Hybrid vehicles: a temporary step

The presented paper discusses the diffusion of hybrid electric technology in vehicles. It is put into question whether the current strong acceptance of the technology especially by US consumers is of sustainable nature. Therefore, different variables influencing the diffusion of the technology are presented and their influence on the market analyzed. It is found that non-financial criteria drive consumers' buying decisions significantly.The article also presents an overview of company strategies in the field of OEMs and suppliers of hybrid electric components. It is found that most companies integrate hybrid electric vehicles in their technology portfolio. It is concluded that even though hybrid electric technology can not yet being applied profitably yet it seems to be a key technology to the industry due to its current positive perception in the US. However, diesel technology and the intelligent use of cost efficient measures to reduce fuel consumption provide sustainable alternatives.automobile; hybrid technology; innovation; strategy

Hybrid vehicles: a temporary step

International audienceThe presented paper discusses the diffusion of hybrid electric technology in vehicles. It is put into question whether the current strong acceptance of the technology especially by US consumers is of sustainable nature. Therefore, different variables influencing the diffusion of the technology are presented and their influence on the market analyzed. It is found that non-financial criteria drive consumers' buying decisions significantly.The article also presents an overview of company strategies in the field of OEMs and suppliers of hybrid electric components. It is found that most companies integrate hybrid electric vehicles in their technology portfolio. It is concluded that even though hybrid electric technology can not yet being applied profitably yet it seems to be a key technology to the industry due to its current positive perception in the US. However, diesel technology and the intelligent use of cost efficient measures to reduce fuel consumption provide sustainable alternatives

Clean energy and environment: combating climate change by Hong Kong researchers and professionals

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New engine concept development process: from green field to friction assessment for cam-roller follower valvetrain system, through an integrate engine designmethodology

New engine concept development process: from green field to friction assessment for cam-roller follower valvetrain system, through an integrate engine design methodolog

Industry evolution: Empirical studies on industry emergence

Industry evolution research focuses on answering the key dilemma of the field of strategic management, that is, what makes certain firms successful and others to fail, from an evolutionary perspective. The course Industry Evolution has been in the syllabus of the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Aalto University / Helsinki University of Technology since 2005. The present publication comprises a selection of graduate student course assignments from the Spring term of 2012 when the course was lectured jointly by the editors of the publication, Joonas Järvinen and Mirva Peltoniemi. The course was originally established and lectured until 2010 by Prof. Juha-Antti Lamberg (currently at University of Jyväskylä). The publication includes: (1) Evolution of the emerging US hybrid electric vehicle industry (by Teemu Heiskanen, Anni Pekkala, Taina Pere and Sebastian Sillanpää; (2) The refractive laser eye surgery equipment industry evolution in the United States (by Karla Nieminen, Macarena Pallares, Jenni Silvennoinen and Elina Virtanen); and (3) Legitimacy of the Finnish payday loan industry (by Tomi Hiirsalmi, Ilkka Lampio, Liisa Sallinen and Arttu Vesterinen). First, the study by Heiskanen et al. (2012) focuses on hybrid electric cars industry within the US with an aim to identify the stage of the HEV industry life cycle and provide insights of the firm success factors in the industry. By applying industry life-cycle (ILC) theory, their findings imply that the development of entry rates, firm density, sales volumes, prices, and innovativeness behave as the ILC theory predicts. In contrast, the results also suggest that exit rates do not behave as expected. In the light of the ILC theory, they suggest that theHEV industry is in its emergent phase. The study also identifies that early entrance and innovativeness are key factors for firm survival. Second, Nieminen et al. (2012) study the refractive laser eye surgery equipment industry in the United States. They test the propositions of firm survival central to the industry life-cycle literature, i.e. the effects of entry timing, preentry experience and innovativeness on firm survival. Moreover, they analyze the shift from product to process R&D predicted by the theory. They find that preentry experience and innovativeness improve the probability of firm survival, while early entry does not bring about such an advantage. Moreover, they find that instead of a clear shift from product to process R&D there are cyclical trends. Third, Hiirsalmi et al. (2012) present a study with a focus on legitimacy of a payday loan industry in Finland. On the basis of earlier research, they first suggest that the legitimacy of an industry consists of 1) density-based; 2) regulative legitimacy; and 3) social legitimacy. By applying this framework in the research context, they then find out that themost important legitimacy factor for the payday loan industry is regulative legitimacy, which can be comprehended as a perquisite for the other two legitimacies. Further, they suggest that with regulative legitimacy, an industry can grow and flourish, even if social legitimacy is not that high. As a conclusion, we believe that the assignments offer interesting insights for both firms operating in the studied industries but also firms in industries experiencing similar kinds of dynamics and particularly management researchers interested in evolutionary research

Spray combustion experiments and numerical predictions

The next generation of commercial aircraft will include turbofan engines with performance significantly better than those in the current fleet. Control of particulate and gaseous emissions will also be an integral part of the engine design criteria. These performance and emission requirements present a technical challenge for the combustor: control of the fuel and air mixing and control of the local stoichiometry will have to be maintained much more rigorously than with combustors in current production. A better understanding of the flow physics of liquid fuel spray combustion is necessary. This paper describes recent experiments on spray combustion where detailed measurements of the spray characteristics were made, including local drop-size distributions and velocities. Also, an advanced combustor CFD code has been under development and predictions from this code are compared with experimental results. Studies such as these will provide information to the advanced combustor designer on fuel spray quality and mixing effectiveness. Validation of new fast, robust, and efficient CFD codes will also enable the combustor designer to use them as additional design tools for optimization of combustor concepts for the next generation of aircraft engines

Design and Implementation of Software for Technological Forecasting and Modeling Technological Obsolescence

