Recoverable Rate Research Articles

Biogas Energy Potential from Livestock Manures for Electricity Generation in Nakhonratchasima, Thailand

Electricity is a pre-requisite for technological progress and economy growth. Thailand has been facing an electric energy crisis in inadequate electricity generation capacity compared with the demand. It is essential to replace the conventional energy (e.g. fossil fuels) and electricity import with renewable energy resources, particularly biogas that can be play a major role to meet the electricity demand. This paper explores the current state of biogas energy potential from livestock manures in Nakhonratchasima, Thailand. The results show a potential of electricity produced from animal manures of cattle, buffalo, swine and poultry. The total annual recoverable rates of livestock manures and biogas yield in Nakhonratchasima Province are 431.334 Mtonne of dry matter and 119,631 Mm3, respectively. In energy terms, the annual amount of the recoverable biogas resources is equivalent to 2,691.691 PJ or 748 TWh. This total amount of available biogas energy potential can meet anticipated electricity demand. Therefore, the assessment of biogas energy resources will make a significant utilization of energy management in the future.

EXPECTED LARGE SYNOPTIC SURVEY TELESCOPE (LSST) YIELD OF ECLIPSING BINARY STARS

In this paper we estimate the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) yield of eclipsing binary stars, which will survey ~20,000 square degrees of the southern sky during the period of 10 years in 6 photometric passbands to r ~ 24.5. We generate a set of 10,000 eclipsing binary light curves sampled to the LSST time cadence across the whole sky, with added noise as a function of apparent magnitude. This set is passed to the Analysis of Variance (AoV) period finder to assess the recoverability rate for the periods, and the successfully phased light curves are passed to the artificial intelligence-based pipeline EBAI to assess the recoverability rate in terms of the eclipsing binaries' physical and geometric parameters. We find that, out of ~24 million eclipsing binaries observed by LSST with S/N>10 in mission life-time, ~28% or 6.7 million can be fully characterized by the pipeline. Of those, ~25% or 1.7 million will be double-lined binaries, a true treasure trove for stellar astrophysics.

Assessment of recoverability of kidney function in children with obstructive calcular anuria: Multicenter study

Objective Urolithiasis in children can cause considerable morbidity. Our aim was to evaluate the impact of intervention on the recoverability of kidney functions. Materials and Methods This prospective study included 93 children (66 boys and 27 girls) with median age of 3 years (range 0–14). Inclusion criteria were presence of anuria, oliguria, serum creatinine >2 mg% and/or hyperkalemia ≥ 6 mmol/L. The mean duration of anuria or oliguria was (mean ± SE) 5.3 ± 0.4 days. On presentation, mean plasma creatinine was 6.5 ± 0.29 mg/dl with a mean estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) of 14 ml/min and creatinine clearance (CC) of 8.24 ml/min. Dialysis was performed in 21 (22.6%) patients. When condition allowed, emergency surgery was performed. Results Mean follow up was 1.5 years with compliance of 82%. At the end of treatment, 83% of patients had complete clearance of calculi. Mean plasma creatinine after treatment was 3.3 ± 0.35 mg/dl with an average GFR of 24.5 ml/min. After treatment renal function returned to normal in 57%, improved in 27% and deteriorated in 16% of children. Renal function recoverability rate was 94.6%. Chronic renal failure developed in 3 (3.2%) patients and 2 (2.2%) patients died. When absolute plasma creatinine concentration [P cr] improved 20–50% the eGFR and CC were doubled, and when improved 50–70% eGFR and CC tripled. Beyond 70% improvement in [P cr], eGFR and CC improved 7–8 times. Using Spearman’s correlation, the mode of presentation and the type of management had a significant correlation with renal function outcome ( P = 0.019 and 0.013 respectively). Conclusion Urgent management of calcular anuria both medically and surgically is the cornerstone for favorable outcome. The mode of presentation and the type of management are significant factors affecting final renal function outcome.

