High Capital Expenditure Research Articles

An analytical approach for evaluation of conveyor exit strategies in open-pit mines

Transportation is the most expensive task in deep open-pit mining operations. An In-Pit Crushing and Conveying (IPCC) system, as an alternative to the conventional shovel-truck system, requires precise planning to avoid wasting high capital expenditures on trucks. The decision to fit a conveyor system into the pit design is challenging and needs to be addressed in the literature. Further optimisation of the IPCC system requires choosing an appropriate conveyor exit strategy. Conveyor exit schemes include a Dedicated Ramp Slot (DRS), an Existing Ramping System, an inclined tunnel and High-Angle Conveyors (HAC). This paper provides an analytical approach to compare the cost of different conveyor exit strategies in open-pit mines. The results indicate that for a depth up to 100 m, the Present Value of Cost (PVC) for the DRS is the least. For the cases deeper than 300 m, the HAC has the least PVC. Sensitivity analysis showed that for the depths between 100 and 300 m, a more accurate and detailed definition of parameters is needed. Besides, in most cases, the HAC provides the lowest payback period and the highest internal rate of return among the alternatives.

Financing green innovation startups: a systematic literature review on early-stage SME funding

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the critical issue of financing early-stage green startups, examining the types of investors and finance models available, the challenges these startups face, and how the green finance ecosystem can better support early-stage investment. Utilizing a systematic literature review (SLR) methodology, we provide a comprehensive analysis of the current landscape. Our findings reveal a significant paucity of data and a bias towards well-established North American and European ecosystems, while highlighting an emerging diversity in private finance sources post-Global financial crisis (GFC), including grants, equity, and crowdfunding. Despite this, there remains a heavy reliance on public funding and a lack of evidence regarding its impact. The inherent characteristics of cleantech – high capital expenditure, long investment horizons, and disruptive nature – necessitate innovative public financing instruments and policies to reduce risk and attract private investment. Our theoretical contribution highlights the necessity for interdisciplinary research and policy collaboration to develop a holistic entrepreneurial finance (entfin) ecosystem. This approach should integrate quantitative economic and qualitative behavioural finance research to address information asymmetries and improve the green economy policy mix. Such a framework will support public-private co-financing, enhance stakeholder engagement, and provide evidence for policy decisions, facilitating more rapid commercialization of cleantech innovations for environmental sustainability.

Financial decision dynamics: Environmental, social, and governance factors and managerial choices in emerging markets

This study examines the linkage between the ESG performance of firms and managerial decision-making. It uses 8 years of ESG performance data of 110 Indian firms collected from the Thomson Reuters database. The study finds that high ESG performance mitigates a firm’s cost of debt more than equity cost. Furthermore, increases in ESG performance are associated with higher capital expenditures, lower investment cash flow sensitivity, higher cash holdings, and lesser payout of increased cash flows to shareholders. The findings are in sync with the Slack resources view, suggesting that the requirement of financial Slack for ESG-related innovations and risk-bearing is large and impacts the major managerial decisions of firms. While the effects of environmental and social performance on these decisions are similar to that of the composite ESG performance, governance performance shows an independent impact on the payout decisions of firms. The Granger Causality test reveals a bi-directional association between debt issues and ESG performance. The main results obtained from the multiple panel regressions are robust to additional tests involving lead-lag analysis. The overall findings of this study highlight the importance of ESG performance screening in the managerial decision-making process of investors who would not like to risk growth potential for a short-term increase in dividends.

Harnessing solar energy for sustainable green hydrogen production in Türkiye: Opportunities, and economic viability

Hydrogen emerges as a promising solution for Türkiye, offering opportunities to enhance renewable energy production and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Türkiye has significant potential for green hydrogen production, leveraging its abundant renewable energy resources and lower installation costs for renewable energy-based power plants.This study assesses the impact of capital expenditure (CAPEX) on the Levelized Cost of Hydrogen (LCOH) in Türkiye, focusing on both current and projected costs. The LCOH ranges from $3.79/kgH2 to $5.11/kgH2 for low and high CAPEX scenarios, given Türkiye's solar electricity cost of $40.32/MWh in 2024. Looking ahead to 2035, achieving Türkiye's hydrogen cost target of $2.4/kgH2 will require reducing electricity costs to $31/MWh for low CAPEX and $15.3/MWh for high CAPEX. The current electricity cost of $40.3/MWh is significantly above these targets, highlighting the need for substantial technological advancements and cost-reduction strategies to meet future economic objectives for sustainable hydrogen production.

