Plant Layout Research Articles

METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE ASSESSMENT OF SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL PARAMETERS OF AN UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE DURING FLIGHT TESTS

During flight tests of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the assessment of individual parameters, such as: range and flight duration (spatial and temporal parameters) is associated with the involvement of a significant resource (time, space, material and technical, etc.), which often raises problematic questions regarding their implementation. At the same time, in most cases, the customer usually puts forward fundamental and clear requirements to ensure the required range and duration of the flight. These indicators generally characterize the capabilities of complexes to perform tasks as intended. However, during the conducted tests, for a number of complexes, they were not fully evaluated (confirmed), including due to unfavorable conditions for conducting tests, as well as the presence of space and time limitations, first of all, the imperfection of the existing testing facilities. Given the above, the article substantiates, builds and analyzes the practical implementation, based on the results of a flight experiment, of a methodological approach to the operational assessment of certain flight characteristics, primarily the range and duration of flight during UAV flight tests. At the same time, an increase in the reliability of the data obtained is achieved through the use of the proposed complex indicator and savings in material and time resources due to the optimization of the program of the relevant test flights. The previously proposed complex indicator - the coefficient of technical perfection of the UAV, which simultaneously takes into account the perfection of the design, aerodynamic layout and efficiency of the power plant, allows to verify the reliability of the values of the parameters of the maximum range and duration of the UAV flight obtained during flight tests The theoretical and practical calculation (during a flight experiment) of the coefficient of technical perfection of a UAV with an electric propulsion system based on the experimentally obtained characteristics of the maximum range and duration of flight is presented and compared.

MOTIVASI PETANI PADI SAWAH DALAM MENERAPKAN SISTEM TANAM BENIH LANGSUNG DI DESA LAMOMEA KECAMATAN KONDA KABUATEN KONAWE SELATAN

The planting system is a planting business on a plot of land by arranging the layout and sequence of plants over a certain period of time. Direct seed planting system (TABELA), this system has been tried by several farmers in Indonesia. As an effort to increase the carrying capacity of the land, the effort that must be made is to carry out innovative planting techniques by changing the habits of farmers in carrying out planting using the TABELA system. The purpose of this study, to find out: Farmers' motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic motivation) in implementing the direct seed planting system (TABELA) and and how do farmers implement the direct seed planting system (TABELA) in Lamomea Village. This research was conducted in Lamomea Village, Konda District, South Konawe Regency from March 2022 to October 2022 with 20 farmers as informants. Data analysis in this study used qualitative methods. The results showed that the motivation of lowland rice farmers in Lamomea Village included intrinsic motivation with indicators of needs and expectations, extrinsic motivation with indicators of family support and rewards. While the TABELA system for lowland rice in Lamomea Village at the stage of land preparation and planting is in the good category, in the seed preparation and care/maintenance stages it is in the sufficient category while in the harvest stage it is in the less category. It can be seen that the farmers in Lamomea Village need to improve the application of some of the TABELA systems like the other stages.

Damping of low frequency oscillations using a PV+BESS installation: practical design case

This paper presents and compares different POD controller options for a hybrid PV+BESS installation, starting from the layout of a real plant in Mexico. The POD controllers are designed using the pole placement method and identification techniques, based on selected recorded signals. The different POD controllers (PV, BESS and PV+BESS) are integrated in the main Power Plant Controller (PPC) and their performance is tested using a representative test system. Case studies show that coordinated action of the PV+BESS can significantly increase the damping support for the system, particularly in scenarios with limited plant capability. Sensitivity analysis is also presented in this work to evaluate the impact of delays of communication channels on the POD performances and the impact of operating with different oscillation frequencies.

