Industrial Take-off Research Articles

Renewable and high-purity hydrogen from lignocellulosic biomass in a biorefinery approach

Unprecedented efforts are being deployed to develop hydrogen production from bioresources in a circular economy approach, yet their implementation remains scarce. Today’s Challenges are associated with the shortage in the value chain, lack of large-scale production infrastructure, high costs, and low efficiency of current solutions. Herein, we report a hydrogen production route from cellulose pulp, integrating biomass fractionation and gasification in a biorefinery approach. Softwood sawdust undergoes formic acid organosolv treatment to extract cellulose, followed by steam gasification. High-purity hydrogen-rich syngas at a concentration of 56.3 vol% and a yield of 40 gH2/kgcellulose was produced. Char gasification offers the advantage of producing free-tar syngas reducing cleaning costs and mitigating downstream issues. A comprehensive assessment of mass and energy balance along the hydrogen value chain revealed an efficiency of 26.5% for hydrogen production, with an energy requirement of 111.1 kWh/kgH2. Optimizing solvent recovery and valorization of other constituents as added-value products in a biorefinery approach would further improve the process and entice its industrial takeoff.

Application Status of Engineering Management in the Construction Field

With the development of the real estate industry, the take-off of the construction industry has also caused more and more capital to pour into the construction industry, driving the rapid development of the construction industry, but also causing the construction industry to face great competitive pressure. In order to achieve effective management of construction projects, this article aims to point out the main problems in Chinas construction management and improve the construction project management system and improve construction technology, which is conducive to improving the operational level and construction quality of construction projects. Currently, there is a lack of effective information communication and coordination mechanisms within the construction units of construction projects, which can lead to slow progress and low efficiency in the construction of construction projects, which will greatly increase the implementation difficulty of construction projects and restrict the improvement of enterprise construction project management level. Thus, it is important to improve the role of construction project management in the construction industry, and it is necessary to figure out the inner problems and strengthen the management of construction projects. The articles main purpose is to focus on the current situation and development reality of construction project management, specific research is conducted on its management and control optimization from the perspective of engineering management, to provide a reference for modern management and optimization of construction projects management.

Анализ зарубежного опыта развития инновационных систем

The article focuses on the experience of developing the innovation system of Singapore with an emphasis on the main elements, success factors and decisions taken by the government of the country in different periods in order to intensify the exchange of knowledge, develop innovation and strengthen the competitive position on the world market. There have been analyzed the main stages of the evolution of the innovation system of Singapore: the industrial take-off (from the early 1960s to the mid-1970s), local technological deepening (from the mid-1970s to the end of the 1980s), applied expansion of research and development (R&D) (from the mid-1980s to the end of the 1990s), high-tech entrepreneurship and development in the field of R&D (from the mid-1990s to the present). The identification and analysis of the main stages, as well as documents (the National Plan for Science and Technology, the Science and Technology Plan, the Plan for Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship) made it possible to establish the most significant features of the Singapore innovation system including a targeted policy in the field of foreign direct investment, leading to increased R&D activity in enterprises; effective macroeconomic policy, including in the field of social issues, combined with innovation policy; step-by-step creation of conditions for the development of innovations within multinational corporations, local manufacturing enterprises, state research institutes and centers and university R&D, local high-tech start-ups. The analyzed experience can be useful in improving the existing (or searching for a new model) innovation system in Russia in modern economic, political and technological conditions.

Women leaders in industry in nineteenth-century France: The case of Amélie de Dietrich

This article traces the history of Amélie de Dietrich in her role (1806 to 1855) as the head of one of the oldest family-owned businesses in Europe: the De Dietrich Company. Economic history has long given a very minor place to women entrepreneurs. Recent analyses nevertheless tend to show that women business leaders were not exceptions in the nineteenth century. This paper is a further attempt to bring women entrepreneurs – and their contribution to the industrial take-off – out of invisibility. Amélie de Dietrich took important strategic decisions to adapt the company to the new economic opportunities which arose in the first half of the nineteenth century. Her choices were decisive for the future of the company; what is more, she succeeded in restoring the familial ownership. Drawing on Amélie de Dietrich’s own unpublished correspondence, this contribution examines the factors that explain her success in imposing herself as a Maître des Forges.