A numerical comparison of heavy‐purge and dual‐reflux strategies in pressure swing adsorption for methane enrichment

AbstractDual reflux pressure swing adsorption (DR‐PSA) has been regarded as a state‐of‐the‐art adsorption‐based process which can simultaneously obtain two streams of pure product gases with a narrow pressure window. However, the DR‐PSA has not yet been reported in industrial applications. Herein, a DR‐PSA and a heavy‐purge pressure vacuum swing adsorption (HP‐PVSA) were numerically investigated for the enrichment of 1%, 8% and 15% CH4 from N2 gas mixtures in pilot‐scale. Key separation indicators such as purity, recovery and energy cost of the two cycles were compared to analyze the limitations of the DR‐PSA process while scaling‐up. This study reveals the impact of heavy to feed (H/F) ratios on purity and recovery for both cycles and analyses the energy consumption of each process. For feed gas with 15% CH4, while DR‐PSA can achieve a slightly better purity and recovery (88.3% and 88.3%, respectively) compared to HP‐PVSA (87.5% and 80.3%, respectively), it also involves an order of magnitude higher energy consumption (181.6 versus 24.6 kJ/mol CH4 captured). DR‐PSA shows significantly superior performance than HP‐PVSA when the CH4 content in the raw feed gas is low. Under the investigated operating conditions, HP‐PVSA can only enrich 1% CH4 to 10% with 78.7% recovery while DR‐PSA can obtain 75.3% purity and 77.3% recovery. Results indicate that DR‐PSA exhibits superiority in enrichment of dilute gas, however, its high energy consumption, high capital expenditures and limitations in processing high throughput are the chief reasons hindering its industrial application.

Financial integration and economic growth in Africa

The main objective of this article is to assess the link between financial integration and economic growth in African countries during the period 1990-2017. To achieve this goal, we used a dynamic panel model using the generalized method of moments (GMM) in first difference with threshold effects on a sample of 29 African countries. The results of the estimates reveal, on the one hand, that the countries that benefit from the benefits of financial integration on economic growth are those with high trade and financial openness, high human capital, low inflation, democratic regime, and high public expenditure. On the other hand, these results indicate that financial integration is associated with a low probability of surviving a banking crisis in the countries studied. Thus, the governments of African countries must implement policies aimed at a progressive liberalization of trade and financial activities, coupled with the implementation of macroeconomic stability policies and the improvement of the quality of the institutional environment, which determines the impact of financial integration on economic growth.

Exergoeconomic evaluation and optimization of a solar-powered polygeneration system producing freshwater, electricity, hydrogen, and cooling

This study presents a comprehensive exergoeconomic assessment and optimization of a pioneering solar-powered polygeneration system designed for simultaneous production of electricity, cooling, freshwater, and hydrogen, aiming to fill the gap in knowledge about such a polygeneration system. The study employs an advanced methodology to evaluate future improvement methods, considering the system's performance and economic viability. The Specific Exergy Costing (SPECO) method is used for exergoeconomic analysis, and the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) is preferred to reveal Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) for optimization.As an important conclusion, it is recognized that system modifications should reduce the financing cost while simultaneously increasing the system's lifespan and annual operational time. The most expensive components of the system are the PTC, ORC, and electrolyzer, which are responsible for 51%, 23%, and 18% of the total cost of energy destruction, respectively. Thus, purchase price reduction and improvement in the efficiencies of these units are crucial. Also, considering the exergoeconomic factor (fc) values calculated for the system components, it is necessary to increase the efficiency of the compressor and electrolyzer, which have fc values of 37.37% and 32.1%, respectively, even if it results in higher capital expenditures. Additionally, it should be preferred to reduce the capital costs of the other system components, which have higher fc values in the range of 46.68% and 52.47%, without reducing their efficiencies significantly.

