El papel del factor institucional y territorial en la innovación: el caso de la industria de componentes del sector calzado

The industrial fabric of the province of Alicante has long been made up of various types of agglomerations of companies, including local productive systems, industrial districts and clusters. These enterprise systems are currently facing challenges to their competitiveness brought about by global markets and transformations in technology and production. In this paper we analyze the transformation processes introduced by businesses in the footwear components industry and the importance of the Regional Innovation System in the recent economic context. We demonstrate how companies in the footwear sector have sought various alternatives, especially innovation strategies, internationalization, diversification towards different productive sectors, and specialization in different market segments. We also analyze the role of the Regional Innovation System of the Valencian Community (Spain) (e.g. the Chamber of Commerce, technological institutes, universities and innovation policies) in these transformation processes.El tejido industrial de la provincia de Alicante ha sido y es un escenario de aglomeraciones de empresas denominadas de diferentes formas como sistemas productivos locales, distritos industriales, clústeres, etc. Estos sistemas empresariales se enfrentan a transformaciones tecnológicas, productivas y a mercados globalizados que plantean retos a su competitividad. En nuestro estudio analizamos los procesos de transformación que han protagonizado las empresas del sector de componentes del calzado y la importancia del Sistema Regional de Innovación ante el reciente contexto económico. Mostramos como las empresas del sector han seguido distintas alternativas destacando las estrategias de innovación, internacionalización, diversificación hacia distintos sectores productivos, y especialización en segmentos del mercado. Y analizamos también el papel que juega el Sistema Regional de Innovación Valenciano (Cámara de Comercio, institutos tecnológicos, universidades, políticas de fomento de la innovación,…) en estos procesos de transformación

El sistema regional de innovación en la Comunidad Valenciana: un caso aplicado a la industria de componentes del sector calzado

El tejido industrial de la provincia de Alicante ha sido escenario de aglomeraciones de empresas. Estas formas organizativas empresariales se enfrentan a los nuevos retos del mercado globalizado debiendo mejorar su competitividad. Entre distintas alternativas a seguir por parte de las empresas, podríamos destacar las estrategias de innovación, de diversificación hacia distintos sectores productivos, de especialización en segmentos del mercado. Observamos que la deslocalización de la producción de los sectores más tradicionales de la provincia de Alicante (calzado, textil, ...) ha afectado tanto a las empresas finales de productos como a las empresas de componentes que abastecen a las mismas, constatándose que las empresas tradicionales de componentes han ido disminuyendo su vinculación existente entre ellas. Por lo tanto se detecta que la actividad productiva de estas industrias de componentes, fundamentalmente aquellas que conllevan un componente tecnológico, tiende a diversificar su oferta a distintos sectores económicos. En ese proceso de diversificación el proceso de innovación entendemos que ha sidoEl tejido industrial de la provincia de Alicante ha sido escenario de aglomeraciones de empresas. Estas formas organizativas empresariales se enfrentan a los nuevos retos del mercado globalizado debiendo mejorar su competitividad. Entre distintas alternativas a seguir por parte de las empresas, podríamos destacar las estrategias de innovación, de diversificación hacia distintos sectores productivos, de especialización en segmentos del mercado. Observamos que la deslocalización de la producción de los sectores más tradicionales de la provincia de Alicante (calzado, textil, ...) ha afectado tanto a las empresas finales de productos como a las empresas de componentes que abastecen a las mismas, constatándose que las empresas tradicionales de componentes han ido disminuyendo su vinculación existente entre ellas. Por lo tanto se detecta que la actividad productiva de estas industrias de componentes, fundamentalmente aquellas que conllevan un componente tecnológico, tiende a diversificar su oferta a distintos sectores económicos. En ese proceso de diversificación el proceso de innovación entendemos que ha sido claveEl teixit industrial de la província d'Alacant ha estat escenari d'aglomeracions d'empreses. Aquestes formes organitzatives empresarials s'enfronten als nous reptes del mercat globalitzat havent de millorar la seva competitivitat. Entre diferents alternatives a seguir per part de les empreses, podríem destacar les estratègies d'innovació, de diversificació cap a diferents sectors productius, d'especialitzacióen segments del mercat.Observem que la deslocalització de la producció dels sectors més tradicionals de la província d'Alacant (calçat, tèxtil, ...) ha afectat tant a les empreses finals de productes com a les empreses de components que proveeixen a les mateixes, constatant-se que les empreses tradicionals de components han anat disminuint la seva vinculació existent entre elles. Per tant, es detecta que l'activitat productiva d'aquestes indústries de components, fonamentalment aquelles que comporten un component tecnològic, tendeix a diversificar la seva oferta a diferents sectors econòmics. En aquest procés de diversificació el procés d'innovació entenem que ha estat clau.The industrial fabric of the province of Alicante has been the stage for agglomeration of companies. These forms of business organization face new challenges of globalized markets like having to improve their competitiveness. Among the various alternatives for companies to succeed, are worth pointing out strategies of innovation, diversification in different sectors of production and specialization in market segments. We observe that the relocation of the most traditional production sectors of the province of Alicante (footwear, textile ...) has affected the final production enterprises as well as the supplying ones. It can be clearly seen in the decrease of collaboration between these enterprises. Therefore this shows that the productive activity of these industries of components, fundamentally those which imply a technological component, tends to diversify its offer to different economic sectors. We understand that the innovation process has been essential in this process of diversification

