UK Case Study Research Articles

Analysis of a closed-loop water-cooled refrigeration system in the food retail industry: A UK case study

Abstract Refrigeration in supermarkets accounts between 30% and 60% of total electricity demand in UK stores. The aim of this study is to conduct a pre-feasibility analysis of whether the use of a water-cooled configuration rejecting heat to the soil can improve the overall cooling performance of commercial refrigeration systems against air-cooled designs. In this work, a model simulating the operation of an existing refrigeration system is presented and validated against field data measurements taken from a supermarket. The examined system is used as a baseline and then modified to evaluate the impact of installing a water-cooled gas cooler. Results indicate that the use of water-cooled gas coolers has the potential to reduce electrical consumption of refrigeration systems by up to a factor of 5 when external temperatures are high. Overall, annual operation indicates the water-cooled alternative uses 3% less electricity than the air-cooled approach. A hybrid system is also considered consisting of coupled air-cooled and water-cooled units operating in parallel, for which an energy reduction of 6% is obtained compared against the baseline system. An economic evaluation of these systems shows promising results with a payback period of about 5 years for systems installed in new stores, although retrofits are costlier.

Quantifying road-user cost savings and change in land value: a UK case study

This paper presents a study on the impacts of an inter-urban road development in the UK through a comprehensive investigation and clarification of the relationship between road-user benefits as a primary impact and changes in land values (CLVs) as a secondary impact. It seeks to offer a methodology aiming at coupling the conventional cost–benefit analysis (CBA) with aspects of economic impact analysis by avoiding double-counting of the results. The CBA model of an existing highway management tool was used to calculate road-user cost savings (RUCSs) of generated traffic, while CLVs were calculated over the same period using a statistical model newly developed for the purpose. A comparison of a 30-year time span was used to test similarities in trends of road-user benefits and CLVs. The main factors affecting the degree of similarity were found to be traffic and its prediction and, in particular, the traffic generated by the new road. It appears that over a 30-year period, a new road project has a positive effect on land values but a negative effect on RUCSs in the first years after construction. The latter increases for about 15 years and then follows a decreasing pattern in the last 10 years or so.

Targeted CCUS R&D Activities in Industrial Clusters

Although initial CCUS demonstration projects are planned to commence as point-to-point projects, with a single pipeline or ships linking one source to one sink, the concept of ‘CCUS clusters’ is considered to be crucial to maximize the climate change mitigation potential of the technology. This work is part of ALIGN-CCUS, currently one of the largest European R&D projects on CCUS, with a work programme designed to enable the acceleration of CCUS in specific industrial regions in ERA-NET countries: Teesside and Grangemouth (UK), Rotterdam (NL), North Rhine-Westphalia (DE), Grenland (NO) and Oltenia (RO). The project will combine the results from each of these objectives to deliver actionable blueprints in each region, in which CCUS enables low-emission industries, through geological storage and/or utilization of CO2. Early work presented in this paper focuses primarily on development of CO2 supply profiles in the UK case study, a detailed CO2 emission inventory for North Rhine-Westphalia. An overview of work proposed in the other clusters is presented.

Concentration of power: A UK case study examining the dominance of incumbent automakers and suppliers in automotive sociotechnical transitions

Sustainable transition scholarship has recently challenged the stereotypical characterisation of sociotechnical transitions, by revisiting the concept of creative destruction. The central counterargument is that new paradigms do not destroy old ones, but rather extend and complement them. Based on a case study of the UK’s automotive industry, this article argues that established firms lead the industry in technological innovation, in large part due to regional regulatory frameworks and preferential state accumulation projects. That article then goes on to examine the ‘power flows’ surrounding incumbent firms as the primary agents of creative accumulation within global production networks. By exploring revealing linkages between evolving government-industry relations, the motorsport sub-sector, and component suppliers, this article renders a more nuanced understanding of incumbent firms as empowered, multi-level agents of innovation. Finally, this article evaluates the UK’s incremental, ‘zero-carbon’ pathway and raises some concerns about the regime’s current sociotechnical configuration, and its fitness to achieve its stated goals.