Freedom of enterprise and economic development in the German industrial take-off

This paper examines the interaction between institutions and market size as drivers of economic development. I use the division of the Kingdom of Westphalia as a natural experiment to show that only reforms in both dimensions combined stimulated economic growth during the German industrial take-off. Homogeneous counties were allocated quasi-randomly to Prussia or the Electorate of Hesse as part of a package deal at the Congress of Vienna. In Prussian counties, Gewerbefreiheit (freedom of enterprise) and the abolition of guilds increased incentives to industrialise manufacturing production, yet these counties and those under the guild system developed similarly. Only the establishment of the German Zollverein (customs union), which increased market size considerably, enabled counties featuring the Gewerbefreiheit to experience significantly higher growth.

Energy Workarounds: Designing Coals for the Japanese Steel Industry, 1895-1911.

Japan's Meiji oligarchs put a premium on technologies that projected "civilization" and "modernity" and operated under the assumption that industrial technologies could be operationalized reasonably promptly. Their faith flew in the face of production experience. The case of metallurgical coke manufacturing offers an example of what happened when imported technological systems dead-ended on the fctory floor. Examining the production records of a Meiji-era chemical start-up, this article brings to focus the scope and scale of the creative labor needed to make imported technologies work on the ground. In so doing, it showcases innovative forces that formed the fabric of Japan's early industrialization as a corrective to the much-criticized but resilient notion that the country's industrial takeoff was enabled largely by technology transfer and local appropriation. By highlighting the creativity involved in designing coal inputs, this article opens new perspectives on the history of coals in East Asia.

Say's Second Visit to Britain: A Career Turning Point

Abstract Economist turned entrepreneur Say was uncertain about his future in 1814 when he was commissioned by the French government to document British industrial progress at a critical point of the industrial takeoff. This trip offered the opportunity to observe the economic life of a different country and to deepen his knowledge of the economic consequences of parliamentarism or the Corn Laws. He also developed a specific understanding of the changes occurring in Britain stressing economies of scale, the role of coal for steam, and the horrific situation of the working class. As key causes, he identified British naval domination of the seas and, more surprisingly, the general distortion induced by very heavy taxation. Through his travel, Say also imported new views about education that he disseminated in France before turning himself to the teaching of economics, starting, at forty-eight years of age, an academic career.

Broken Circle: Premature Deindustrialization, Chinese Capital Exports, and the Stumbling Development of New Territorial Industrial Complexes

AbstractWhile inherited models of industrial development and the role of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the developmental process associate urbanization and rising industrial output with the industrialization of employment, suggesting that the structural shift to a service-based job market is a sign of developmental “maturity,” such models fail to explain the secular tendency toward “premature deindustrialization” that has become increasingly evident in poor countries worldwide. These models cannot account for the deep bifurcations between output and employment, formality and informality, and industrialization and urbanization observable on the ground in the world's fastest growing cities. Meanwhile, the alternative models of critical development theorists tend to focus on failures of industrial takeoff and classic relations of dependency, none of which adequately account for the phenomenon being observed today. This paper explores an alternate explanation for premature deindustrialization, drawing from Marxian theories of technical change and the secular tendencies of capitalist development. The argument is illustrated with examples taken from the author's field work in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and the Pearl River Delta in China. Ultimately, the phenomenon of premature deindustrialization suggests that the great circle of development may collapse under its own contradictions before industrialization circumnavigates the globe.