Integration of modular process simulators under the Generalized Disjunctive Programming framework for the structural flowsheet optimization

The optimization of chemical processes where the flowsheet topology is not kept fixed is a challenging discrete-continuous optimization problem. Usually, this task has been performed through equation based models. This approach presents several problems, as tedious and complicated component properties estimation or the handling of huge problems (with thousands of equations and variables). We propose a GDP approach as an alternative to the MINLP models coupled with a flowsheet program. The novelty of this approach relies on using a commercial modular process simulator where the superstructure is drawn directly on the graphical use interface of the simulator. This methodology takes advantage of modular process simulators (specially tailored numerical methods, reliability, and robustness) and the flexibility of the GDP formulation for the modeling and solution. The optimization tool proposed is successfully applied to the synthesis of a methanol plant where different alternatives are available for the streams, equipment and process conditions.Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (CTQ2012-37039-C02-02)

A new technique for recovering energy in thermally coupled distillation using vapor recompression cycles

Even though it has been proved that a fully thermally coupled distillation (TCD) system minimizes the energy used by a sequence of columns, it is well-known that vapor/liquid transfers between different sections produce an unavoidable excess of vapor (liquid) in some of them, increasing both the investment and operating costs. It is proposed here to take advantage of this situation by extracting the extra vapor/liquid and subjecting it to a direct/reverse vapor compression cycle. This new arrangement restores the optimal operating conditions of some of the affected sections with energy savings of around 20–30% compared with conventional TCD columns. Various examples, including the direct and reverse vapor recompression cycles, are presented. Furthermore, in each example, all possible modes of distillation (direct, indirect and Petlyuk distillation) with and without vapor recompression cycles (VRC) are compared to ensure that this approach delivers the best results.The authors would like to acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencias e Innovación (PPQ, CTQ2009–14420-C02-02 and CTQ2012–37039-C02-02)

An Innovative Project to Strengthen and Improve the Knowledge Acquisition in the Degree in Chemistry Using e-Learning Tools

Comunicació presentada a EDULEARN2018, 10th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies (July 2-4, 2018, Palma, Mallorca, Spain).The subject "Chemistry II (QU910)" is taught at first academic year (second semester) of the Degree in Chemistry at the University Jaume I. Some of its specific and general competencies are selflearning and writing and oral communication, regarding the main chemical concepts: chemical reactions, elements of the periodic table and calculations of the concentrations of the formed products and the remaining reagents in acid/base, complex, precipitation and redox reactions. We have noticed that 65% of the students have not studied any chemistry subjects (or only one) in High School or Professional Training before undertaking the Degree in Chemistry. The present project aims firstly to help these students to overcome their lack of background, secondly to compare the academic results of the students with and without previous contact with chemistry and finally, to establish actions to solve this prejudicial situation. This objective was reached by the implementation of a zero course, a course including the basic content of chemistry taught in the last years of High School, the month before the beginning of the first academic year. After the first year, students having attended chemistry before university obtained only 0.75/10 points more than the others. The Virtual Classroom, the emails and tutorial played an important role in the achievement of this zero-course

Single wall carbon nanotubes loaded with Pd and NiPd nanoparticles for H2 sensing at room temperature

Pd and bimetallic Ni50Pd50 nanoparticles protected by polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) have been synthesized by the reduction-by-solvent method and deposited on single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) to be tested as H2 sensors. The SWCNTs were deposited by drop casting from different suspensions. The Pd nanoparticles-based sensors show a very reproducible performance with good sensitivity and very low response times (few seconds) for different H2 concentrations, ranging from 0.2% to 5% vol. H2 in air at atmospheric pressure. The influence of the metal nanoparticle composition, the quality of SWCNTs suspension and the metal loading have been studied, observing that all these parameters play an important role in the H2 sensor performance. Evidence for water formation during the H2 detection on Pd nanoparticles has been found, and its repercussion on the behaviour of the assembled sensors is discussed. The sensor preparation procedure detailed in this work has proven to be simple and reproducible to prepare cost-effective and highly efficient H2 sensors that perform very well under real application conditions.We thank the MINECO, Generalitat Valenciana and FEDER (Projects CTQ2012-31762 and PROMETEO/2009/047) for financial support. A.B.M. thanks the Spanish Ministry Science and Innovation for a Ramón y Cajal fellowship (RyC 2009-03913). Jaime Garcia Aguilar and Izaskun Miguel García also thank the University of Alicante for their fellowships

Development of a critical structure state alarm system based on the instrumentation of the Botafoc breakwater nº 8 caisson