Thermoeconomic Optimization of a Polygeneration System Based on a Solar-Assisted Desiccant Cooling

This paper presents a thermoeconomic analysis of a polygeneration system based on solar-assisted desiccant cooling. The overall plant layout supplies electricity, space heating and cooling, domestic hot water, and freshwater for a residential building. The system combines photovoltaic/thermal collectors, photovoltaic panels, and a biomass boiler coupled with reverse osmosis and desiccant air conditioning. The plant was modeled in TRNSYS and simulated for 1 year. A parametric study defined the system’s setup. A thermoeconomic optimization determined the set of parameters that minimize the simple payback period. The optimal structure showed a total energy efficiency of 0.49 for the solar collectors and 0.16 for the solar panels. The coefficient of performance of the desiccant air conditioning was 0.37. Finally, a sensitivity analysis analyzed the influence of purchase electricity and natural gas costs and the electricity sell-back price on the system. The optimum simple payback was 20.68 years; however, the increase in the energy cost can reduce it by up to 85%.

Modeling of the potential geographical distribution of naked oat under climate change.

Naked oat (Avena sativa L.), is an important miscellaneous grain crop in China, which is rich in protein, amino acids, fat and soluble dietary fiber. The demand for functional foods is gradually increasing as living standards rise, and the output of minor cereals in China is increasing annually. The planting layout of naked oat is scattered and lacks planning, which seriously restricts the development of the naked oat industry. The increase in miscellaneous grain production will not only be impacted by cultivation methods and management techniques, but the potential impact of global climate change needs to be considered. North China is the main area for naked oat production, worldwide. In this study, the potential distribution range of naked oat in North China was forecast based on historical distribution data and the Maxent model under climate change conditions. The performance of the model was relatively high. The results indicated that the most suitable area for the potential geographic distribution of naked oat in North China was 27.89×104 km2, including central and northeastern Shanxi, and northeastern and western Hebei and Beijing, gradually moving northward. The core suitable area increased, and the distribution of naked oat had an obvious regional response to climate warming; the main environmental factors affecting the potential geographic distribution were precipitation factor variables (precipitation seasonality (variation coefficient)), terrain factor variables (elevation) and temperature factor variables (temperature seasonality (Standard Deviation*100)). In this study, the Maxent model was used to analyze and predict suitable areas for naked oat in North China, and the distribution of suitable areas was accurately divided, and the main climatic factors affecting the distribution of naked oat were identified. This research provides data support and theoretical support for the optimal planting zone of naked oat in North China.

There are just too many labours: productivity improvement in collecting waste at ASL

Research methodology One of the major reasons of layout-related difficulties faced by manufacturing industries is non-value-adding and redundant work. Plant layout study aims at economic production with larger volumes and variety as well. Method studies focus on the effectiveness with efficiency by a systematic critical scrutiny of work being done. The intention is to identify logical sequence of activities highlighting and eliminating the unnecessary mudas. Time and motion study is a combination of time study and motion study analysing and eliminating any unnecessary movement for productivity optimization of that job or process. Thus, through the elimination of unnecessary motions, times for performing the processes may be reduced and productivity increased. The intention is to subdivide the different operations of a job or process into measurable elements. Hence this case has been developed based on the primary data. The primary data was collected using Industrial Engineering Studies like layout study, method study and time and motion study. This case has been classroom tested with MBA students in their Lean Management Course. Case overview/synopsis Arin Synthetics Ltd. (ASL) though had installed modern machinery in its facility, process efficiency and optimization were a concern. Top Brass at ASL believed that ASL was overstaffed and its processes had creep as far as efficiency is concerned. This case focuses on ways to improve the process efficiency to rationalize the manpower at ASL. Presence in large growing global markets put cost pressure on ASL, thus mandating improvement in the efficiency of its processes through manpower rationalization. This case, therefore, discusses one of the highly staffed process of waste collection. Could ASL achieve reduction in the manpower in waste reduction without affecting the overall process? Was there a strategic mistake in the thought process of disposing of the waste generated by the manufacturing complex? Complexity academic level Operations management, Productivity and performance, Quality management, Lean management.