Early Stage Investing in Green SMEs: The Case of the UK

How might a Green New Deal be applied to the early stage financing of Cleantechs? Amidst rising interest and adoption of Green New Deals in the US, the paper explores the need for more focused policy to address early stage long horizon financing of Cleantechs. We argue that insufficient focus has been applied to early stage investing into these types of innovative SMEs that could lower CO2 emissions across a range of sectors (including renewable energy, recycling, advanced manufacturing, transport and bio-science). Adopting a resource complementarity lens and borrowing from transaction cost theory, we illustrate and build theory through longitudinal UK case studies. These demonstrate how government policy can scale-up through international collaboration public-private, principally venture capital, co-finance to facilitate cleantech innovation with potentially game changing impacts on reducing CO2 emissions in order to meet the Paris 2015 Climate Change targets.

Characterisation of treated effluent from four commonly employed wastewater treatment facilities: A UK case study

Sewage treatment systems are a common feature across the landscape of the United Kingdom, serving an estimated 96% of the population and discharging approximately eleven billion litres of treated wastewater daily. While large treatment facilities are ubiquitous across the landscape, they are not the only method employed in domestic wastewater treatment. This study investigates whether differences in nutrient export (carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus) and organic matter composition (determined by optical indices, SUVA254, S350-400 and E2:E3) from treated effluent could be detected between four of the most common facilities employed in the treatment of wastewater across the UK. Set in the context of the River Wylye, a small headwater catchment, treatment facilities studied included; a septic tank system, small packet treatment works, and two large sewage treatment works, one of which employed phosphorus stripping for phosphorus removal. Inorganic N and P concentrations ranged between 7.51 and 42.4 mg N l−1 and 0.22 and 8.9 mg P l−1 respectively, with DOC concentrations ranging between 1.63 and 11.8 mg C l−1. Optical indices were comparable to those observed in catchments where organic matter is dominated by autochthonous production, suggesting the dominance of low molecular weight material when compared to values observed across temperate aquatic systems. Combining data from both the Environment Agency and Ordinance Survey we estimate that only 15% of domestic properties not connected to mains sewerage in the study catchment have an Environment Agency consent/exemption permit. This calculation suggests that the quantity of small point sources are significantly underestimated, undermining efforts under current legislation to improve stream ecosystem health.

Are Police-Led Social Crime Prevention Initiatives Effective? A Process and Outcome Evaluation of a UK Youth Intervention

Police-led interventions with “at-risk” young people raise a number of debates around policing in society including the allocation of resources at a time of fiscal austerity, the extent to which the police should prioritize the safety and well-being of young people, and the role that the police should take in preventing youth crime. This article explores the impact and effectiveness of a police-led social crime prevention initiative in England. It adopts the QUALIPREV approach by Rummens, Hardyns,Vander Laenen, and Pauwels on behalf of the European Crime Prevention Network to analyze the data allowing for a detailed and replicable analysis of core aspects including police engagement, risk management, offending rates, and police–community relations. Drawing on comparisons between the UK case study and previous studies on police-led social crime prevention projects in Australia and Canada, this article identifies a number of common challenges for schemes of this nature including problems with multiagency working, developing a clear project identity, unequal resources across different locations, and the difficulty in recruiting and retaining volunteers. However, there were also significant benefits to such schemes, including positive impacts on offending rates, engagement of at-risk young people, and wider benefits to the communities within which the young people live, including participation, volunteering, and reduction in risks of community harm. A cost–benefit analysis also shows such schemes have the potential to offer significant savings to the criminal justice system as a whole.

Verification of the HDM-4 fuel consumption model using a Big data approach: A UK case study

This paper presents an assessment of the accuracy of the HDM-4 fuel consumption model calibrated for the United Kingdom and evaluates the need for further calibration of the model. The study focuses on HGVs and compares estimates made by HDM-4 to measurements from a large fleet of vehicles driving on motorways in England. The data was obtained from the telematic database of truck fleet managers (SAE J1939) and includes three types of HGVs: light, medium and heavy trucks. Some 19,991 records from 1645 trucks are available in total. These represent records of trucks driving at constant speed along part of the M1 and the M18, two motorways in England.These conditions have been simulated in HDM-4 by computing fuel consumption for each truck type driving at a constant speed of 85 km/h on a flat and straight road segment in good condition.Estimates are compared to real measurements under two separate sets of assumptions. First, the HDM-4 model calibrated for the UK has been used. Then, the model was updated to take into account vehicle weight and frontal area specific to the considered vehicles.The paper shows that the current calibration of HDM-4 for the United Kingdom already requires recalibration. The quality of the model estimates can be improved significantly by updating vehicle weight and frontal area in HDM-4. The use of HGV fleet and network condition data as described in this paper provides an opportunity to verify HDM-4 continuously.

