Decrease In Cost Of Capital Research Articles

Economic substantiation of the production of sheep breeding products in the farms of Ukraine

Activation of the development of sheep breeding in Ukraine is possible based on the spread of specialized farms for breeding and growing sheep for meat, which will contribute to the economy of rural areas, employment, and welfare of the population. The article presents the main results of the research on planning the economic efficiency of the production of sheep products in farms, taking into account the market conditions of Ukraine. The optimal structure for the organization of production and sale of sheep products is proposed and substantiated, which includes breeding, growing, slaughtering sheep, and entering the market through direct sales channels with sheep meat, wool, sheepskin, and main by-products, which will significantly increase the profitability of the farm compared to traditional business models in sheep breeding, which are focused on breeding and rearing with the sale of animals in live weight. The planning of the need for fixed and working capital, which is necessary for the organization of production of sheep products in a family-type farm with several 200 ewes, has been carried out. The cost of production of sheep breeding products by main species was calculated, which at the beginning of the project was 2.8 euros for 1 kg of lamb, 1.4 euros for 1 kg of wool, and about 10 euros for one sheepskin. It was determined that the required amount of advanced capital for the organization of the farm would be 88 thousand euros, which will be compensated by net cash flow in 3 years. The farm is predicted to produce and sell products in the market for a total of 54,000 euros in the first year, which will potentially increase to 80,200 euros by the end of the project, which will fully compensate for costs and ensure a net profit of up to 20,000 euros EUR per year at the end of the project implementation period. The estimated amount of net cash flow for five years is EUR 77,000, with an internal rate of return of 26.3 %. The ratio of net cash flow to the cost of capital will be from 33 to 63 %, which justifies the relatively high level of investment efficiency in the production of sheep products in family farm farms following the technical and economic features of the business described in the article. The influence of the production volume of sheep breeding products on indicators of investment effectiveness is also determined. It has been established that an increase in the number of ewes from 200 to 500 will increase the net cash flow by an average of 15-16 thousand euros per year for every 100 head of increase in the number of sheep with a simultaneous decrease in capital costs per head.

Energy efficiency, sustainability, and operating cost optimization of an FPSO with CCUS: An innovation in CO2 compression and injection systems

Production in FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading) is challenging due to its energy demand, operating cost, and environmental impact. In particular, the composition of the reservoir fluid, which varies along with the life of a well, greatly affects the operation and production of the FPSO. Any optimization study aiming at reducing energy consumption, sustainability, and operating costs during the life span of a well should take this fluid variability into account. Additionally, a typical FPSO operating in the Brazilian deep-water oil regions requires process fluid with high CO2 content. Therefore, a new FPSO process plant configuration comprises a membrane-based CCU (Carbon Capture and Utilization) system integrated with an MEA-based CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) system and a CO2 compression unit with fewer compressors and one injection unit is proposed. Subsequently, automated optimization procedures consisting of a hybrid algorithm (NSGA-II + AfilterSQP) are implemented to optimize the energy efficiency, sustainability, and operation costs of the FPSO under consideration. More than 25 thermodynamic and structural design variables are considered as input variables in the optimization procedures. The results presented a significant reduction of up to 10.1% (2.9 MW) in overall power consumption, mitigation of CO2 emissions of up to 47 kg/h, a decrease of up to 3.9% (2.4 million USD/year) in operating cost, and an improvement of up to 53.5% in total heating and cooling demand of the FPSO, which means a reduction of 3.8 × 109 (kJ/h). In a proposed system with one CO2 injection unit, optimization results in the mitigation of total power consumption of up to 1.4 MW, a decrease in capital cost of 10 million USD, a reduction in operating cost of 50 million USD/year, and an increase of 4.4% in CO2 removal efficiency.

Assessment of the Potential of Digital Technologies in the Implementation of Deep Cycles of Grain Products Processing

Improving the technological component of agro-industrial production through the introduction of digital technologies accelerates the pace of economic growth and contributes to ensuring food security. The adaptation for agriculture of digital technologies already used in various industries is particularly relevant, and their integrated use is more effective. Artificial intelligence systems and, in particular, computer vision have significant prospects for implementation in the production and processing of agricultural products. Computer vision and image processing procedures can be used to control product quality and processing cycles in order to improve the efficiency of production processes. In each processing cycle, it is necessary to control the technological parameters and the quality of the processed raw materials, the results of which affect the duration, the number of operations and the conditions of the processing process. The use of the developed luminescent method to control the moisture content and particle size makes it possible to increase the efficiency of technological processes for processing grain products. The development of an innovative complex for deep processing of grain, as an example of application of new production technologies, is a promising current direction in the development of agricultural production. Increasing production efficiency is based on a significant expansion of the range of finished products, on an increase in the added value of processed products and on a slight decrease in capital costs due to the combination of processes. The increase in the potential for using various end-to-end digital technologies in agro-industrial production is facilitated through their combination and integration into complex systems for digitalization of production, which ensure the development of the agro-industrial complex.

The roles of cost of capital, corporate governance, and corporate social responsibility in improving firm value: evidence from Indonesia

Corporate governance (CG) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are important subjects for corporate sustainability that affect firm value (FV). At the same time research results in several countries provide diverse empirical evidence. This study analyzes the impact of corporate governance (CG) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) on firm value (FV) through the cost of capital (CoC) in public companies of Indonesia. The research sample includes 27 companies that publish sustainability reports and corporate governance reports, with an observation period from 2010 till 2016. This study presents the analysis of three firm value proxies (Tobin’s q (TQ), Price Earnings Ratio (PER), and Price to Book Value (PBV)). Results of hypotheses testing using Partial Least Squares (PLS) show that CG and CSR have both direct and indirect effects on FV. These findings are consistent for all three firm value assessments. According to direct testing, CG has a negative effect on FV, while CSR has a positive effect. The CoC acts as a mediating variable in this relationship. The CG and CSR have a negative effect on CoC, while CoC has a negative effect on FV. The findings show that CG and CSR can improve the company performance and corporate image internally and externally, thereby increasing the investors` confidence, and companies have the opportunity to obtain inexpensive funding sources that can reduce CoC. A decrease in CoC can increase profitability and have an impact on FV increasing.