Artificial Intelligence-Centric Low-Enthalpy Geothermal Field Development Planning

Low-enthalpy geothermal energy can make a major contribution towards reducing CO2 emissions. However, the development of geothermal reservoirs is costly and time intensive. In particular, high capital expenditures, data acquisition costs, and long periods of time from identifying a geothermal resource to geothermal heat extraction make geothermal field developments challenging. Conventional geothermal field development planning follows a linear approach starting with numerical model calibrations of the existing subsurface data, simulations of forecasts for geothermal heat production, and cost estimations. Next, data acquisition actions are evaluated and performed, and then the models are changed by integrating the new data before being finally used for forecasting and economics. There are several challenges when using this approach and the duration of model rebuilding with the availability of new data is time consuming. Furthermore, the approach does not address sequential decision making under uncertainty as it focuses on individual data acquisition actions. An artificial intelligence (AI)-centric approach to field development planning substantially improves cycle times and the expected rewards from geothermal projects. The reason for this is that various methods such as machine learning in data conditioning and distance-based generalized sensitivity analysis assess the uncertainty and quantify its potential impact on the final value. The use of AI for sequential decision making under uncertainty results in an optimized data acquisition strategy, a recommendation of a specific development scenario, or advice against further investment. This approach is illustrated by applying AI-centric geothermal field development planning to an Austrian low-enthalpy geothermal case. The results show an increase in the expected value of over 27% and a reduction in data acquisition costs by more than 35% when compared with conventional field development planning strategies. Furthermore, the results are used in systematic trade-off assessments of various key performance indicators.

Cooperative Caching and Resource Allocation in Integrated Satellite–Terrestrial Networks

Due to the rapid development of low earth orbit satellite constellations, e.g., Starlink, OneWeb, etc., integrated satellite-terrestrial networks have been viewed as a promising paradigm to globally provide satellite internet services for users. However, when the contents from ground data centers are provided for users by satellite networks, there will be high capital expenditures in terms of communication delay and bandwidth usage. To this end, in this paper, a cooperative-caching and resource-allocation problem is investigated in integrated satellite–terrestrial networks. Popular contents, which are cached on satellites and ground data centers, can be accessed via inter-satellite and satellite–terrestrial networks in a cooperative way. The optimization problem is formulated to jointly minimize the deployment costs of storage resource usage and network bandwidth consumption. A cooperative caching and resource allocation (CCRA) algorithm based on a neighborhood search is proposed to address the problem. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed CCRA algorithm outperforms Greedy and BFS in reducing the deployment costs.

Walking the Walk: Corporate Social Responsibility and Product Recalls in the Automotive Industry

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to disentangle a unique way in which corporate social responsibility (CSR) affects firm value in the context of product recalls in the automotive industry.
 Methodology: Using a sample of product recall events in the automotive industry between 2002 and 2018 and controlling for the spread of product recalls across product lines, this study explores the underlying economic channels through which CSR improves investments in quality. For robustness check, self-selection bias is corrected for using a 2SLS approach and alternative measures for product failures and CSR.
 Findings: The authors find that firms with higher CSR scores are associated with a lower frequency of recalls. Moreover, higher CSR scores are associated with a higher likelihood of voluntary recalls, higher product quality, higher capital expenditures, and higher employee productivity.
 Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice, and Policy: This study offers insights to managers, investors, and board members, showing the potential benefits of engaging in CSR activities. This study contributes to the literature on the effect of CSR on different managerial decisions and the factors that affect product recalls. Additionally, the study reveals the connection between CSR and product recalls.

Corporate taxes, leverage, and investment: Evidence from Nazi‐occupied Netherlands

AbstractWe examine the Netherlands around the Second World War, where the occupying Nazi regime overhauled the country's corporate tax regime and introduced a profit tax of 55 per cent. We estimate that the new tax regime cost investors at least 300 million guilders, an amount equivalent to 5 per cent of Dutch GDP in 1940. We demonstrate that the tax introduction changed the financing of Dutch businesses. In particular, we find strong evidence that debt financing increased because it provides a tax shelter. The changes in taxation also led to an after‐tax reduction in the cost of debt, which had large real effects on firm investment. After the end of the war, firms with more leverage had higher capital expenditures.