A survey of the barriers associated with product development in tomato-based agro-allied food companies in Nigeria

The contributions of the tomato-based agro-allied companies in Nigeria cannot be over-emphasized because nearly every household consumes tomato products on daily basis. There is low industrial take-off and poor product development among existing agro-allied industries, especially for perishables like a tomato. The current study, therefore, seeks to investigate the factors militating against product development in tomato-based agro-allied food companies in Nigeria. The study employed a survey research design. Multistage sampling technique was used to select respondents for the study in the 23 companies studied. In the first stage, fifteen (15) out of the 23 listed and seven (7) out of the seventeen 17 non-listed tomato processing companies were purposively and conveniently selected for the study. In the second stage, the researcher stratified selected companies into existing three departments; Research and Development, Production and marketing were purposively selected. Finally, a simple random sampling technique was used and participants were selected proportionately to the size of each department and a total of 450 respondents were selected. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the data from the respondents. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics (multiple regression and t-test) at P≤0.05. Findings revealed that three commonly produced tomato-based products in Nigeria are Tomato paste (15.7%) closely followed by Tomato juice (12.8%) and Tomato sauce (12.6%). Others includes Crushed Italian tomatoes (5.9%), Tomato Ketchup (10%), Tomato Puree (5.7%), Passata (6.9%), Sun dried tomatoes (10.7%), Tomato fat (7.1%), Tomato oil ( 11%) and others (1.6%) respectively. This result shows that most tomato based agro-allied food companies in Nigeria develop mostly tomato paste. It revealed an overall high level of product development with an overall average mean of (mean = 3.32) on the scale of 4points. The identified factors ranges from sluggish exports (mean = 4.1), local market sales (mean = 4.1), custom duties (mean=4.1), exchange rate fluctuation (mean = 4.0), high interest rate (mean = 4.0), price increase (mean = 4.0), procurement of parts (mean = 4.0), inequality control (mean=4.0), lack of progress (mean = 3.9), increase in personnel expenses and increase in fuel (mean =3.9) and lastly lack of facilities, stricter environmental regulations, electric power shortage, inadequate logistics (mean = 3.8) The study concluded that actors and stakeholders in the tomato based agro-allied food companies in Nigeria should be commended for their efforts in sustaining tomato based agro-allied products in the country. The paper recommended that policy makers and heads of production departments of these companies should give more attention to production of other products for increase sales of agricultural products in tomato based agro-allied food companies in Nigeria.

IDE, Spillovers Technologiques et Performances Exportatrices des Économies Émergentes et en Développement

Foreign direct investments could be a privileged instrument for the mitigation of the technological gap, the dynamization of technological and industrial catch- up and the consolidation of the technological and scientific content of national industrial production, in addition to the modernization of productive apparatus, the expansion of industrial exports, and the celerity of their technological rise in the economies in a position of industrial takeoff. The internationalization of production favored by the rise of global value chains, as part of the process of international segmentation of production processes, has undeniably propelled the emergence of new industrial specializations and the restructuring of organizational models of production, namely in emerging countries as well as in developing countries, based on a heap of factors of attractiveness and exploitation of factorial and productive advantages, both comparative and competitive. The objective of this paper is to highlight the factors that motivate the choices and scenarios for the redeployment of production sites at the international scale, while measuring the impact of inward FDI on the scope of the export performance of host economies, by exploring the resulting effects on the level of industrial competitiveness, creative, research and development activities and inventive capabilities, total factor productivity, externalities and the absorptive capacity of technology transfer in the local productive system, through the ordinary least squares methodology over an analytical span of nearly three decades and a panel of 10 emerging and developing economies.