THE ENERGY EFFICIENCY OF THE HEAT PUMP RECUPERATIVE SYSTEM OF WATER HEATING AND VENTILATION USING THE HEAT OF THE SOIL AND VENTILATION EMISSIONS

The combined heat pump-recuperative scheme of water heating and ventilation using ground heat and ventilation emissions is considered. A thermodynamic analysis of the heat supply scheme was completed. Based on this analysis, the temperature parameters at the nodal points of the system, the unit cost of external energy per unit of heat produced at the entrance to the object of heating and ventilation and the proportion of heat load covered by the soil heat exchanger are determined. The graphical dependences of the efficiency criteria on the quantities that determine the conditions of operation of the circuit are constructed and analysed. A comparison of the obtained energy efficiency criteria with the corresponding values for a traditional heat pump system with the ground heat exchanger was completed. The introduction of the proposed combined scheme increases the air temperature supplied to the heater of the ventilation system. This, in turn, reduces the capacity of the heat exchangers of the ventilation system and improves the conditions of their operation, reducing the risk of icing over ducts. The proposed heat pump scheme leads to a decrease in specific energy consumption per unit of heat to meet the needs of water heating and ventilation of the premises. The energy efficiency of the heat supply system increases with the increase of both the recuperation coefficient of the recuperator and the relative heat consumption for ventilation compared with the heat consumption for heating. Reducing the total energy consumption for the heating and ventilation system results not only in increasing the energy efficiency of the heat supply system, but also leads to a decrease in capital costs for the construction of a heat pump unit (in particular, for the construction of a pre-heavily ground heat exchanger) in proportion to the reduction of its required capacity.

A methodology to compare the economic feasibility of fuel cell-, gas turbine- and microturbine-based combined heat and power systems

Combined heat and power (CHP) systems are a proven technology to reduce emissions. A methodology was presented to compare the economic feasibility of fuel cell-based CHP systems with more alternative prime movers (microturbine and gas turbine). For demonstration purposes, the methodology was applied to three distinct case studies of varying size. The developed methodology allowed for the analysis of the system from various economic points of view. Because of the scarcity of complete equation sets modeling the off-design performance of fuel cells, several novel equations were proposed. All systems utilizing alternative prime movers were unprofitable. The fuel cell-based systems exhibited some economic potential; however, the results showed it would take close to the entire system lifetime to recover the capital costs. This is consistent with the reviewed literature and hence validates the new methodology and partial load equations proposed. Based on this analysis the fuel cell-based system for the medium sized case study showed the most economic potential. Because of the susceptibility of emerging technologies (fuel cells) to changes in capital costs, an in-depth sensitivity analysis was performed. The analysis showed that a 5% decrease in capital costs could reduce the payback period by as much as six months. This indicates that only a small decrease in price is necessary to potentially lead to the adoption of these systems in the near future. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A comparative study of district and individual energy systems providing electrical-based heating, cooling, and domestic hot water to a low-energy use residential community

This study analyzes potential benefits of centralized systems providing space conditioning and domestic hot water to a small community of electric-only low-energy use dwellings in Northern California. Benefits are analyzed in terms of levelized cost and site energy use. Two district-based scenarios, served by a central ground source heat pump and a central electric boiler with individual air conditioning units, are compared against a decentralized business as usual scenario with individual electric space heaters, air conditioning units and storage-type electric water heaters. Electricity use and levelized cost were modeled in TRNSYS. For a 3-dwelling system with total thermal energy demand of 14.2MWh/y and peak load of 12.7kW, the district ground source heat pump configuration uses less electrical energy and power. However, the business as usual system has the lowest levelized cost due to the high cost of the ground-source heat pump installation. Levelized cost was most sensitive to capital cost and number of dwellings connected to the system for the district configurations considered. A 30% decrease in capital cost of the district system resulted in 21% average decrease of levelized cost, while a 100% increase in the number of dwellings resulted in an average 17% decrease of cost.

CO 2 mitigation costs for new renewable energy capacity in the Mexican electricity sector using renewable energies

Carbon dioxide mitigation costs for the Mexican power sector are calculated in order to compare the business as usual (BAU) scenario, based on natural gas capacity growth, to a transition scenario where electricity generation growth using natural gas after 2007 is replaced by renewable energies (solar, wind, hydro and biomass). The mitigation costs are obtained using the following parameters: natural gas price, discount rate and technological progress. The latter is expressed in terms of the anticipated decrease in capital costs, as reported in electricity generation technological literature. Our results show that when technological progress is considered, CO 2 mitigation costs decrease rapidly from 14 $/tCO 2 (in this paper $ express 1997 US dollars and t means metric tons) to zero when the price of natural gas nears 2.68 $/GJ, (for some readers, it can be useful to know that 1.0 US$1997/GJ is 1.19 US$2001/MMBTU) which is almost the same as the 2002 price. This means that for middle natural gas prices a “no regrets” situation can be achieved. Our results also show that for prices higher than 2.80 $/GJ, the incorporation of the technological progress parameter transforms the transition scenario into a “no regrets” scenario for all the discount rate values considered in this study.