Leveraging TEWI platform to enhance scientific collaboration on universities

This paper presents core functionalities of TEWI platform which will be leveraged in terms of supporting scientific cooperation for students and university employees when working on scientific projects, publications, doctoral processes or grants. This document provides also basic information on PLM plat-form and how it fits into scientific activities

Territorial Marketing as a Method of Reduction of Outward Migration

The programme has been directed to acquire new students who in future may contribute to the increase of town's attractiveness and development. The first results of evaluation of the programme conducted in 2009 proved that the initiative has been well perceived and was quite popular. Whereas only its further development and stages that will follow will present the answer about its effectiveness

Building long-term relationship with tertiary education graduates as a marketing challenge for a city.

The paper concerns the problem how local authorities should tackle with the problem of outward migration process. The dynamics of population development and migration in Europe and its regions have its influence on territorial cohesion and regional competitiveness. Migration is the process which from macroeconomic point of view has number of attitudes in Europe or in Member States. Unfortunately, when we look at that process from the single city or regional perspective it can have very negative effects into its socioââ¬âeconomic development. Usually the city/region which suffer from outward migration is losing the most valuable workforce ââ¬â young, creative and tertiary educated graduates. The city/regional authorities should undertake measures aimed at keeping them at place. The best way to do that is stimulating the development of local economy in the long way, but this process, to be successful should be complemented by creative marketing action. The author is presenting the case study of the marketing programme implemented in 2008 in the post industrial city of Łodź, Poland (entitled: The Young Within the City of Łodź). The case study is an example of interesting approach to solve this very vital problem at the local labour market. The article present the complexity of the project, it shows how it correspond with the economic development strategy for the city. The partnership aspect is also undertaken in the context of successful delivering of the programme in the period 2008-2011). The city managers are collaborating with local universities, job agencies, and other partners. The author argue that successful marketing programme should not only concern image creation, but it should be designed for the benefit of the territorial client (in the case study: the current and prospect students in the city of Łodź). The author draw number of conclusions for other local authorities how to face similar difficulties in outward migration at the local labour market

Comparative study of Exergetic and Economic analysis of Multi-evaporator NH3 and NH3-CO2 CRS for a Seafood Processing Plant

In a seafood processing plant, refrigeration is a vital and energy intensive process. In India, NH3 is predominately used to cater to such refrigeration demands. These industrial refrigeration systems have the multi-evaporator configuration with high pressure ratios necessitating adoption of multistage compression. In recent years, owing to excellent and favorable thermo-physical properties of CO2 in low temperature, adoption of NH3-CO2 cascade refrigeration system (CRS) with NH3 in high temperature cycle is gaining worldwide acceptance. In the present work, performance of a conventional NH3 multistage industrial refrigeration system is compared with a proposed NH3-CO2 CRS system in terms of energy, exergy and economic perspectives. Investigation is focused to thermodynamically evaluate and optimize the performance of the proposed cascade configuration with respect to operating parameters. A sensitivity analysis has been performed as well to study the effects of climatic conditions on system performance. The proposed NH3-CO2 CRS showed a maximum benefit of 13.3% in COP, 14% in exergy efficiency and 9% less TEWI compared to the baseline system. The estimated payback period is 25 months

Groundwater Depletion in the Middle East from GRACE with Implications for Transboundary Water Management in the Tigris-Euphrates-Western Iran Region

In this study, we use observations from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission to evaluate freshwater storage trends in the north-central Middle East, including portions of the Tigris and Euphrates River Basins and western Iran, from January 2003 to December 2009. GRACE data show an alarming rate of decrease in total water storage of approximately -27.2 plus or minus 0.6 millimeters per year equivalent water height, equal to a volume of 143.6 cubic kimometers during the course of the study period. Additional remote-sensing information and output from land surface models were used to identify that groundwater losses are the major source of this trend. The approach used in this study provides an example of ''best current capabilities'' in regions like the Middle East, where data access can be severely limited. Results indicate that the region lost 17.3 plus or minus 2.1 millimeters per year equivalent water height of groundwater during the study period, or 91.3 plus or minus 10.9 cubic kilometers in volume. Furthermore, results raise important issues regarding water use in transboundary river basins and aquifers, including the necessity of international water use treaties and resolving discrepancies in international water law, while amplifying the need for increased monitoring for core components of the water budget