Grid Services Provided By The Interactions Of Energy Sectors In Multi-Energy Systems: Three International Case Studies

Solutions towards the development of a low carbon energy system have until recently largely focussed on the electricity sector. However, interactions between energy vectors (e.g. heat, electricity and gas) may contribute to increase the penetration of renewable energies, lower CO2 emissions, and improve energy efficiency by offering, amongst others, additional grid flexibility resources. Multi-energy systems that use synergies between energy vectors are thus gaining in relevance and attention. They rely on the existence of technologies interfacing the energy systems (e.g. CHP plants) and on the regulatory framework, the market design and more generally the organization of the energy system as a whole. Flexibility generated by the synergies may especially provide services by contributing to ensure the offer-demand balance at any time, as well as grid security and stability. Based on a comparison of case studies in UK, Germany and US/California, the paper analyses services provided to the electricity grid by multi-energy systems and examines how involved parties share roles and responsibilities. The analysis is conducted in the light of the regulatory framework in the above-mentioned countries that strongly influences the development of potential services. Identified services are associated to the corresponding market and service layers (e.g. energy, balancing or even capacity) in which they are providing flexibility. The paper relies on a methodology previously developed to analyse and characterize existing and potential future market designs for the electricity system taking into account the specificities met in different countries. The aim of this methodology is to build an integrated and coherent vision of the different roles, functions and interactions within the system. The methodology has been further developed and applied to multi-energy systems. The analysis contributes to a whole-system perspective of flexibility services for electricity systems and underlying market structures.

The Perceived Professional and Organisational Impact of the Consultant Therapeutic Radiographer (CTR): a UK Case Study

The Perceived Professional and Organisational Impact of the Consultant Therapeutic Radiographer (CTR): a UK Case Study

Enhancing high-rise residential construction through design for manufacture and assembly – a UK case study

Buildings forms are often complex and a result of end user needs, local surroundings and aesthetic aspirations. The individuality of buildings has therefore posed challenges with respect to harnessing the desired mass production and standardisation linked with off-site manufacture. However, through design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA), construction can be linked with industrial processes and deliver projects that are safer, cleaner and more efficient. Furthermore, successful DfMA projects minimise disruption within the local environment while delivering not only improved quality, cost and programme certainty, but also a more sustainable form of construction. The Two Fifty One project is a 40-storey mixed-use development in central London, UK, that has successfully embraced the principles of DfMA across all engineering disciplines. As a result, the delivery team has developed effective off-site construction solutions for superstructure, facades, bathrooms and mechanical and electrical services. All have been designed, coordinated and facilitated through advanced digital engineering and building information modelling techniques. Overall, the project has been delivered with reduced programme and cost, while simultaneously improving safety, quality and reliability in a more sustainable way through reduced vehicle movements and greater efficiency in site logistics. This case study describes this exemplary project and the design delivery model.

Developing alternative business models for smart infrastructure: a UK case study

There is a need to identify as wide a range as possible of sources of value arising from a given infrastructure development when creating infrastructure business models. The need for novel, more effective business models is being driven by the UK government’s very considerable programme of infrastructure investment, coupled with a reduction in the supply of public capital over recent years and a corresponding increase in the demand for private project finance. To support both public and private infrastructure investment, new business models are required that can internalise the positive externalities associated with public goods. Based on an exploration of the application of soft systems methodology to business model creation, this paper proposes a generic six-step methodology for identifying a wide range of potentially value-generating opportunities and proves its efficacy by applying it to a case study of Tyseley Energy Park in Birmingham, UK. The findings from the methodology, which treats a newly constructed, refurbished or upgraded infrastructure system as a ‘business’, can then be used to broker the necessary collaboration with all relevant stakeholders – those who have a stake in the business – to refine the business models and ensure that they are resilient in the face of contextual change.

