Techno-economic projections for advanced small solar thermal electric power plants to years 1990-2000

Advanced technologies applicable to solar thermal electric power systems in the 1990-200 time-frame are delineated for power applications that fulfill a wide spectrum of small power needs with primary emphasis on power ratings less than 10MWe. Projections of power system characteristics (energy and capital costs as a function of capacity factor) are made based on development of identified promising technologies and are used as the basis for comparing technology development options and combinations of these options to determine developmental directions offering potential for significant improvements. Stirling engines, Brayton/Rankine combined cycles and storage/transport concepts encompassing liquid metals, and reversible-reaction chemical systems are considered for two-axis tracking systems such as the central receiver or power tower concept and distributed parabolic dish receivers which can provide efficient low-cost solar energy collection while achieving high temperatures for efficient energy conversion. Pursuit of advanced technology across a broad front can result in post-1985 solar thermal systems having the potential of approaching the goal of competitiveness with conventional power systems

Advance Drying Technology for Heat Sensitive Products

This book presents the advance drying technology for heat sensitive products cited from international journals, handbooks, and current research of authors. In the first edition, the printing and publication was funded Diponegoro University. In this second edition, the publication was supported from Directory of Higher Education under competitive research grant. The topic discusses the current drying technology for heat sensitive product, challenges, development and application in accordance with high quality product as well as efficient energy usage. Unlike first edition, this book observes and evaluates several food products drying under air dehumidification. The conceptual process has been also submitted to Indonesian Patent 2014. In the first edition, the book consisted of 7 chapters. Whereas, in this second edition, the book was extended up to 10 chapters completed with application of air dehumidification for food drying. Chapter 1 discusses about the challenge and progress on drying technology development. Chapter 2 describes the application and research of vacuum and freezes dryer. It is followed by the concept of air dehumidified by zeolite for efficient drying, depicted in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 evaluates the conventional condenser and adsorption dryer for low temperature drying. Chapter 5 is an overview of microwave and radio frequency dryer. After that, Chapter 6 presents the types of dryers applied in industries involving tray, spray, fluidized, moving bed, and drum dryer. Chapter 7 evaluates the future possible development for innovative dryer namely adsorption dryer with zeolite for industry. Chapters 8, 9 and 10 present the application of air dehumidification for agriculture and food drying. These chapters are results of the research conducted during 2012 – 2014

Conceptual design of thermal energy storage systems for near term electric utility applications. Volume 2: Appendices - screening of concepts

Volume 2 of this 2 volume report is represented. This volume contains three appendices: (1) bibliography and cross references; (2) taxonomy - proponents and sources; and (3) concept definitions

GPR applications for geotechnical stability of transportation infrastructures

Nowadays, severe meteorological events are always more frequent all over the world. This causes a strong impact on the environment such as numerous landslides, especially in rural areas. Rural roads are exposed to an increased risk for geotechnical instability. In the meantime, financial resources for maintenance are certainly decreased due to the international crisis and other different domestic factors. In this context, the best allocation of funds becomes a priority: efficiency and effectiveness of plans and actions are crucially requested. For this purpose, the correct localisation of geotechnically instable domains is strategic. In this paper, the use of Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) for geotechnical inspection of pavement and sub-pavement layers is proposed. A three-step protocol has been calibrated and validated to allocate efficiently and effectively the maintenance funds. In the first step, the instability is localised through an inspection at traffic speed using a 1-GHz GPR horn launched antenna. The productivity is generally about or over 300 Km/day. Data are processed offline by automatic procedures. In the second step, a GPR inspection restricted to the critical road sections is carried out using two coupled antennas. One antenna is used for top pavement inspection (1.6 GHz central frequency) and a second antenna (600 MHz central frequency) is used for sub-pavement structure diagnosis. Finally, GPR data are post-processed in the time and frequency domains to identify accurately the geometry of the instability. The case study shows the potentiality of this protocol applied to the rural roads exposed to a landslide

An information assistant system for the prevention of tunnel vision in crisis management

In the crisis management environment, tunnel vision is a set of bias in decision makers’ cognitive process which often leads to incorrect understanding of the real crisis situation, biased perception of information, and improper decisions. The tunnel vision phenomenon is a consequence of both the challenges in the task and the natural limitation in a human being’s cognitive process. An information assistant system is proposed with the purpose of preventing tunnel vision. The system serves as a platform for monitoring the on-going crisis event. All information goes through the system before arrives at the user. The system enhances the data quality, reduces the data quantity and presents the crisis information in a manner that prevents or repairs the user’s cognitive overload. While working with such a system, the users (crisis managers) are expected to be more likely to stay aware of the actual situation, stay open minded to possibilities, and make proper decisions