Balearic Port Authority has developed an instrumentation system for the #8 caisson of the Botafoc breakwater that integrates 12 pressure sensors located at three surfaces, two in contact with the sea water and another with the bottom. This design was completed with an inertial system that measures the angular velocities and the accelerations over the three Cartesian axes. Consequently, the system measures actions (pressures) and reactions (movements and accelerations) experimented by the caisson, due to sea waves and/or other service loads. R+D department of the Port Authority and Polytechnic University of Madrid are working on two directions, the development of new theories on vertical breakwater design that go beyond Goda and Sainflou, and on the creation of a real-time critical structure alarm system, based on the instrumentation installed. This alarm system has two main parts: the instrumentation itself that collects data and processes it on real-time (the data processing compares the pressure law suffered by the caisson in every step process with the design critical state of the caisson, in this case the Goda pressure law for a 6.5 m wave), giving a security coefficient that points out the risk level on real-time; and the alarm system consisting of a monitoring panel located in the Port Control Center that shows the risk level and advises in case of an incidental evacuation of this critical portuary installation

Zn-Promoted Selective Gas-Phase Hydrogenation of Tertiary and Secondary C4 Alkynols over Supported Pd

We have investigated the gas-phase (P = 1 atm; T = 373 K) hydrogenation of (tertiary alkynol) 2-methyl-3-butyn-2-ol (MBY) and (secondary) 3-butyn-2-ol (BY) over a series of carbon (C), non-reducible (Al2O3 and MgO), and reducible (CeO2 and ZnO) supported monometallic [Pd (0.6–1.2% wt) and Zn (1% wt)] and bimetallic Pd–Zn (Pd:Zn mol ratio = 95:5, 70:30, and 30:70) catalysts synthesized by deposition–precipitation and colloidal deposition. The catalysts have been characterized by H2 chemisorption, hydrogen temperature-programmed desorption (H2-TPD), specific surface area (SSA), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and transmission (TEM) and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) analyses. Reaction over these catalysts generated the target alkenol [2-methyl-3-buten-2-ol (MBE) and 3-buten-2-ol (BE)] through partial hydrogenation and alkanol [2-methyl-butan-2-ol (MBA) and 2-butanol (BA)]/ketone [2-butanone (BONE)] as a result of full hydrogenation and double-bond migration. The catalysts exhibit a similar Pd nanoparticle size (2.7 ± 0.3 nm) but a modified electronic character (based on XPS). Hydrogenation activity is linked to surface hydrogen (from H2 chemisorption and H2-TPD). An increase in H2:alkynol (from 1 → 10) results in enhanced alkynol consumption with a greater rate in the transformation of MBY (vs BY); H2:alkynol had negligible effect on product distribution. Reaction selectivity is insensitive to the Pd site electron density with a similar response (SMBE = 65 ± 9% and SBE = 70 ± 8%) over Pdδ− (on Al2O3 and MgO) and Pdδ+ (on C and CeO2). A Pd/ZnO catalyst delivered enhanced alkenol selectivity (SMBE = 90% and SBE = 96%) attributed to PdZn alloy phase formation (proved by XRD and XPS) but low activity, ascribed to metal encapsulation. A two-fold increase in the consumption rate was recorded for Pd–Zn/Al2O3 (30:70) versus Pd/ZnO with a similar alloy content (32 ± 4% from XPS), ascribed to a contribution due to spillover hydrogen (from H2-TPD) where high alkenol selectivity was maintained.This research was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPRSC; grant number EP/L016419/1; Ph.D. studentship to A.G.-F., CRITICAT program), the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia Innovación y Universidades, Generalitat Valenciana and FEDER (RTI2018-095291-B-I00, MAT2017-87579-R MINECO/FEDER and PROMETEO/2018/076)

Integration of different models in the design of chemical processes: Application to the design of a power plant

With advances in the synthesis and design of chemical processes there is an increasing need for more complex mathematical models with which to screen the alternatives that constitute accurate and reliable process models. Despite the wide availability of sophisticated tools for simulation, optimization and synthesis of chemical processes, the user is frequently interested in using the ‘best available model’. However, in practice, these models are usually little more than a black box with a rigid input–output structure. In this paper we propose to tackle all these models using generalized disjunctive programming to capture the numerical characteristics of each model (in equation form, modular, noisy, etc.) and to deal with each of them according to their individual characteristics. The result is a hybrid modular–equation based approach that allows synthesizing complex processes using different models in a robust and reliable way. The capabilities of the proposed approach are discussed with a case study: the design of a utility system power plant that has been decomposed into its constitutive elements, each treated differently numerically. And finally, numerical results and conclusions are presented.Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (CTQ2012-37039-C02-02)

An alternative disjunctive optimization model for heat integration with variable temperatures

This paper presents an alternative model to deal with the problem of optimal energy consumption minimization of non-isothermal systems with variable inlet and outlet temperatures. The model is based on an implicit temperature ordering and the “transshipment model” proposed by Papoulias and Grossmann (1983). It is supplemented with a set of logical relationships related to the relative position of the inlet temperatures of process streams and the dynamic temperature intervals. In the extreme situation of fixed inlet and outlet temperatures, the model reduces to the “transshipment model”. Several examples with fixed and variable temperatures are presented to illustrate the model's performance.The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Spanish “Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación” under project CTQ2012-37039-C02-02