Application Of Dynamic Techno-Economic Assessment: A Case Study In Rare Earth Element Extraction

Rare earth elements are critical materials for many technologies driving the energy industry forward. However, there is increasingly low security and lack of sustainability of current supplies. New sources and processing methods are needed and are being intensely investigated among U.S. energy leaders such as rare earth extraction from lignite coal in North Dakota. A critical need is to confirm the technological and economic viability of these approaches, aspects which are inherently interconnected, would benefit from a dynamic approach. The current approach is Techno-Economic Assessments (TEAs). TEAs evaluate the economics of the process and commercialization of the technology for viability before substantial investment is made. Standard TEAs are high-effort endeavors, and most often performed in a spreadsheet format, with hundreds to thousands of built-in equations and assumptions. Due to these features, standard TEAs have a high potential for errors and can be difficult to effectively communicate with stakeholders. Standard TEAs also do not allow for evaluation of critical dynamic variables or feedback loops within the system. TEAs drive decision making; errors in them may either limit the potential of processes if the economic results are understated or may mislead investors if the economic potential is overstated. An alternative methodology is system dynamics (SD) modeling. SD models are developed and presented in a clear visual format with explicit assumptions. SD models also readily incorporate and utilize dynamic variables. Based on these factors, SD is proposed to be a more comprehensive, less error prone, and more accessible approach than the current, standard approach to TEAs. This research effort utilized systematic literature review and application of SD modeling to an existing rare earth TEA to evaluate if the benefits of SD could enhance the outcome of a standard TEA. The findings suggest that a generic TEA structure can be applied to real projects resulting in the discovery and correction of errors and inclusion of more realistic aspects of the project resulting in more likely outcomes. In the cases analyzed, the corrections and improvements result in substantial increase in the economic potential of the process

Towards A Formal And Scalable Approach For Quantifying Software Reliability At Early Development Stages

Problems which originate in early development stages can have a lasting influence on the reliability, safety, and cost of a software system. The requirements document, which is usually available at the requirements analysis stage, must be correct, unambiguous, and complete if the rest of the development effort is to succeed. The ability to identify faults in requirements and predict the reliability of a software system early in its development can help organizations make informative decisions about corrective actions and improve the system's quality in a cost-effective manner. A review of the literature reveals that existing approaches are unsuited to provide trustworthy reliability prediction either due to the ignorance of the requirements documents, or because of the informal and fairly sketchy way in detecting faults in requirements. This study explores the use of a preselected software reliability measurement for early software faults detection and reliability prediction. This measurement, originally a black-box testing technique, was broadly recognized for its ability to detect incomplete and ambiguous requirements, although no information was found in the literature about how to take advantage of its power. This study mathematically formalized the measurement to enhance its rigidity, repeatability and scalability and further extended it as an effective requirements faults detection technique. An automation-oriented algorithm was developed for quantifying the impact of the detected requirements faults on software reliability. The feasibility and scalability of the proposed approach for early faults detection and reliability prediction were examined using two real applications. The results clearly confirmed its feasibility and usefulness, particularly when no failure data is available and other methods are not applicable. The scalability barriers were also spotted in the approach. An empirical study was thus conducted to gain insight into the nature of the technical barriers. As an attempt to overcome the barrier, a set of rules was proposed based on the observed patterns. Finally, a preliminarily controlled experiment was conducted to evaluate the usability of the proposed rules. This study will enable software project stakeholders to effectively detect requirements faults and assess the quality of requirements early in development, and ultimately lead to improved software reliability if the identified faults are removed in time. Software project practitioners, regulators, and policy makers involved in the certification of software systems can benefit most from the techniques proposed in this study

Technology 2002: The Third National Technology Transfer Conference and Exposition, volume 2

Proceedings from symposia of the Technology 2002 Conference and Exposition, December 1-3, 1992, Baltimore, MD. Volume 2 features 60 papers presented during 30 concurrent sessions

Virginia Commonwealth University Graduate Bulletin

Graduate bulletin for Virginia Commonwealth University for the academic year 2020-2021. It includes information on academic regulations, degree requirements, course offerings, faculty, academic calendar, and tuition and expenses for graduate programs

Virginia Commonwealth University Graduate Bulletin

Graduate bulletin for Virginia Commonwealth University for the academic year 2022-2023. It includes information on academic regulations, degree requirements, course offerings, faculty, academic calendar, and tuition and expenses for graduate programs

Virginia Commonwealth University Graduate Bulletin

Graduate bulletin for Virginia Commonwealth University for the academic year 2021-2022. It includes information on academic regulations, degree requirements, course offerings, faculty, academic calendar, and tuition and expenses for graduate programs