Mapping the “housing with care” concept with stakeholders: insights from a UK case study

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present the findings of an early stage, exploratory case study of a proposed housing with care initiative (the Crichton Care Campus (CCC)). This sought the perspectives of a range of key stakeholders on the proposed model and how it might be best realised. The analyses of these findings show their relevance to debates on integrated housing with care, and reflect on the methodology used and its potential relevance to similar projects.Design/methodology/approachThe study used a transactive planning approach, where grounded views are sought from a variety of stakeholders. A purposive sample identified informants from relevant health, social care and housing organisations and nine semi-structured interviews were conducted. These were transcribed and data analysis was undertaken on an “interactive” basis, relating care theory to empirical expressions.FindingsThe authors identify two contrasting orientations – inclusive “community-oriented” and professional “service-oriented”. This distinction provides the basis for a rudimentary conceptual map which can continue to be used in the planning process. Two significant variables within the conceptual map were the extent to which CCC should be intergenerational and as such, the degree to which care should come from formalised and self-care/informal sources. The potential to achieve an integrated approach was high with stakeholders across all sectors fully supporting the CCC concept and agreeing on the need for it to have a mixed tenure basis and include a range of non-care amenities.Originality/valueThis paper offers originality in two respects. Methodologically, it describes an attempt to undertake early stage care planning using a needs led transactive methodology. In more practical terms, it also offers an innovative environment for considering any approach to care planning that actively seeks integration – based on an acknowledgement of complexity, a variety of perspectives and possible conflicts. The authors propose that the concepts of “community-orientation” and “service-orientation” are used as a helpful basis for planning negotiations, making implicit divergences explicit and thus better delineated.

Economic assessment of alternative heat decarbonisation strategies through coordinated operation with electricity system – UK case study

Electric heat pumps (HPs), hybrid heating technology and district heating networks (DHN) are the main low-carbon heating technologies that can deliver the ambitious carbon reduction target in the UK. The optimal design of the heating system on a national scale to maximize the economic benefits regarding both investment cost and operation cost while satisfying the carbon target remains an open question. This paper aims to compare the economic advantages as well as the associated impacts on the electricity system under the full deployments of ASHP (air source HP), hybrid HP-Bs (ASHP and gas boilers) and DHNs. To do so, a novel whole-system approach is applied with the explicit consideration of the coordinated operation between heat and electricity system. The optimized strategy for heat sector decarbonisation is also demonstrated, providing an outline of the optimal deployment for different heating technologies in terms of their penetrations and deployed areas. The UK case study suggests the significant economic advantage of the hybrid HP-B over the other two heating technologies, while DHN may play an important role in urban areas under the optimized heat decarbonisation strategy. The results also clearly demonstrate the changes on the electricity side driven by the different decarbonisation strategies in the heating system.

Negotiating the complex geographies of friendships overseas: Becoming, being and sharing in student mobility

International students are a fundamental part of the global higher education system providing a critical income stream for many universities but also diversifying and enriching culturally our campuses and the learning experiences of host students. Further, beyond selling the ‘prestige’ of the degree from the host institution, many universities often claim that international study is culturally enriching for the international students also. Or so the argument goes. This UK case study reveals that the reality for international students can be very different by examining the difficulties they face in forming robust cross- and multi-cultural friendships when overseas. In so doing it makes important contributions to the burgeoning networks, and more established transnationalism and mobility studies literatures by reflecting on how we negotiate the unfamiliar and geographically distinctive places through the social networks that we establish there. Principally it aims to overturn previous assertions that distinctive international student networks are the result of liminality and exclusion by showing that they are also a conscious choice made by the students themselves, functioning as an important source of social, cultural and political support when living overseas.

