World markets for conventional and advanced biofuels over the next five years

Production of transport biofuels grew by just 2% in 2017. To achieve the 2030 SDS target, use of biofuels needs to triple, driven by cost reductions of advanced biofuels, widespread sustainability governance and more adoption in aviation and marine transport. This presentation provides an overview of the market prospects for conventional biofuels over the next five years. It would analyse the current status of deployment and costs for novel advanced biofuels. It would also draw comparisons with electric cars, the extent of their renewable electricity utilisation and decarbonisation potential. It would include the contribution of renewables to road transport demand over the next 5 years and focus on the main biofuels available to decarbonise road freight, now and in the long term. Finally, it will present a case study from India, focusing on ethanol-based chemicals

DO HIGHLY COMPENSATED PARTICIPANTS INFLUENCE THE MANAGEMENT OF QUALIFIED PENSION PLANS?

This paper presents evidence of favorable management of qualified pension plans with large proportion of highly compensated employees. Defined-benefit pension plans that are dominated by highly compensated employees tend to contribute beyond the minimum amount required under Internal Revenue Code (flow effect) resulting in overfunded plans (stock effect) and then use aggressive actuarial assumptions to disguise the overfunding to avoid visibility costs (reporting effect). This favored treatment is less likely when the sponsoring firm has an active labor union (monitoring effect). These actions contradict the provisions under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and the Internal Revenue Code, which prohibit favorable treatment for highly compensated employees.Defined-Benefit Pension plans; highly compensated employees; funding; actuarial assumptions

Waste Heat Recovery in Food and Drinks Industry (Abstract only)

Most baking processes in the food manufacturing sector involve use of gas-fired ovens. Only about one-third of the total energy used in these ovens adds value to the final product. The remaining two-thirds is discharged with the exhaust gases at 150-250o C and thus represents an opportunity for heat recovery. However, the low temperature range, fouling and presence of corrosive materials in the exhaust streams make heat recovery technically challenging and uneconomical. The existing low grade heat recovery technolgies mostly use gas to liquid heat transfer to produce hot water for use in other areas of the manufacturing plant. The performance of these systems is governed by hot water demand in the factory and is therefore not recommended if there are frequent fluctuations in demand or if a more efficient technology, such as combined heat and power, is already in place. This study involves design, manufacturing and testing of a novel low-temperature gas to gas heat recovery system using an array of heat pipe heat exchangers, for industrial-scale baking ovens at a large confectionary manufacturing plant. Unlike gas to liquid heat transfer, a gas to gas heat transfer system provides direct savings in oven fuel consumption, independent of the hot water and other energy demands elsewhere in the plant. The heat recovery potential of the system is estimated using a thermodynamic model developed based on energy and mass balance for the ovens. The design enables recovery of up to 50% of the energy available through the exhaust stack, increasing the energy efficiency of the overall process to 60% and reducing food manufacturing costs by one third

Review of Waste Heat Utilisation from Data Centres

Rapidly increasing global internet traffic, mobile internet users and the number of Internet of Things (IoT) connections are driving exponential growth in demand for data centre and network services, which in turn is driving their electricity demand. Data centres now account for 3% of global electricity consumption and contribute to 4% of the global greenhouse gas emissions. This study discusses the potential of reusing the waste heat from data centres. An overview of imbedding heat recovery systems into data centres is presented. The implications of economic cost and energy efficient heat recovery systems in data centre buildings are also discussed. The main problems with implementing heat recovery systems in existing data centre designs are (i) high capital costs of investment and (ii) low temperatures of the waste heat. This study suggests alternatives that could allow data centre operators to utilise waste heat with more efficiencies. It also discusses how liquid-cooled data centres can be more efficient in utilising their waste heat than the air-cooled ones. One possible solution suggested here is that data centre operators can decrease their environmental impact by exporting waste heat to the external heat networks. The barriers in connecting datacentres to heat networks are discussed and suggestions to overcome those barriers have been provided