Ammonia as hydrogen carrier for transport application

As the interest in hydrogen to help the decarbonization of the transport sector is growing fast, the interest in new methods for its storage is a key point to improve its diffusion in many contexts, investigating innovative methods. Ammonia is a promising solution, as its hydrogen content per volume unit is higher than hydrogen stored in liquid form; furthermore, ammonia does not require cryogenic temperature nor high amounts of energy for liquefaction. In this study, two different plant layouts have been investigated, considering as a case study an ammonia-to-hydrogen conversion plant to feed a bus station composed of ten hydrogen buses (106 kg H2/day). In the end, a techno-economic analysis is performed to investigate the Levelized Cost of Hydrogen production from ammonia for the two cases and evaluate the most feasible solution. For both the plant layouts, the following results are obtained: (i) the optimal size of the main components; (ii) the global energy efficiency; (iii) the purity of H2 obtained; (iv) the H2 production cost. Finally, the size effect is investigated to evaluate the economic feasibility of the best plant solution for large-scale hydrogen refuelling stations (2000 kg H2/day), which are a more representative case for future implementations.

Hierarchical Traffic Management of Multi-AGV Systems With Deadlock Prevention Applied to Industrial Environments

This paper concerns the coordination and the traffic management of a group of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) moving in a real industrial scenario, such as an automated factory or warehouse. The proposed methodology is based on a three-layer control architecture, which is described as follows: 1) the Top Layer (or Topological Layer) allows to model the traffic of vehicles among the different areas of the environment; 2) the Middle Layer allows the path planner to compute a traffic sensitive path for each vehicle; 3) the Bottom Layer (or Roadmap Layer) defines the final routes to be followed by each vehicle and coordinates the AGVs over time. In the paper we describe the coordination strategy we propose, which is executed once the routes are computed and has the aim to prevent congestions, collisions and deadlocks. The coordination algorithm exploits a novel deadlock prevention approach based on time-expanded graphs. Moreover, the presented control architecture aims at grounding theoretical methods to an industrial application by facing the typical practical issues such as graphs difficulties (load/unload locations, weak connections,), a predefined roadmap (constrained by the plant layout), vehicles errors, dynamical obstacles, etc. In this paper we propose a flexible and robust methodology for multi-AGVs traffic-aware management. Moreover, we propose a coordination algorithm, which does not rely on ad hoc assumptions or rules, to prevent collisions and deadlocks and to deal with delays or vehicle motion errors. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Note to Practitioners</i> —This paper concerns the coordination and the traffic management of a group of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) moving in a real industrial scenario, such as an automated factory or warehouse. The proposed methodology is based on a three-layer control architecture, which is described as follows: 1) the Top Layer (or Topological Layer) allows to model the traffic of vehicles among the different areas of the environment; 2) the Middle Layer allows the path planner to compute a traffic sensitive path for each vehicle; 3) the Bottom Layer (or Roadmap Layer) defines the final routes to be followed by each vehicle and coordinates the AGVs over time. In the paper we describe the coordination strategy we propose, which is executed once the routes are computed and has the aim to prevent congestions, collisions and deadlocks. The coordination algorithm exploits a novel deadlock prevention approach based on time-expanded graphs. Moreover, the presented control architecture aims at grounding theoretical methods to an industrial application by facing the typical practical issues such as graphs difficulties (load/unload locations, weak connections, ), a predefined roadmap (constrained by the plant layout), vehicles errors, dynamical obstacles, etc. In this paper we propose a flexible and robust methodology for multi-AGVs traffic-aware management. Moreover, we propose a coordination algorithm, which does not rely on ad hoc assumptions or rules, to prevent collisions and deadlocks and to deal with delays or vehicle motion errors.

Study on Planning Layout and Spatial Form of the Third-Line Construction in North Sichuan— Taking Four Cities in Northern Sichuan as Examples

