly. Natural gas transport pipeline network shoulders the task of gas supply, which plays a significant role in improving the overall socio-economic benefits for the region. Pipeline network optimization design is a complex problem, involving many variables. In this study, the location of the Distribution Center is considered and was obtained from the previous study. This study also considers the distance between locations of households. The Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) is applied to obtain the pipeline network length. Then, the calculation is proceeded through the Benefit-cost Ratio in determining whether this project is feasible or not. Although the MST result shows the pipeline is longer than the previous work, studies have shown that the project is still feasible to run. The study also explains that the government can still sell gas at a lower price in the break-even condition.

ОБЛІК І АУДИТ ДОХОДІВ І ВИТРАТ ПІДПРИЄМСТВ В УМОВАХ ГЛОБАЛЬНИХ ВИКЛИКІВ

Formulation of the problem. In the context of global challenges, enterprises operate in a dynamic, unpredictable external environment, so to ensure break-even conditions and increase profitability of the company requires a modification of the existing management system, the effectiveness of which, in turn, is determined by the level of accounting and analytical costs. types of activity of the enterprise, therefore improvement of the account and audit of incomes and expenses of the trading enterprises is actual, especially in the conditions of modern global challenges. The aim of the research is improvement the procedure for accounting and auditing revenues and expenses of commercial enterprises. The subject of the research is the system of accounting for enterprise income and expenses. The methods of the research: analysis, synthesis, abstract logic; historical, comparative and statistical, generalization and grouping; system-structural and functional. The hypothesis of the research. The current accounting system and audit procedure should be modified in accordance with the realities of existing trading companies in the conditions of their activity during modern global challenges. The statement of basic materials. The organizational provisions of accounting for costs and revenues by type of activity are analyzed and shortcomings in the existing practice of their accounting are identified on the example of one of the trading companies – JACQUARD LLC, measures to improve the accounting of costs and revenues by type of activity are identified. The task of auditing costs and revenues by type of activity of the enterprise, the audit plan and test questions of the auditor to verify the correctness of the organization of cost and income accounting and the results for the trading company. The originality and practical significance of the research lies in the possibility of applying the proposals for improvement the accounting and audit of costs and revenues by type of enterprise activity. Conclusions and perspectives of further research. The research will improve the efficiency of accounting and auditing of costs and revenues, and timely and proper accounting will facilitate more effective management decisions in the process of generating net income, and the use of audit plans of costs and revenues will more accurately identify deficiencies in the organization and accounting of the enterprise

A theoretical analysis of the direct rebound effect caused by energy efficiency improvement of private consumers

This study systematically examines, with the aid of modern microeconomic theory, the theoretical foundations of the direct rebound effect caused by energy efficiency improvement of private consumers. It establishes a utility maximization problem for the private consumer and analyses consumer behaviors under different classical functional forms of household production, such as Cobb–Douglas, Leontief and Constant Elasticity of Substitution (CES) when energy efficiency improves at the household level. Furthermore, it builds upon existing knowledge of the rebound effect and proposes a generalized nested functional form of household production behavior allowing for understanding the energy efficiency improves of an appliance where energy is not the only input to produce a certain service, such as kilometers traveled. This study contributes to the theoretical literature in direct rebound effect and provides insights on the rebound break-even condition of the household production function. The backfire condition is also discussed under different functional forms of the household production function. It shows that under certain circumstances, where elasticity of substation is large, backfire will be unavoidable when energy efficiency improves.

Kelayakan finansial usaha pengolahan terasi udang rebon di kelurahan Bontang Kuala kota Bontang provinsi Kalimantan Timur

The objectives of this study are a measure of the financial feasibility of The shrimp paste processing business, and to know the marketing chain study was conducted in the production center of The shrimp paste, Bontang Kuala Village. Sampling using the census method. There were 7 shrimp paste producers in the study area. Business feasibility of the financial aspect is measured by the analysis of discounted investment criteria; Net Present Value, Internal Rate of Return, Net Benefit-Cost Ratio, Payback period), and analysis of non-discount investment criteria; break-even point analysis and Return of Investment (ROI) analysis. Results showed that The shrimp paste processing business was financially feasible to be developed in the future, with NPV value were IDR. 32,667,112. IRR values respectively were 21%, Net B/C values were 2.1 and Payback period values were 3.3 years. The actual condition of shrimp paste processing business is above the break-even point condition for the aspect of sales and the production, Return of Investment (ROI) value were of 113.28%. Marketing channel patterns that occur are level 0 channel patterns, ie from producers to consumers.

