Lignocellulosic Ethanol: The Path to Market

The cost effective production of transport fuels from biomass is essential if the EU aspiration to substitute 10% of transport fuels with sustainable alternatives by 2020 is to be met. The hope, voiced by the Parliament’s Industry and Energy Committee, is that at least 40% of the 2020 target will come from second-generation biofuels, and therein lies the challenge: second-generation conversion technologies are not yet commercial. Multiple pathways are being investigated around the globe, but dominant pathways have yet to emerge and business models have yet to be proven. Nevertheless, expectations are running high and there has been significant investment in R&D in the US, Europe and Asia. The production of ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass is commercially and environmentally one of the most promising options, and in 2007 the US Department of Energy (DOE) provided more than US$1 billion toward lignocellulosic ethanol (LE) projects. Their goal was to make the fuel cost competitive at$1.33 per gallon, when deployed at scale, by 2012. The majority of studies also suggest that LE will result in superior greenhouse gas savings compared to ethanol produced from starch. Despite favourable predictions for cost and environmental performance, market deployment requires practical and plausible development paths that are able to support progress from existing small-scale demonstration plant to large industrial installations. Moreover, these development paths must be sufficiently attractive to persuade developers and investors that lignocellulosic ethanol remains an opportunity worth pursuing

Office Rent Determinants during Market Decline and Recovery

This article empirically examines office rent determinants in distinct periods of a market cycle. The study uses a dataset of office properties located in a large metropolitan area and spanning a six-year period. During this period, office rents experienced a significant decline and recovery. A time-varying parameter rent index identifies three distinct periods of the cycle: decline, trough and recovery. Tests of structural change conclude that market participants value the determinants of office rents differently during the periods. A microexamination of each rent determinant over the periods of the market cycle provides a greater understanding of how rents vary over time and the factors that influence them.

Prioritising the best use of biomass resources: conceptualising trade-offs

02.09.13 KB. Ok to add report to Spiral. Authors hold copyrightUsing biomass to provide energy services is one of the most versatile options for increasing the proportion of renewable energy in the existing system. This report reviews metrics used to compare alternative bio-energy pathways and identifies limitations inherent in the way that they are calculated and interpreted. It also looks at how companies and investors approach strategic decisions in the bio-energy area. Bio-energy pathways have has physical and economic attributes that can be measured or modelled. These include: the capital cost, operating cost, emissions to air, land and water. Conceptually, comparing alternative pathways is as simple as selecting the attributes and metrics you consider to be most important and ranking the alternative pathways accordingly. At an abstract level there is good agreement about which features of bio-energy pathways are desirable, but there is little agreement about which performance metrics best capture all the relevant information about a bio-energy pathway. Between studies there is also a great deal of variation and this impedes comparison. Common metrics describe energetic performance, economic performance, environmental performance (emissions, land and water use), and social and ecological performance. Compound metrics may be used to integrate multiple attributes but their highly aggregate nature may make them difficult to interpret. Insights that may be drawn from the analysis include:

Sale Leaseback Transactions: Price Premiums and Market Efficiency

Sale-leaseback transactions are ubiquitous in real estate markets in the United States with annual volume estimated to be greater than $7 billion. However, there is no evidence concerning the price impact of such transactional arrangements. Using a data set of sale-leaseback transactions, this study examines the price impact on commercial property transactions across seven markets. The findings reveal that transactions structured as saleleasebacks occur at significantly higher prices than market transactions. In addition, after accounting for income differentials, buyers and sellers are appropriately pricing the transactions resulting in no undue advantage to either party, that is, the expected price premium is accounted for in the saleleaseback prices.

Property Taxation of Multifamily Housing: An Empirical Analysis of Vertical and Horizontal Equity and Assessment Methods

This study used the hedonic price technique to focus on a housing characteristic that has been studied infrequently: whether a home is site-built or manufactured. Two hedonic price regression models were used to determine the predictive power of construction type on home price. The ?rst, which controlled for factors found to relate to home prices in previous research, showed a signi?cant difference between the prices of the two types of homes. The second, which also included other variables through a stepwise regression, found that the type of construction had more predictive power than any other explanatory variable in the model.

Evaluation of the Clinimetric Properties of the Upper Limb Subscales of the Motor Assessment Scale Using a Rasch Analysis Model.

OBJECTIVES: To apply Rasch analysis to evaluate the psychometric properties of the composite score of the 3 upper limb subscales of the Motor Assessment Scale (UL-MAS) when administered in the acute/subacute phase post-stroke. DESIGN: Prospective data collection of UL-MAS scores. PARTICIPANTS: Eighty Eighty individuals a mean of 64.8 days (standard deviation 53.3; range 4-193 days) following the onset of unilateral stroke. METHODS: All UL-MAS test items were administered in 30 participants assessed longitudinally over 3 occasions, and in 50 participants assessed on a single occasion. These 140 observations were pooled to be evaluated using Rasch analysis. RESULTS: With the elimination of the wrist radial deviation test item, the UL-MAS demonstrated uni-dimensionality with no significant test item response bias. The test item difficulty hierarchy was validated in the Upper Arm and Hand Movements subscales, but not in the Advanced Hand Activities subscale. The acceptable floor (14%) and ceiling (9%) effects and the high Person Separation Reliability Index (0.96) indicated that the scale was appropriately targeted to discriminate statistically between groups of acute/subacute stroke participants with differing upper limb motor recovery. CONCLUSION: The findings support the psychometric properties of the composite UL-MAS score in this clinical population