From 1964 to 1983, as a large-scale construction activity of national defense, science and technology, industry and transportation infrastructure with the goal of war readiness, was rapidly launched in the hinterland of China, the development and evolution of the Third-line Construction (“Third-line construction” refers to a large-scale national defense, science and technology, industrial and transportation infrastructure construction activity guided by war preparedness carried out in 13 provinces and autonomous regions in the central and western regions of China from 1964 to 1983, and its development and evolution promoted the development and rise of modern industry in Sichuan, and profoundly affected the formation and evolution of urban pattern and urbanization process in Sichuan.) promoted the development and rise of modern industry in Sichuan, and profoundly affected the formation and evolution of urban pattern and urbanization process in Sichuan. Under the unified planning and deployment of the central government, most of the Third-line Construction projects in Sichuan were distributed along the main railway lines and rivers, and an industrial agglomeration belt with Guangyuan, Jiangyou, Mianyang and Deyang as the main nodes was gradually formed in the north of Sichuan. By analyzing the characteristics of Third-line Construction planning layout and the spatial form composition of the remaining factories in the north of Sichuan, the paper tries to explore the influencing factors of the layout of Third-line industrial plants in the north of Sichuan. In addition, a large number of Third-line industrial remains are used inefficiently or even abandoned, and the value of the precious Third-line industrial remains is at risk of loss and vanishing. How to better excavate, protect and inherit the value of Third-line industrial remains is the key concern of the study of Third-line Construction. This paper introduces the relevant theoretical methods of urban morphology, and summarizes and analyzes the distribution, composition and characteristics of the building communities in the factory area by combing the spatial organization form and functional structure of the industrial relics of the third-line construction in the four cities in northern Sichuan. On the basis of the current situation of a large number of third-line construction remains, the composition and evolution of the factory space were discussed, and the influencing factors and their impact on the later urban planning and social and economic development were explored, so as to enrich the research on the planning layout and protection and utilization of the third-line construction industrial remains.

Turbocharged SOFC System: Emulation and Control in Cyber-Physical Mode

The objective of this work regards an SOFC system pressurized by a turbocharger and the related emulation tests for control system development. Due to the interest in coupling high efficiency operations with reasonable capital costs a turbocharged SOFC plant layout has been proposed. This is due to significant cost decrease (in comparison with microturbine-based SOFC hybrids) related to the application of a turbocharger based on large mass manufacturing process. Moreover, the system has been sized to work with biogas to operate with a renewable source. Due to the difficulties in studying the SOFC/turbocharger integration, especially for the dynamic and control aspects, the University of Genoa developed a devoted test rig where the fuel cell is emulated with a pressure vessel equipped with a burner (to have the same temperature range) and inert ceramic material (to have the same time-dependent response). The emulation tests presented in this work have been carried out to demonstrate the system feasibility in dynamic conditions and to assess the control system performance.

Experimental investigation on the vibrational and fluid dynamics behaviour of a turbocharger compressor in the transition to surge operation

High-speed dynamic centrifugal compressors are widely used both in the modern internal combustion engine design and in advanced pressurized cycles and innovative plant layouts as fuel cell systems. Surge strongly limits the stable operating region of centrifugal compressors in low mass flow rate conditions especially during fast transients. Therefore, it is of great importance to investigate transient system dynamic response of compressor surge evolution and early detection of incipient compressor surge. A specific experimental investigation on compressor surge was carried out at the University of Genoa turbocharger test facility and results are presented and analysed in this paper. The activity consists of steady state and transient measurements used to characterize and identify compressor behaviour in correspondence of surge inception conditions. The frequency and time frequency data analysis have been applied on inflow pressure, anemometric and vibrational signals to identify their contents and so to be able to classify compressor operation as stable or unstable. Synchronous averages performed in the time domain have been identified as a suitable algorithmic tool to detect incipient surge conditions. Anemometric signal analysis allowed to identify intermitting phenomena in deep surge conditions may be related to the rise of a rotation stall condition. The obtained results provide original diagnostic and predictive methods to be integrated in a monitoring system capable of preventing surge and extending compressor operating range, performance and reliability to allow the integration with the other plant components.

2D numerical model of downward push pull ventilation for protecting workers against airborne infection

Industrial clusters contributed significantly to the spread of Covid-19 worldwide, including in Indonesia. One of the causes is that maintaining a minimum distance of 1 to 2 meters between workers is often challenging due to the plant layout and work system design limitations. Therefore, an intervention to the workstation is needed to protect industrial workers from potential exposure to Covid-19 and other airborne infections. One technology that has a high potential to be applied to solve this problem is the air curtain/personalized ventilation. This research analyzes the effectiveness of downward push-pull air curtain in protecting workers from inhaling the infected microdroplet. The extent to which the downward push-pull ventilation can withstand the burst of microdroplets was studied by varying the air speed ratios of the air curtain. A 2D simulation was carried out with Salome, OpenFOAM, and ParaView softwares. Two scenarios were tested, i.e., the distance between the person who is coughing is 0,5 and 1 meter from the air curtain. For the distance of 0,5 meter, the results showed that the optimum velocity ratio between the pushed and pulled air was 0,17 with a droplet penetration percentage of 8,98 %. While for 1 m, the optimum velocity ratio was 0,25 with a droplet penetration percentage of 5,67 %.