A quality, energy and environmental assessment tool for the European cold chain

According to 5th Informatory Note on Refrigeration and Food published by the International Institute of Refrigeration, 20% of the global losses in perishable products was due to lack of refrigeration. It is expected that increased use of refrigeration to reduce these losses will help meet the increasing food demands of the growing world population. However, the use of refrigeration already accounts for about 15% of world’s electricity usage. In addition, the use of refrigeration significantly contributes to global warming via emission of CO2. In this paper, a software tool was developed to assess food quality and safety evolution, energy usage and CO2 emission of different refrigeration technologies along the European cold chain. A reference product was chosen for the main different food categories in the European cold chain. Software code to predict the products temperature using the room temperature as input, based on validated heat and mass transfer models, were written in Matlab (The Mathworks Inc., Natick, USA). Also, based on validated kinetic models for the different quality indicators of the reference products, a software code was written to calculate the quality and safety evolutions of the food product, using the predicted product temperature as input. Finally, software code to calculate the energy usage and Total Equivalent Warming Impact (TEWI) value of different refrigeration technologies was also written in Matlab. All three software codes were integrated, and a graphical user interface was developed. Using the graphical user interface, a user can tailor a cold chain scenario by adding different cold chain blocks. Each cold chain block has properties that can be modified. The tool can be used to compare different cold chains with respect to quality, safety, energy usage, and environmental impact

Wastewater as a Heat Source for Individual Residence Heating: A Techno-economic Feasibility Study in the Brussels Capital Region

A large part of the thermal energy in buildings is lost through the drain and ends up as warm wastewater in the sewer system. The installation of heat exchangers in the sewer system enables a rise of the source temperature of heat pumps, increasing their coefficient of performance. To investigate the potential of such a technique in the Brussels Capital Region, a test facility named MYRTES has been installed in the sewer network, the starting point of this facility being to have one heat recovery system per residence. To estimate the heat recovery rate, potentially available in the Brussels Capital Region, the data from this test facility have been used as inputs and validation for a predictive model, considering both the heat recovery and its financial and environmental implications. Simulations show a minimum heating power of the heat pump of 6.3 kW, at a hot water temperature of 45 °C. A maximum of 35% of the buildings in the Brussels Capital Region are eligible for the use of such a system. At current tariffs, the levelized cost of energy for these systems, is lower than for traditional air heat pumps, but is higher than for gas boiler systems. The total equivalent warming impact, however, is estimated to be around 49% lower than for gas boiler systems and around 13% lower than for air heat pumps. In conclusion, heating through these types of systems is more expensive than gas boiler systems, but with increased consumption the competitiveness of these systems improves

Understanding And Modelling Thermal Energy Demand And Emissions In Urban Environments

Refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pump (RACHP) systems currently account for nearly 20% of UK grid electricity use and over 7% of all UK greenhouse gas emissions. This research project has investigated the sources and levels of emissions from RACHP systems and how the cooling (and heating) energy and emissions from buildings might be reduced by optimizing the building’s design, construction and operation. Analysis of data from site surveys and maintenance logs confirmed that leakage of refrigerant can be a significant contributor to total RACHP emissions. TEWI (total equivalent warming impact) analyses showed that for RACHP systems with high GWP (global warming potential) refrigerants and annual leak rates of 10% or more, direct emissions from refrigerant leakage can exceed the indirect emissions associated with energy use. However, for heat pump and air conditioning systems, with typical leak rates of below 3%, using low GWP refrigerants (GWP = 500 or less), the direct emissions do not make a significant contribution to building emissions. A new dynamic energy balance model and Excel based tool were developed to help improve the understanding of building energy use and emissions. The tool can be used to predict the sensitivity to different building design concepts, features and operation and the parameters of the installed RACHP plant. Results for an office building suggest that the building fabric (with the exception of the glazing) is not necessarily a key factor influencing the total energy use and emissions. However, relatively simple measures to reduce electricity use and to reduce solar gain could each reduce building emissions by 10% or more. Results for a dwelling built to 2006 Building Regulations demonstrated an overheating risk in summer, even with mechanical ventilation, but adding a 2 kW air conditioning unit could prevent overheating, with lower energy use and emissions than a similar dwelling incorporating mechanical ventilation. Climate change simulations for the year 2080 predicted a net increase in energy demand and emissions of about 5% for the office building (mainly associated with the use of grid electricity), implying that the grid carbon factor is likely to be a key determinant of future emissions from such buildings. For dwellings without mechanical ventilation or air conditioning, internal temperatures might rise as high as 40°C in summer months, but a small air conditioning unit could maintain temperatures below 25°C with no increase in total energy use and emissions compared with the present day. For a grid electricity carbon factor reduction of 80%, total emissions for the simulated office building would fall by about 70% and for the dwelling by about 50%

Mobile vision based augmented reality navigation system

Augmented reality applications become more and more popular due to increasing computation speed of the mobile handsets and need of easy and intuitive navigation. Existing systems are implemented on the basis of GPS and compass where relative position and orientation of the handset is considered. Such hardware requirements decrease amount of compatible devices and limits system usage to outdoors where GPS signal is available. The paper presents a vision-based augmented reality navigation system implemented on the Android mobile phone. Image data of interest object and handset position are acquired by the users, however GPS position is not required for the system operation