36 research outputs found
An Assessment of the Economic Feasibility of Establishing a Biofuel Industry in the State of Louisiana
As national interests continue to encourage the development of advanced cellulosic biofuels, through legislation, research support and other means, a wide range of alternative agricultural crops are being evaluated in various regions of the country as potential feedstock material for biofuel processing facilities. Previous research has shown that both energy cane and sweet sorghum can be successfully grown in Louisiana. This study evaluated the economic feasibility of utilizing energy cane and sweet sorghum as biofuel feedstock crops. Economic analysis focused on two primary factors: estimation of feedstock cost and optimal location of processing facilities. Five cropping sequences were evaluated in the production of energy cane and sweet sorghum as feedstock crops. Production costs per acre were similar across the two crops and alternative cropping sequences. Estimated feedstock costs per dry ton were more variable for sweet sorghum, as compared with energy cane, due to the wider range of expected yields observed for sweet sorghum across alternative production periods. Transportation costs from field to processing facility along with the percent of idle land not enrolled in conservation programs were found to be two of the major factors which will influence optimal location of feedstock processing facilities
Feedstock Crop Production Costs and Biofuel Feedstock Input Costs Associated with the Production of Energy Cane and Sweet Sorghum in the Southeastern USA
© 2017, The Author(s). Concentration of biofuel feedstock crop production in specific regions of the USA is dependent on the relative comparative advantage of production in a specific region based on several agronomic and economic factors. For the southeastern region of the USA, energy cane and sweet sorghum have been identified as two feedstock crops with the greatest potential for further development of production. This study utilized field trial data from yield studies in Louisiana to develop estimates of feedstock crop production costs and biofuel feedstock input costs for these two crops. Results indicated that feedstock production costs on a harvest yield basis, as well as the related dry matter basis, were heavily dependent on yield level. Economic research from this study indicated that energy cane had a slight cost advantage compared with sweet sorghum, although production of sorghum in certain periods during the growing season was very cost competitive with energy cane
Observing the Evolution of the Universe
How did the universe evolve? The fine angular scale (l>1000) temperature and
polarization anisotropies in the CMB are a Rosetta stone for understanding the
evolution of the universe. Through detailed measurements one may address
everything from the physics of the birth of the universe to the history of star
formation and the process by which galaxies formed. One may in addition track
the evolution of the dark energy and discover the net neutrino mass.
We are at the dawn of a new era in which hundreds of square degrees of sky
can be mapped with arcminute resolution and sensitivities measured in
microKelvin. Acquiring these data requires the use of special purpose
telescopes such as the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), located in Chile, and
the South Pole Telescope (SPT). These new telescopes are outfitted with a new
generation of custom mm-wave kilo-pixel arrays. Additional instruments are in
the planning stages.Comment: Science White Paper submitted to the US Astro2010 Decadal Survey.
Full list of 177 author available at http://cmbpol.uchicago.ed
CMB-S4: Forecasting Constraints on Primordial Gravitational Waves
CMB-S4---the next-generation ground-based cosmic microwave background (CMB)
experiment---is set to significantly advance the sensitivity of CMB
measurements and enhance our understanding of the origin and evolution of the
Universe, from the highest energies at the dawn of time through the growth of
structure to the present day. Among the science cases pursued with CMB-S4, the
quest for detecting primordial gravitational waves is a central driver of the
experimental design. This work details the development of a forecasting
framework that includes a power-spectrum-based semi-analytic projection tool,
targeted explicitly towards optimizing constraints on the tensor-to-scalar
ratio, , in the presence of Galactic foregrounds and gravitational lensing
of the CMB. This framework is unique in its direct use of information from the
achieved performance of current Stage 2--3 CMB experiments to robustly forecast
the science reach of upcoming CMB-polarization endeavors. The methodology
allows for rapid iteration over experimental configurations and offers a
flexible way to optimize the design of future experiments given a desired
scientific goal. To form a closed-loop process, we couple this semi-analytic
tool with map-based validation studies, which allow for the injection of
additional complexity and verification of our forecasts with several
independent analysis methods. We document multiple rounds of forecasts for
CMB-S4 using this process and the resulting establishment of the current
reference design of the primordial gravitational-wave component of the Stage-4
experiment, optimized to achieve our science goals of detecting primordial
gravitational waves for at greater than , or, in the
absence of a detection, of reaching an upper limit of at CL.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures, 9 tables, submitted to ApJ. arXiv admin note:
text overlap with arXiv:1907.0447
CMB-S4: Forecasting Constraints on Primordial Gravitational Waves
Abstract: CMB-S4âthe next-generation ground-based cosmic microwave background (CMB) experimentâis set to significantly advance the sensitivity of CMB measurements and enhance our understanding of the origin and evolution of the universe. Among the science cases pursued with CMB-S4, the quest for detecting primordial gravitational waves is a central driver of the experimental design. This work details the development of a forecasting framework that includes a power-spectrum-based semianalytic projection tool, targeted explicitly toward optimizing constraints on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, r, in the presence of Galactic foregrounds and gravitational lensing of the CMB. This framework is unique in its direct use of information from the achieved performance of current Stage 2â3 CMB experiments to robustly forecast the science reach of upcoming CMB-polarization endeavors. The methodology allows for rapid iteration over experimental configurations and offers a flexible way to optimize the design of future experiments, given a desired scientific goal. To form a closed-loop process, we couple this semianalytic tool with map-based validation studies, which allow for the injection of additional complexity and verification of our forecasts with several independent analysis methods. We document multiple rounds of forecasts for CMB-S4 using this process and the resulting establishment of the current reference design of the primordial gravitational-wave component of the Stage-4 experiment, optimized to achieve our science goals of detecting primordial gravitational waves for r > 0.003 at greater than 5Ï, or in the absence of a detection, of reaching an upper limit of r < 0.001 at 95% CL
Feedstock Crop Production Costs and Biofuel Feedstock Input Costs Associated with the Production of Energy Cane and Sweet Sorghum in the Southeastern USA
© 2017, The Author(s). Concentration of biofuel feedstock crop production in specific regions of the USA is dependent on the relative comparative advantage of production in a specific region based on several agronomic and economic factors. For the southeastern region of the USA, energy cane and sweet sorghum have been identified as two feedstock crops with the greatest potential for further development of production. This study utilized field trial data from yield studies in Louisiana to develop estimates of feedstock crop production costs and biofuel feedstock input costs for these two crops. Results indicated that feedstock production costs on a harvest yield basis, as well as the related dry matter basis, were heavily dependent on yield level. Economic research from this study indicated that energy cane had a slight cost advantage compared with sweet sorghum, although production of sorghum in certain periods during the growing season was very cost competitive with energy cane