Elevation-distributed multistage reverse osmosis desalination with seawater pumped storage

A seawater reverse osmosis (RO) plant layout based on multistage RO with stages located at different elevations above sea level is described. The plant uses the weight of a seawater column from pumped storage as head pressure for RO (gravity-driven multistage RO) or to supplement high-pressure pumps used in RO (gravity-assisted multistage RO). The use of gravitational force reduces the specific energy for RO compared to using high-pressure pumps. By locating the RO stages at different elevations based on demand sites, the total specific energy consumption for RO and permeate transport to different elevations above sea level is reduced from that for locating the RO process entirely at sea level followed by lifting the desalinated water. A final RO stage at sea level uses seawater pressurized by energy recovery from the residual energy of the brine generated from the preceding RO stage. Examples of the plant layout that do not include pump inefficiency and head losses in pipes are described for South Sinai, Egypt, which is a mountainous region that suffers from water scarcity. A gravity-driven multistage RO with a storage tank at 660 m above sea level is considered. For five RO stages located 316–57 m above sea level with 10% recovery at each stage, the specific energy is ~ 32% lower than that for a plant located at sea level operating at the minimum specific energy followed by lifting the same quantity of desalinated water to the elevations of the distributed RO stages. For two stages located at 222 and 57 m above sea level with 30 and 20% recovery, respectively, the reduction in specific energy is ~ 27%. For gravity-assisted five-stage RO with the first stage at 260 m above sea level, while the last stage is at sea level with 10% recovery at each stage the reduction in specific energy is ~ 32%. The proposed RO plant layouts can be adapted to other regions with comparable topography.

Biorefinery development for the conversion of softwood residues into sustainable aviation fuel: Implications from life cycle assessment and energetic-exergetic analyses

Biofuels present a strong potential to support the rapid decarbonization of the mobility sector and substitution for fossil fuels. In the aviation sector, sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) are currently produced from various feedstocks and conversion pathways to achieve sustainability targets. A new SAF production pathway has been recently developed, which is based on enzymatic hydrolysis of softwood residues (saw dust), fermentation of wood sugars into isobutene, and subsequent conversion to SAF isoparaffins by oligomerization and hydrogenation. This pathway is currently under consideration for inclusion as an additional annex to ASTM standard D7566.In this study, several biorefinery set-up scenarios including various process energy provisions and co products valorization were considered in order to assess the environmental impact of SAF production. First, a life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted to estimate the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the conversion pathway. Second, the GHG reduction potential was evaluated according to the frameworks of EU RED 2018/2001/EC and CORSIA. Third, energetic and exergetic analyses were performed to evaluate the efficiency of the biorefinery. Inefficiencies of upstream processes, such as for electricity provision, were not considered.Depending on the plant layout, the GHG emissions vary between 18.7 and 56 gCO2eq/MJ. Thus, compared to the fossil reference, GHG emission reductions of up to 80.1% and 79% can be achieved for both frameworks, respectively. Plant set-up comparisons revealed that the highest reduction in GHG emissions can be achieved when using the by-product lignin for thermal energy provision and renewable energy sources (RES) to cover electricity demand.The energetic and exergetic efficiency analyses of SAF as a single product were 11.7%–14.9% and 11%–13.8%, respectively. A lignin-CHP plant set-up revealed the highest efficiencies and has the additional benefit of covering up to 82.3% of the total primary energy demand (PED) via RES. Taking all by-products into account, the energetic system efficiency ranged from 39.4% to 50.1% and the exergetic system efficiency from 40.4% to 56.9%, respectively. The highest efficiencies were achieved with the natural gas boiler set-up and electricity consumption from the public grid. The analysis revealed the importance of utilizing all biorefinery products (main and by-products) to increase the system efficiency of the biorefinery.