Estimating the sensitivity of a prostate cancer screening programme for different PSA cut-off levels: A UK case study

IntroductionPolicy decisions about prostate cancer screening require data on the natural history of histological cancers and the resulting impact of screening. However, the gold standard procedure required to identify true positive histological cancer is a full autopsy of the gland which is not possible in screening studies, leading to verification bias. We aim to estimate the sensitivity of a prostate cancer screening round (PSA result to diagnosis) relative to histological cancer. MethodsWe developed a framework combining data on UK screened and non-screened prostate cancer populations originating from a single round of population-based PSA testing among UK men aged 50–69 years, prostate cancer incidence data, and needle biopsy data from the published literature. ResultsSensitivity of a screening round was highest at age 65–69 years at 33% (95% CI: 30%–37%) and 24% (95% CI: 21%–28%) for PSA cut-off levels of 3 ng/ml and 4 ng/ml, respectively. Sensitivity was lowest at age 50–54 at 15% (95% CI: 12%–17%) and 9% (95% CI: 8%–11%) for PSA cut-off levels of 3 ng/ml and 4 ng/ml, respectively. In contrast, the clinical detection rate in the absence of mass screening, relative to histological cancer, varied between 0.2%–0.7% at age 50–54 and 1.2%–2.7% at age 65–69 from 1995 to 2012. ConclusionsThe framework enabled the sensitivity of a prostate cancer screening round relative to histological cancer diagnosis to be estimated and provides a basis to determine the impact and cost-effectiveness of prostate cancer screening. The approach could be adapted to inform the sensitivity of other biomarkers, cancers and screening programmes.

An analysis of the transformations of leadership and direction-setting in place marketing: a UK contextual view and case study

An analysis of the transformations of leadership and direction-setting in place marketing: a UK contextual view and case study

국회의 예산 편성ㆍ제안 및 증액 수정권에 관한 연구 : 주요국 입법례 분석을 중심으로

국회의 예산 편성ㆍ제안 및 증액 수정권에 관한 연구 : 주요국 입법례 분석을 중심으로

Installation of under sleeper pads on ballasted railway tracks: An economic analysis of their potential implementation

This study examines the economic impact of installing under sleeper pads in two different routes in the UK: the London-Portsmouth line and a section of the East Coast Main Line. The Portsmouth line is a typical suburban route with a high proportion of commuters whereas the East Coast Main Line is a higher speed line with less users and more distance between stations. The cost implications of this intervention are assessed through a stochastic application of cost benefit analysis underpinned with a sensitivity analysis. Using an industry-specific model, vehicle track interaction strategic model, as well as the results of laboratory experiments conducted at the University of Southampton, we are able to offer a set of conclusions. Increased reliability, improved ride quality and reduced vibration are important benefits for the users, higher in total terms on the Portsmouth line than on the East Coast Main Line, but smaller when the comparison is made on a per capita basis. In other words, the investment brings a higher absolute efficiency gain for the Portsmouth line but a higher relative efficiency gain for the East Coast Main Line. It is found that under sleeper pads can lead to substantial financial savings; these are higher for the East Coast Main Line than the Portsmouth line. Finally, depending on assumptions concerning noise impacts, under sleeper pads are likely to have substantial wider social benefits; these are much higher for the Portsmouth line than the East Coast Main Line. Although these conclusions are based on a UK case study, they could be applicable to any railway operation in a developed region facing high maintenance costs and growing demand.

New spaces, ordinary practices: Circulating and sharing within diverse economies of provisioning

This article draws upon two distinct UK case studies to explore how alternative modes of provisioning employ ordinary practices of sharing and circularity. Speaking to debates about alterity, diverse economies (Gibson-Graham, 2008) and emerging literature on the circular and shared economy, these two small and informal based models, one food based, the other clothing, are put forward as examples of the vast array of contemporary ‘alternative’ forms of consumption and provisioning taking place across the UK. The article illuminates how diverse economies are ‘made material’ through their materials and practices. In doing so I make three key arguments: firstly, and overall, that studying materiality is one way to illuminate these new and emerging spaces of provisioning, highlighting their practices, intimacies and ambiguities. Secondly, this material focus illustrates how the practices of provisioning – in particular, sharing and circulating - are not new, but are instead organised in original and novel ways; and this has wider implications for contemporary debates on circular and shared economy. Thirdly, that the materials of provisioning can be both beneficial and troublesome to provisioning organisations’ practices of circulating and sharing and the extent to which they tackle issues of social exclusion, financial hardship and sustainable resource use.