A model for planning and economic comparison of manual and automated kitting systems

Parts kitting is a frequently adopted method to feed parts from a warehouse to an assembly line. While kitting allows minimisation of space occupation and Work In Process holding cost at the workstations, also simplifying materials flow and supporting manual assembly, it is penalised by high workforce cost for manual kits preparation. For this reason, automated kitting systems have been also proposed although their practical application is somewhat limited owing to the relevant capital investment and scarce performances of robotised kitting systems. Moreover, economic models allowing a quantitative comparison of manual and automated kitting systems are not yet available in the literature. As a contribution to fill this gap, in this paper a cost model useful to compare manual and automation-assisted parts retrieval and kitting systems is presented. The model can be used as a decision-making tool when planning and justifying kitting systems. The model includes capital investment, workforce, space occupation and quality costs. A case study as an application example is also included to demonstrate the model capabilities. Results show that automation-assisted kitting systems can be competitive in comparison to manual kitting and that break-even conditions can be also identified by the proposed method.

Analysis of production and input efficiency of tiger shrimp pond in Aceh Jaya district, Indonesia

Shrimp pond is one of the main livelihoods of coastal communities in Aceh Jaya. However, its productivity is classified as very low. This study aims to (1) analyze the factors that influence shrimp pond production in Aceh Jaya, (2) analyze the allocative efficiency of input use in shrimp ponds, and (3) analyze the area of land under the break-even point condition of shrimp ponds the. The method used in this study is a survey method. Sampling was done by a multistage random sampling technique with a sample of 40 farmers. Data were analyzed using the Cob-Douglass production function model, Marginal Production Value and Marginal Costs, and the break-even point. The results showed that the pond area, number of shrimp seed, labor and fertilizer had a significant effect on tiger shrimp production. Variable land area and the number of seed are negatively correlated shrimp production, therefore both variables must be reduced because it is inefficient, while other variables are positively correlated with tiger shrimp production and are not efficient yet. In the future, to increase tiger shrimp production in the study area can be done by increasing the inputs that exist in the model except, land and shrimp feed. The cultivation of tiger prawns in the study area is quite profitable, the break event point production volume is 352.48 kg and the area of land is 0.37 hectares.

A framework for analyzing impact of potential financial/fiscal incentives for promoting institutional solar cooking in India

A framework to estimate the extent of various incentives required to ensure financial attractiveness of institutional solar cooking is presented with typical examples from India. Incentives considered are capital subsidy/viability gap funding, accelerated depreciation, interest subsidy, and investment tax credit have been considered for three commercially available designs of solar cookers that can be used for institutional cooking (SK-23, Scheffler dish (direct), and Scheffler dish (steam)). Depending on the location, the extent of viability gap funding (VGF) for Scheffler dish (steam) solar cooking system varies from 18.7% to 66.5% of the capital cost, while the same for SK-23 and Scheffler dish (direct) varies from 8.7% to 82.9%, and 33.4%–94.5% respectively. From the government point of view, the provision of accelerated depreciation for incentivising institutional solar cooking is found to be the least cost option followed by viability gap funding, investment tax credit and interest subsidy in the order of increasing cost to the government. At locations in the cold and cloudy climatic zone of India, there is invariably a need to provide a combination of incentives (as the current provision of 30% capital subsidy is not adequate) to ensure a breakeven condition.

The large tokamak JT-60: a history of the fight to achieve the Japanese fusion research mission

Fusion research was driven by the oil shocks in 1970’s and the concern about climate change during 20th century. This paper addressed the scientific research history of JT-60, the tokamak that achieved record fusion performances and opened the way toward the continuous operation of a tokamak fusion reactor through its scientific discoveries. The paper also highlighted technical struggles to improve machine capabilities and to solve technical issues faced during the JT-60 project. The missions of JT-60 were to achieve equivalent energy break-even (Q = PDTequi. / Pheat ≥ 1) and to establish a scientific basis for fusion reactor. The JT-60 made several modifications to reach equivalent break-even condition and continued efforts were made by the JT-60 team to solve critical technical issues during 23 years of research operation. Scientific success of JT-60 led to current ITER projects and the modification of JT-60 to a superconducting tokamak, JT-60SA. This paper is intended to be useful for the future researchers and managers of large-scale project by giving dynamical evolutions and highlighting key players. I dedicate this paper to Hiroshi Kishimoto, who made an outstanding contribution in managing the JT-60 research project.