Automated systems for monitoring the consumption of metal charge at factories by conversion metallurgy

The domestic factories engaged in conversion metallurgy use scrap as the main raw material for steel production (at least 70 % of the total charge). In difficult economic and geopolitical situation factories are cautiously considering the possibility of introducing new technologies that require high capital expenditures and modification of existing units. In this article automated control systems are proposed that help reduce the consumption of metal charge and energy resources during steel smelting: an electromagnetic scanner with an automatic control system that determines the presence of concentrations of non-magnetic substances in scrap at each point of the wagon or trailer of the road train and the bulk density of scrap; a neural network system for temperature control in electric furnaces and out-of-furnace processing (installation ladle-furnace and units for vacuuming). These systems will allow enterprises of conversion metallurgy (on the example of Pervouralsk Novotrubny Plant): to improve the quality of scrap metal by tightening the requirements for the quality of raw materials of scrap suppliers according to the interstate standard for secondary fer-rous metals; to increase the productivity of the electric furnace by reducing the time under current by 3 minutes, and to reduce the consumption of metal charge by 4.66%, electricity by 500 kWh for 1 melting cycle, the release temperature by 10 ℃ to reduce vacuuming time for 2 minutes. The proposed automated control systems require insignificant capital costs for installation and commissioning, and do not require the shutdown of existing production.

Corn Husk‐Derived Activated Carbon as High‐Performance Anode Constituent for Rechargeable Aqueous Zn/α‐MnO2 Batteries

Zinc (Zn) aqueous batteries have gained significant research interest for large‐scale electrochemical energy storage applications due to their rich abundance of raw materials, high energy density, environmental friendliness, low capital, and maintenance expenditure. However, the progress of metallic Zn anode in the aqueous Zn battery chemistry is hindered by several critical challenges, including low Coulombic efficiency and the formation of Zn dendrites, irrespective of the pH of the electrolyte. Herein, the application of porous activated carbon (AC) derived from waste corn husk as Zn anode constituent to improve the cyclability of the aqueous Zn battery is reported. In the full cell study, it is observed that the battery containing 15 wt% of AC as anode coupled with α‐MnO2 nanorods cathode shows excellent capacity retention of 86.42% (initial discharge capacity = 211.67 mAh g−1) after 125 charge/discharge cycles at current rate of 100 mA g−1. Moreover, herein, insights into converting waste to energy by utilizing the biowaste precursor to develop stable and durable rechargeable aqueous Zn‐based batteries are provided.

Automation in Construction Industry it’s Application and Barriers to Implementation on Construction Site

Automation is transforming the construction sector, providing benefits such as better productivity, improved safety, and lower prices. Automation is used in a wide range of construction applications, from heavy equipment to off-site construction approaches such as prefabrication and modular construction. In front of this, the focus of this research is to determine the extent to which the use of automation, if entirely applied in construction sector, it also has a negative impact on the delivery of building projects. Modern equipment has helped the development of the construction industry. Several disadvantages of automated constructions are causing worker displacement, creating emotional stress for the workers, higher level of maintenance, high capital expenditures, causing geographical displacement of workers, lower degree of flexibility, employee dissatisfaction, decrease in productivity and the enslavement of labor by automated machinery

Evaluation of the Pavement Distress and its Impact on the Sustainability of the Traffic Operation for Selected Roads in Al-Diwaniyah City