In a world that is highly infused with technology, it is important that an organization knows how many resources such as manpower, equipment, and funding are needed at what time so that the organization does not suffer unnecessary risks. It is also important to know when to replace equipment. After examining different methods of forecasting, it was determined that manipulation of growth curves was the best way to determine the likelihood of device failure at a specific time. An approach in engineering economics was used to estimate the cost due to the failure of various devices or groups of devices. To reduce the likelihood of making mistakes in calculating the probability of device failure and its costs, a MatLab program was developed as a key output of this thesis. The program has a set of graphical user interfaces that use s-curves for measuring the growth, decay, and substitution of one type of device by another in the market. A by-product of this thesis is the publication of an operating manual for this program

Critical Metals in the Path towards the Decarbonisation of the EU Energy Sector: Assessing Rare Metals as Supply-Chain Bottlenecks in Low-Carbon Energy Technologies

In order to tackle climate change, to increase energy supply security and to foster the sustainability and competitiveness of the European economy, the EU has made the transition to a low-carbon economy a central policy priority. This report builds on the first study conducted in 2011 (Critical Metals in Strategic Energy Technologies), where critical metals were identified which could become a bottleneck to the supply-chain of various low-carbon energy technologies. The first study concentrated on the six SET-Plan technologies, namely: wind, solar (both PV and CSP), CCS, nuclear fission, bioenergy and the electricity grid. Fourteen metals were identified to be a cause for concern. After taking into account market and geopolitical parameters, five metals were labelled ‘critical’, namely: tellurium, indium, gallium, neodymium and dysprosium. The potential supply chain constraints for these materials were most applicable to the deployment of wind and solar energy technologies. In the follow-up study reported here, other energy and low-carbon technologies are investigated that not only play an important role in the EU's path towards decarbonisation but also may compete for the same metals as identified in the six SET-Plan technologies. Eleven technologies are analysed including fuel cells, electricity storage, electric vehicles and lighting. As in the first report, sixty metals, i.e. metallic elements, metallic minerals and metalloids are considered; only iron, aluminium and radioactive elements were specifically excluded. Graphite was also included, reflecting its status as a critical raw material. Where possible, the study models the implications for materials demand as a result of the scenarios described in the EU Energy Roadmap 2050. Consequently, the results obtained in the first study are updated to reflect the data that has become available in the roadmap. This second study found that eight metals have a high criticality rating and are therefore classified as ‘critical’. These are the six rare earth elements (dysprosium, europium, terbium, yttrium, praseodymium and neodymium), and the two metals gallium and tellurium. Four metals (graphite, rhenium, indium and platinum) are found to have a medium-to-high rating and are classified as ‘near critical’, suggesting that the market conditions for these metals should be monitored in case the markets for these metals deteriorate thereby increasing the risk of supply chain bottlenecks. Metals demand in the electric vehicle, wind, solar and lighting sectors were identified to be of particular concern. As in the first report, ways of mitigating the supply-chain risks for the critical metals are considered. These fall into three categories; increasing primary supply, reuse/recycling and substitution In addition, a number of topics were identified as possibly meriting further research, but could not be considered within the immediate scope of this study. These include conducting further studies to look at raw materials requirements for hybrid and electric vehicles for a wider range of technology uptake and penetration scenarios; developing new and more detailed scenarios for the uptake and technology mix of options for stationary energy storage; undertaking similar studies in defence and aerospace; improving statistics on the contribution of recycling to world production for a number of metals; and investigating the contribution of greater traceability and transparency to reducing raw materials supply risk. Finally, it is important not to overstate the bottlenecks due to the risks of raw material shortages for key decarbonisation technologies. This is because there are still many years before the large uptake of some technologies and in the coming years, there are numerous options that will become available to mitigate the risks identified.JRC.F.6-Energy systems evaluatio

The Significance of Energy Storage for Renewable Energy Generation and the Role of Instrumentation and Measurement

International audienceEnergy storage is not a new concept but is currently getting increasing importance in the context of energy transition paradigm. Indeed, it is expected to play a key role as an enabling technology for lowering the carbon footprint of the electric power system. In fact, the growing development of renewable energy resources and their increasing share in the energy mix, are introducing significant challenges to the existing power grid due to the high variability of these sources/loads. In particular, maintaining the generation-consumption balance of the electric power in real time, as well as the overall power system security, when these special energy sources/loads are present at a significant scale is a major concern. With competitive energy storage, it will be possible to introduce more flexibility in the electrical system thus helping it to better manage the overall energy balance with better system response in case of severe contingencies. Energy storage technologies were historically used for managing the load curve while observing generation dynamic constraints. The most well-known storage technology is the pumped hydro storage where the energy is stored in a hydraulic form (water potential energy). With the event of open access and the corresponding unbundling of electric power industry segments, valorizing energy storage options under market conditions has become tricky. The major present barriers for deploying energy storage systems (ESS) are high cost, competitive economic value, efficiency and energy density, together with energy policies. The new energy paradigm has put a new emphasis on energy storage, and many research roadmaps have pointed out the need for overcoming the current barriers. The decision makers' awareness of the importance of energy storage is also on the rise. However, adequate incentives for encouraging massive deployment of ESS and storage technology within the electric power system are still lacking. Currently, most of the effort is dedicated to in situ demonstration projects in striving for smarter grids and support of innovations with the corresponding proofs of concept and feedback experience. Additionally, different grid applications are assessed for both centralized to decentralized uses. Various energy storage applications for frequency regulation, voltage support, investment optimization, or peak shaving are under consideration. In this article, some of the main energy storage technologies will be reviewed according to their main application domains. That will be followed by a focus on battery energy storage. Some key elements of battery management system (BMS) technologies and ESS architecture and characterization will be addressed. Then some aspects of ESS protection will be presented and the key trends and indications of emerging concepts for energy storage will be identified