Optimization of Photovoltaic Panel Array Configurations to Reduce Lift Force Using Genetic Algorithm and CFD

Aerodynamic lift force acting on the solar structure is important while designing the counterweight for rooftop-mounted solar systems. Due to their unique configuration, the load estimated for solar structures using international building codes can be either higher or lower than the actual. Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD) simulations haveproven to be an efficient tool for estimating wind loads on solar panels for design purposes and identifying critical design cases. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations usually require high computation power, and slight changes in geometry to find optimum configuration can be time-consuming. An optimization method to minimize lift force effects on solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays installed on rooftops usesthe Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)and genetic algorithms proposed in this paper. The tilt angle and pitch between two rows of solar panels were parameterized, and a genetic algorithm was used to search for aconfiguration resulting in minimum wind lift force acting on the solar photovoltaic plant. Only combinations with a performance ratio &gt;80% were considered. Three different rooftopphotovoltaic (PV) plant layout configurations were analyzed in this research. Two rows of photovoltaic (PV) panel arrays wereconsidered for optimization in the 2D domain using ANSYS Fluent. Results showed that the difference in wind-liftforce between optimized configurations against that with maximum lift force configuration for all three cases above was fifty percent.

Effect of Greening Trees on Thermal Comfort of the Pedestrian Streets in Hot Summer and Cold Winter Regions in China

The thermal environment problems of pedestrian streets space are becoming increasingly important with the growing rate of urbanization, especially in regions with hot summers and cold winters. Taking Cinnamomum camphora as an example, several urban design scenarios with dynamic setting parameters of streets orientation (N-S, E-W), aspect ratio (0.5, 1,1.5, 2) are simulated by ENVI-met to analyze the impact of the green coverage on the thermal comfort of the street canyons in Shanghai. Results showed that: (1) green coverage has an impact on the thermal comfort of the street both in summer and winter and the significance of this effect is affected by the orientation and aspect ratio of the streets. (2) In summer, with the increase in aspect ratio, N-S orientation streets need more and more green coverage to bring a significant impact on thermal comfort, while E-W orientation streets only need 24 % green coverage. (3) In winter, with the increase in aspect ratio, N-S orientation streets also need more green coverage to significantly reduce thermal comfort. For E-W orientation, only when the aspect ratio is 1/2, the green coverage can effectively reduce the thermal comfort of the street. (4) The planting layout had no significant effect on the thermal comfort effect of trees. Based on the above conclusions, the greening strategy was proposed for pedestrian streets in the hot summer and cold winter region in China.

Re-Powering Italian Wind Farms: a Feasibility Study from Theory to Practice

The installation of new renewable power plants in Italy is currently hindered by various concurrent factors, the length of the authorization process above all. The average time to authorize a wind farm is about five and a half years, mainly due to the binding judgment of the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment). Italy however is now in a phase where many of the first-installed wind farms are close to their end of life. In this perspective, a promising solution is given by the re-powering of existing wind farms, since they can access a simplified authorization procedure under the Legislative Decree 08/11/2021, n. 199 et seq., which reduces by one third the bureaucratic burden and it lets non-binding the evaluation of the landscape authorities. Moving from this background, the study provides a feasibility study on the re-powering of Italian wind farms. Starting from the database available at GSE (Gestore dei Servizi Energetici), a new re-powering scenario has been defined, accounting for the constraints on the site area, number and dimension of the turbines imposed by the art. 32 of Law 29/07/2021, n. 108. The effectiveness of the re-powering intervention has been evaluated in terms of energetic yield, considering the increased capacity factor of the new turbines, economic revenue and environmental footprint. To verify its feasibility on a real application, a wind farm owned by AGSM-AIM S.p.A., for which wind, terrain, and production data were available, has been selected. Different plant layouts have been analyzed in the WindPro software, and compared in terms of power, producibility and capacity factor. The feasibility of the different layouts has also been verified by on-field inspections.