Roads and transportation infrastructure are critical assets for supporting political stability as well as economic and sustainable expansion in developing countries. Yet, pavement maintenance backlogs and the high capital expenditures of road rehabilitation need the adoption of pavement evaluation methods to ensure the best value for the investment. road maintenance is considered one of the main factors for preserving the road structurally and functionally, and before carrying out maintenance, pavement defects must be identified by evaluating the condition of the pavement to perform the appropriate maintenance. In this study, the Pavement Condition Index (PCI) method was relied upon to evaluate roads in Al-Diwaniyah City. Where several data were collected for the study, including the number of crashes for each region, the number of lanes, street width, the presence of a median, and the pavement condition evaluated for the regions with the highest crash rate, which are Al-Askari District with 707 crashes, Al-Urouba District with 379 crashes, Al-Wahda District with 271 crashes, Al-Jamhouri District with 235 crashes, and Al-Jazaer District with 212 crashes. This study is considered the first study to evaluate roads in Al-Diwaniyah city. The results of the study showed that the condition of the roads ranged from poor to satisfactory and there is no road reach to serious and failed. The results showed that the worst road is Al-Askari District, which lacks a lot of maintenance, at a rate of PCI 52.1. It is followed by Al-Wahda District with a PCI rate of 57.6, Al-Jamhouri District with a PCI rate of 67.2, Al-Urouba District with a PCI rate of 70.7, and Al-Jazaer District with a PCI rate of 73.7. The deterioration of the pavement surface condition affects the rash rate, and it is more dangerous when it is correlated to other road factors. Additionally, it was noted that the most prominent defects in the pavement surface of the five evaluated roads are: potholes, rutting, longitudinal and transverse cracks, corrugation, patching, raveling, depressions, and alligator cracks. The study recommended conducting more research on evaluating more roads in Al-Diwaniyah City on an annual basis and conducting periodic maintenance in order to improve the status of this city, which suffers from neglect in all respects, measures must be taken to enhance the environment and economy, sustain the streets, reduce maintenance costs, ensure traffic safety, and protect the lives of citizens.

Assessment of paper industry decarbonization potential via hydrogen in a multi-energy system scenario: A case study

Green hydrogen is currently regarded as a key catalyst for the decarbonization of energy-intensive industries. In this context, the pulp and paper industry stands out as one of the most demanding, given the simultaneous need for large amounts of heat and electricity usually satisfied via cogeneration systems. Given the urgent need for cost-effective solutions in response to the climate crisis, it is crucial to analyze the feasibility of retrofitting existing power plants to operate carbon-neutral. The aim of this work is to provide a techno-economic analysis for the conversion of a conventional cogeneration system to run on locally produced hydrogen. Building on the energy consumption of the paper mill, the operation of a hydrogen-fuelled gas turbine is modelled in detail. Based on these results, a multi-energy system model for the production of green fuel is presented, considering production via solar-powered PEM electrolyzers, storage in tanks and final use in the gas turbine. An optimal configuration for the system is defined, leading to the definition of a solution that ensures a cost of 6.41 /kg for the production of green hydrogen. Finally, a sensitivity analysis highlights the close dependence of the economic profitability of the Power-to-X system on the natural gas price. The results indicate that although positive performance is achieved, the cost of investment remains still prohibitive for systems of this size, and the high initial capital expenditure needs to be supported by incentive policies that facilitate the adoption of hydrogen in industrial applications making it competitive in the short term.

How does the effect of external financing on profitability differ across tiers? Evidence from the automotive supply chain

Due to the importance of automotive industry for the Czech Republic (in a broader sense for European countries) and due to the unprecedented development of both national and European economies caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, also having implications on the financial sector, we aim to explore the main determinants of operating performance within the automotive supply chain. This study is based on the data sample composed of complete individual financial statements (audited if available) of firms conducting their business in the Czech Republic from 2011 to 2018 and belonging to the automotive supply chain. This supply chain is defined as (sub) deliveries of the Czech automotive industry represented mainly by companies classified under NACE 22, 27, 25, 24. The hypothesis claiming that the investment and leverage-based variables are the important drivers of operating profitability was only partly confirmed (valid predominantly for Tier 3), which shows that the supply chain organization also plays a crucial role as well as (valid for Tier 1). Also, we have shown (illustrated) that the assumption of different capital structures among tiers is valid. The average overall indebtedness of Tier 3 is higher by approximately 50% (altogether, the short- and long-term leverage are higher by 40% and 62% respectively) than Tier 1 firms. The need for relatively high capital expenditures (applicable to Tier 1) and working capital investments (applicable to Tier 3) is partly facilitated by external funds reflected in the indebtedness, which is associated with the costs reducing overall low profits from these investments. The leverageprofitability relationship seems to be nonlinear for long-term debts contrary to short-term debts where the linear relationship prevails.