Fundamental limits for the recycling of end-of-life vehicles

This paper explores the limits of recycling on a fundamental basis. This fundamental basis suggests that the high recycling quotas for end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) as required by EU legislation could be totally erroneous since it is based on poor first principles argumentation. If this conjecture is true then the monitoring of recycling quotas by legislation could be the incorrect manner of controlling environmental performance. Rather, it is suggested that a market driven approach is required to ensure optimal performance of the recycling system in which each actor in the system optimises its activity within the boundaries of its relevant environmental legislation, physics, chemistry, which all dictate the limits of recycling. In order to illustrate this industry/market driven approach, a system model was developed, conjecturing that the intrinsic property determining the recyclability and recoverability of a product respectively, is not just determined by the different materials and alloys used, but primarily by the mineral or joint classes (combination of materials due to design), particle size distribution and degree of liberation (multi-material particles). These all affect the physical separation efficiency, metallurgical and energy recovery, which all in turn determine the quality and economic value of the recycling (intermediate) products in the recycling system. The summation of these aspects determines the economics and hence the recyclability and recoverability of the product and therefore the recycling and recoverability rate. Note that each system activity as always run within the boundaries of normal environmental legislation for process industries. Based on these intrinsic properties, a fundamental framework is developed as a common language to harmonise recycling legislation with industrial practice, separation physics and thermodynamics, quality of recycling (intermediate) products, plant statistics and if required, product design. This recycling optimisation model, building on previous work by the authors, not only describes physical separation and metallurgical processing, but also covers the physical separation of shredder residue in close connection to the thermal treatment of these materials. This model therefore adds significant detail and novel aspects to a previous model by the authors. In order to illustrate the mentioned conjecture, it is shown how the optimisation model can be applied by the recycling industry (for process optimization purposes) and legislator (for demonstrating the arguments in favour of more flexibility and less regulations) to build and evaluate recycling scenarios as a function of (future) car design, evaluate future market directions (i.e., what effect EU legislation has on the treatment of material in China), find the balance between dismantling, post-shredding technology (PST) and thermal processing, as a function of the calorific input constraints of different thermal treatment options, to name a few. An important fundamental conclusion is that recycling quotas of above 85% (plus standard deviation) will probably be difficult to reach in future under current EU legislation. The preferred process route by the car industry with minimum dismantling (just de-pollution), but including PST is feasible to reach presently ca. 85% (plus a standard deviation). However, new novel and innovative, light-weight car designs, beneficial for less impact during use phase, could encounter problems in future to reach the required recycling quota of 85%, not to mention and a recovery quota of 95% by 2015. This paper suggests that recycling should accommodate flexibility within its structure, i.e., feedstock, mechanical recycling and energy recovery should together reach as high as possible value within the constraints of the market, technology and natural laws; matching changing innovative new car designs. This would help much to stimulate creative future design developments and at the same time provide a basis to run recycling and recovery technology at its fundamental maximum. A rigid quota driven legislation is too inflexible to meet these requirements and should be dropped for a market driven approach that optimises the recycling system in its totality.

Operating Expenses Can Include Reasonable Rate‐Case Expenses

For purposes of determining the recoverable rates of a public utility, “operating expenses” can include prudently incurred rate‐case expenses, a Pennsylvania appellate court ruled.

The North Sea and Its Environs: Future Reservoir of Fuel?

IN 1964 it was estimated that the output of crude oil in the non-Communist world was approaching 25 million barrels a day but would need to be supplemented by 20 million barrels a day by 1975 to keep abreast of the virtual doubling of demand that now appears to be taking place in every decade.' This increase can be met by the adoption of new techniques to raise the present recoverable rates of 20 to 40 percent from proved oilfields to 50 or 60 percent, by the establishment of economic methods for the release of usable oil products now locked up in extensive tar or oil-shale deposits, or by new discoveries. All three sources will unquestionably be required. Numerous secondary projects directed at the raising and utilization of very viscous oil, from both run-down and fully productive fields, are under way in the United States, Canada, the Middle East, Venezuela, the Netherlands, and other countries. Investigations are also proceeding on the feasibility of producing oil from the Athabaska tar sands of Alberta2 and from the huge tar belt of eastern Venezuela. The Venezuelan area, lying north of the Orinoco River, has a width of 25 to 30 miles over a length of more than 300 miles; its known in-place oil probably exceeds 100,ooo million barrels. In the Rocky Mountain-Colorado Plateau region of the United States the 15,600 square miles of oil-shale country, embracing parts of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, is believed to contain about 400,000 million barrels of recoverable oil in a total reserve of at least 200,000 million tons of oil within the shales of the Green River formation. There have been strong suggestions that a technological breakthrough enabling shale oil to compete with conventional crudes is imminent. In the exploration for conventional sources of oil the emphasis is shifting increasingly to marine areas; accordingly, offshore production from continental shelves, now reliably estimated to amount to about 16 percent of the total Free World output, should show an upward trend, possibly to more than 25 percent of the world's needs by 1990. It has been estimated that,