Energy conservation: Virtual energy audit of an industrial plant

Energy consumed by manufacturing industries constitutes a large part of the total energy consumption of the world. In India, almost 50% of the total energy consumption is done by Industries. Energy bills are usually a major contributor to the operating expenses of a company. Industries can profit from the opportunities coming out of energy saving by the implementation of effective energy management using appropriate tools. An industrial plant layout is usually designed within several constraints, mainly operational. The objectives were decided by the company to study and identify energy gaps in the industrial plant and suggest suitable solutions to reduce energy consumption all while reducing the average working temperature inside the plant from 38 °C to an ideal value below 30 °C, preferably without installing an air conditioning system. The study was divided into two parts; Primarily, Data collection and observations of the plant operations and then Building Energy Modelling and simulation. The base model with existing conditions was modelled, simulated and validated with historical energy consumption data and temperature readings taken inside the plant.The proposed solutions include limited modifications in the existing set up considering the operational constraints. The simulations run with proposed modifications indicate a maximum of 11 % savings in energy consumed by lighting and potential to reduce temperature to 33.23 °C from 38 °C. The effect of ambient factors according to the geographical location such as sun exposure, wind directions, humidity were also taken into consideration.

A Comparative Study on the Influence of Different Decoration Styles on Subjective Evaluation of Hotel Indoor Environment

The purpose of this study is to explore the occupants’ subjective evaluation of the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) of hotels with the same physical environment and different decoration styles, and to reveal the influence of different decoration styles on the subjective evaluation of the indoor environmental quality. The study found a hotel with three mainstream styles of modern simple style, British pastoral style, and modern Japanese style, and adopted standard rooms with the same area, pattern, lighting, orientation, and decoration cost. The only variable controlled was the decoration style, and the subjective feelings of customers on the physical environment were investigated. Based on the literature and 604 online comments, the researchers designed a questionnaire and collected 710 effective questionnaires for empirical analysis. The analysis results of KH coder and SPSS software (Chicago, IL, USA) show that ➀ the light environment in the indoor environment (including indoor natural lighting, lighting and other influencing factors) and non-light visual factors (including indoor color matching, plant layout, closeness to nature, decoration texture, space materials, decoration atmosphere and other factors) has the greatest impact on the subjective evaluation of decoration style, especially on the subjective evaluation of modern simple indoor environment. ➁ Light environment, air quality and non-light visual factors play a key role in the subjective evaluation of the indoor environment of the British pastoral-style hotels. ➂ The light environment, thermal environment and non-light visual factors are the most sensitive to the subjective evaluation of the indoor environment of modern Japanese-style hotels. ➃ Thermal environment, light environment, acoustic environment, air quality environment and non-light visual factors have the greatest impact on the subjective evaluation of the hotel indoor environment. Based on the findings, this study puts forward some suggestions to improve the interior environment of the hotel with different decoration styles to improve the quality and attractiveness of the hotel.

The Design of a Tomato Powder Processing Plant with a Capacity of 75,000 Tonnes Per Annum in Oyo State, Nigeria, West Africa

Abstract This project designed a plant that will process 250 tonnes of raw tomatoes per day. The duration of this production was spread across 24 hours and operated for 300 days in a year, which gave a yield of 17.5 tons of tomato powder per day. From these specifications, the best process route was synthesized. The process route selected involved choosing and sorting the tomatoes, washing, blanching, blending, spray drying (as the drying process), packaging and labeling. Through a series of investigations, the most feasible way to dry tomato powder on an industrial scale proved to be the spray-drying method because the process was very rapid, required low labor cost, and was relatively simple to operate and sustain. The particle size was also easy to control with this technology, making it easy to correlate with product standards. The equipment to be used was then identified which included the machine vision, a spray washer, a water Blancher, an industrial blender, a spray dryer, and a powder packaging machine. Material and energy balance were evaluated around the whole plant. A process flow diagram and basic piping and instrumentation diagram were also computed using engineering software such as Microsoft Visio. From the previous work done, the selected process unit, the spray dryer, was designed with a detailed piping and instrumentation diagram made around it. The site of the plant was resolved, adjacent oriental foods along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. It was necessary to site the plant in an area where raw materials can easily be delivered to. The area selected was directly linked to a major highway, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, thereby making transport quite affordable. The site layout alongside the plant layout was constructed. The layouts clearly showed the standard flow process.