Merging engine implementation for intra-frame sharing in multi-tenant virtual passive optical networks

High up-front capital expenditures impede the widespread deployment of passive optical networks (PONs). A multi-tenant solution, in which multiple network operators virtually share PON infrastructure and bandwidth resources, can result in significant cost savings. First, we investigate the viability of virtual PONs, in which virtual network operators share a portion of the upstream bandwidth in a frame. Each PON schedules its frame-level capacity using a dedicated dynamic bandwidth assignment algorithm, resulting in the generation of an independent bandwidth map (BMap). Second, we implement at the optical line terminal a merging engine that combines individual virtual BMaps into a single physical BMap, which is then transmitted to all optical network units. Our novel traffic merging algorithm is capable of consolidating traffic across all transmission containers. We apply this merging engine on top of the 10-Gbit-capable PON module and validate our approach using network simulator 3. The results show that our proposed intra-frame sharing technique, when integrated with our traffic merging algorithm, significantly outperforms the standard inter-frame sharing approach in terms of both latency and packet loss. Furthermore, we observed that best-effort traffic is affected most for all resource constraint scenarios of intra-frame sharing.

Quantitative multiple fragment monitoring with enhanced in-source fragmentation/annotation mass spectrometry.

Analytical techniques with high sensitivity and selectivity are essential to the quantitative analysis of clinical samples. Liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry is the gold standard in clinical chemistry. However, tandem mass spectrometers come at high capital expenditure and maintenance costs. We recently showed that it is possible to generate very similar results using a much simpler single mass spectrometry detector by performing enhanced in-source fragmentation/annotation (EISA) combined with correlated ion monitoring. Here we provide a step-by-step protocol for optimizing the analytical conditions for EISA, so anyone properly trained in liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry can follow and apply this technique for any given analyte. We exemplify the approach by using 2-hydroxyglutarate (2-HG) which is a clinically relevant metabolite whose D-enantiomer is considered an 'oncometabolite', characteristic of cancers associated with mutated isocitrate dehydrogenases 1 or 2 (IDH1/2). We include procedures for determining quantitative robustness, and show results of these relating to the analysis of DL-2-hydroxyglutarate in cells, as well as in serum samples from patients with acute myeloid leukemia that contain the IDH1/2 mutation. This EISA-mass spectrometry protocol is a broadly applicable and low-cost approach for the quantification of small molecules that has been developed to work well for both single-quadrupole and time-of-flight mass analyzers.

A Rational Plan of Energy Performance Contracting in an Educational Building: A Case Study

Energy performance contracting (EPC) is the best solution for an educational building to implement energy conservation measures (ECMs) because of its high capital expenditure and operational expenditure needed for retrofit and maintenance. It is also considered a win–win mechanism for organising building energy efficiency retrofit projects. It aims to assist educational buildings in acquiring new high-efficiency equipment and maximising energy use reduction, as guaranteed by energy service company (ESCO). This study developed an EPC model using regression analysis, in which the inputs are based on the data collected during the preliminary energy audit in University A. As a result, with a quantum sharing ratio of 0.95/0.5 for ESCO/University A, the forecasted energy savings from the proposed ECMs, chiller optimisation and replacement, lighting retrofit, and energy management system are estimated to save 25.6% energy use, which reduces 5,672,057 kilowatt-hour (kWh) in electricity consumption; saves RM 2,762,291.76/year; carbon dioxide (CO2) mitigation equal to 3,771,061.22 kgCO2/year; return of investment of 4.2 years with a 5% interest rate; and building energy intensity of 93.55 kWh/m2/year. A sensitivity analysis of various quantum sharing ratios found that the saving value of ESCO is inversely proportional to that of University A as the client when the quantum sharing ratio for the former is increasing.