Insight into the recent advances of microwave pretreatment technologies for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into sustainable biofuel

The utilization of renewable lignocellulosic biomasses for bioenergy synthesis is believed to facilitate competitive commercialization and realize affordable clean energy sources in the future. Among the pathways for biomass pretreatment methods that enhance the efficiency of the whole biofuel production process, the combined microwave irradiation and physicochemical approach is found to provide many economic and environmental benefits. Several studies on microwave-based pretreatment technologies for biomass conversion have been conducted in recent years. Although some reviews are available, most did not comprehensively analyze microwave–physicochemical pretreatment techniques for biomass conversion. The study of these techniques is crucial for sustainable biofuel generation. Therefore, the biomass pretreatment process that combines the physicochemical method with microwave-assisted irradiation is reviewed in this paper. The effects of this pretreatment process on lignocellulosic structure and the ratio of achieved components were also discussed in detail. Pretreatment processes for biomass conversion were substantially affected by temperature, irradiation time, initial feedstock components, catalyst loading, and microwave power. Consequently, neoteric technologies utilizing high efficiency-based green and sustainable solutions should receive further focus. In addition, methodologies for quantifying and evaluating effects and relevant trade-offs should be develop to facilitate the take-off of the biofuel industry with clean and sustainable goals.

Quantitative economic geography meets history: Questions, answers and challenges

A rapidly growing literature uses quantitative general equilibrium models of economic geography to study the economic impact of historical events such as the railroad revolution, industrial take-off, structural transformation and wars. I identify three key challenges facing this literature: the tractability of model structure, the availability of historical data, and issues related to identification. I review the literature by discussing how it has been addressing each of these challenges. While doing so, I point out the rich set of questions that this literature can address, as well as the methodological innovations it has conducted to answer these questions.

Synergies of Liberty: Defense Expenditure and Industrial Take-Off During the Second Hundred Years War

This comparative historical analysis investigates the intersections among economic liberty and styles of defense expenditure during The Second Hundred Years War between Britain and France (c.1689 – c.1815). It will be argued that the presence of institutionalized economic liberty amid market-based open-bid contracting in defense spending and procurement in Britain during the Second Hundred Years War, and the absence of said in its’ long 18th century adversary, France, led to starkly different economic and political outcomes among the two nations. Amid historically colossal and equivalent military expenditure across the entire long 18th century, Britain spawned the Industrial Revolution while the French state collapsed under the weight of military expenditure. The case is made that the presence of economic liberty throughout British markets and British systems of defense expenditure, and the lack thereof in France, is the fulcrum upon which these two starkly alternative national outcomes turned.

Impact of Migration on Innovation

Migration can be traced from time immemorial and affect both the place people leave and the place they move and is a powerful driver of economic, political and social change. Actual migration is constrained by the individual or household capability, including the financial or social capital. Immigration provided a large supply of labor that was necessary for the take-off of industry and sustained modern economic growth during the early stages of industrial development. The economics of migration indicates that the host country needs immigrants. Migration as a process is a wonderful opportunity to achieve aspirations of progress and is a tool for development. Innovation is the primary source of competitive advantage, industrial change and economic growth. It requires hard, focused, purposeful work along with knowledge, and ingenuity. Firms use different innovation strategies based on technological opportunities and characteristics of their sector. Knowledge management improves the creative abilities of any organization by ensuring the timely availability and accessibility of knowledge. Management of knowledge has a vital role in creating an internal working environment that supports creativity and fosters innovation. Organizational culture is one of the elements for management of knowledge. Immigration may boost innovation by the population size effect; the population density effect; the migrant share effect; the skill composition effect and the migrant diversity effect. Globalization has increased sharply the mobility of highly skilled workers who are younger, more entrepreneurial and less risk averse. When diverse people collaborate and share, innovation usually emerges. Migration enhances the diversity among economic agents and enhances their individual knowledge bases. Knowledge spillovers caused by the interaction between skilled workers creates and spurs idea creation. **********************

Constructing a Census of Chinese Regional Industrialization for 1933. The Case of Jiangsu and Guangdong Provinces

Industrialization in China over the course of the twentieth century has been spectacular. Yet, the spread of industrial development has been very uneven. In this paper, we will construct a dataset on regional manufacturing for 1933, just before the industrial take-off in the twentieth century. Given the sheer size of China, we will focus on two provinces, i.e. Jiangsu (including Shanghai) and Guangdong, both of which have been associated with a large manufacturing sector. By combining the first large scale industrial census conducted by D.K. Lieu with a large number of smaller censuses, surveys, and statistical reports, we are, for the first time, able to provide regional estimates of output value for the whole manufacturing industry by sector and region as well as for the number of modern factories and their employees.