DETERMINANTS OF OUTSIDE DIRECTOR TURNOVER

In this paper we provide evidence that independent director turnover is influenced by a series of economic factors. Directors, both independent and insider, are less likely to leave if they are paid well or if the firm has a director pension plan. They are also more likely to leave when the firm is performing poorly or when they expect it to perform poorly. They are more likely to leave when the firm is riskier, but are less likely to leave when they chair certain committees such as the audit and compensation committee, which may bring them more prestige, or perhaps an additional stipend. Differentially, the association between turnover and firm performance is weaker for inside directors. This is consistent with inside directors’ response to reputation concerns being lower than that of independent directors due to the bonding and compensation effects.Director turnover, economic factors

BIOTRANSFORMATION OF PROGESTERONE TO 17Α-HYDROXYPROGESTERONE BY USING PLANT CELL SUSPENSION CULTURE OF CATHARANTHUS ROSEUS

Objective: The present investigation was aimed to perform biotransformation potential of Catharanthus roseus.Methods: Cell suspension culture of C. roseus were prepared by using Murashige and Skoog medium. Biotransformation of an important bioactive progesterone (4-pregnane-3, 20-dione) was confirmed by cell suspension culture of Catharanthus roseus.Results: Progesterone, which was used as precursor in cell suspension culture, was found to be bio transformed within three days into a new product through a regioselective hydroxylation process. The results confirmed that most of the progesterone added, was hydroxylated at its 17α-position leading to 17α-hydroxyprogesterone as a major biotransformation product after twelve days of incubation with 20% v/v cell density. The optimum biotransformation was achieved with the concentration of 100μg/ml progesterone at pH 5.5. Similarly, glucose was found as the most suitable source of carbon. The optimum incubation time was observed to be 12 days at 20% v/v cell density. Also higher progesterone biotransformation was observed using un immobilized cells as compared to immobilized cells.Conclusion: The results of present work suggest that C. roseus can successfully biotransformed to the product similar to an original organic substrate, which is entirely synthetic. Such a biotechnological process could be of great interest for production of new chemical compounds like cortisone, hydroxycortisone and other important steroids.Â

DIFFERENTIAL CHANGES IN THE VALUE-RELEVANCE OF EARNINGS AND BOOK VALUES OVER TIME: FINANCIAL VERSUS OTHER INDUSTRIES

We investigate the change in the value-relevance of earnings and book value information in the financial industry compared to other industries from 1970 to 2005. Prior literature provides mixed evidence as to whether value-relevance reduces over time. Using Ohlson’s model, we find increasing value-relevance for earnings and book value for the financial and other industries. However, the increasing trend is less evident for financial firms. More importantly, we document that the slower growth trend for the financial industry improves compared to other industries after firms adopt SFAS 133 (as amended by SFAS 137 and 138) in 2001. Financial institutions typically hold more derivative instruments and hedging portfolios than other industries. Our results are thus consistent with the view that SFAS 133 may help financial institutions improve the value-relevance of accounting information. Our results have implication for policy makers when they evaluate the benefit of SFAS 133.Value-relevance; accounting information; comparative change; SFAS 133; financial industry; non-financial industry.

AUDIT FIRM REPUTATION, AUDITOR SWITCHES, AND CLIENT STOCK PRICE REACTIONS: THE ANDERSEN EXPERIENCE

The financial scandal surrounding the collapse of Enron caused erosion in the reputation of its auditor, Andersen, leading to concerns about Andersen’s ability to continue in existence and ultimately its demise. In this paper we investigate the timing of switch by former Andersen’s clients. We find that the timing of the switch is related to variables hypothesized to be associated with the cost of switch. Specifically these are client size, auditor industry specialization, provision of non-audit services, auditor tenure, quality of earnings and financial distress In addition we find that clients with the greatest market losses attributable to disclosures pertaining to Andersen’s audit of Enron, and strongest corporate governance were more likely to switch early, while those with the strongest ties to Andersen were more likely to delay switching. We also find that clients switching from Andersen experienced positive abnormal returns during the three-day window surrounding the announcement. Importantly we find this positive return to be greater for clients with greater prior losses.Auditor Reputation, Auditor Change, Arthur Andersen, Enron