The coevolution of banks and corporate securities markets: The financing of Belgium’s industrial take-off in the 1830s

ABSTRACT Recent developments in the literature on financial architecture suggest that banks and markets not only coexist, but also coevolve in ways that are non-neutral from the viewpoint of optimality. This article aims to analyse the concrete mechanisms of this coevolution by focussing on a very relevant case study: Belgium (the first Continental country to industrialise) at the time of the very first emergence of a modern financial system (the 1830s). The article shows that intermediaries played a crucial role in developing secondary securities markets (as banks acted as securitisers), but market conditions also had a strong feedback on banks’ balance sheets and activities (as banks also acted as market-makers for the securities they had issued). The findings suggest that not only structural, but also cyclical factors can be important determinants of changes in financial architecture.

Strategies, Struggles, and Sites of Transformation in Korean Political Economy

Strategies, Struggles, and Sites of Transformation in Korean Political Economy

Investigating Rural – Urban Migration in Developing Countries of the World a Focus in Nigeria

This paper investigates the reason behind rural-urban migration in developing countries of the world using Nigeria as focus of the study. The fact is that most of the countries of the developing world are just on the threshold of their industrial take-off. The unfolding of events in the western world indicates that urbanization and industrialization goes together. Thus, the simple fact that continuing rapid urbanization is inevitable in developing countries. This study examines issues of drive, implication and solution to the problem of rural-urban migration in Nigeria. In view of the emerging nature of this research work, the survey research design was used. The paper adopted urban bias theory as a model for its analytical framework. The paper observed that in Nigeria, urban centres or cities are springing up and people are migrating from the rural areas to urban areas. And they have different reasons for migrating from rural areas to urban centres; these reasons include among others lack of employment opportunities in rural areas, lack of infrastructural facilities, educational institution etc. It therefore, recommends that the government should embark on the development of agricultural sector to create employment and infrastructural development in the rural areas.

Historiografía de la vivienda mínima moderna en el Área Metropolitana de San Salvador: los años de la modernización urbana

El artículo revisa la evolución de la vivienda popular en San Salvador, que llegará a convertirse en los años 90’s del siglo XX, en el Área Metropolitana de San Salvador, a la luz de la evolución misma de la vivienda popular, desde sus orígenes de la ciudad moderna europea industrial, buscando establecer un marco referencial para la comprensión del desarrollo urbano-arquitectónico salvadoreño de forma documentada. El desarrollismo, como contexto socio-político de la evolución urbana de Latinoamérica, ofrece un registro esencial para comprender el despegue industrial de mediados del siglo XX en la región, y que consecuentemente ayudará a crear las condiciones para el desarrollo de la vivienda de la ciudad de masas. Así mismo, se busca documentar los proyectos del Instituto de Vivienda Urbana, que crearon un dinamismo en el sector construcción, que marca el rumbo expansivo y de la metrópolis salvadoreña contemporánea.AKADEMOS, Año 11, Vol. 1, No 28, Enero-Junio 2017: 50-77

CULTURA TECNICO-SCIENTIFICA E RISORGIMENTO “ECONOMICO”

The focus of this essay is on the relationship in Italy between scientific and technical culture on the one hand and “economic Risorgimento” on the other hand (the latter to be understood as the condition and the driving force of the “political Risorgimento”). In the first part this relationship is shown to be linked to the more general idea of bringing Italy back into “modern European civilization”, which in the first half of the XIX century was expressed both in heightened technological innovation and production, and in the rise of national movements for emancipation and independence. In the second part of the essay the measures are considered which were taken by the ruling classes after Unification in the face of remarkable difficulties and resistance. Thanks to such measures, the cultural conditions were created which enabled the subsequent industrial take-off between the XIX and XX century.