Locating a Biorefinery in Northern Spain: Decision Making and Economic Consequences

Biofuels are emerging as a prominent renewable and sustainable energy sources in developed countries. In this sense, this paper presents a case study in which a biorefinery has to be sited in Northern Spain. Thus, the strategic decision of locating such a facility is deeply investigated through strategic policy evaluation. Then, tactical decisions ranging from purchasing and transportation policies to storage protocols are carried out. Only local and limited biomass can be harvested for supplying the biorefinery through a heterogeneous vehicle fleet. Moreover two different and mutually exclusive storage strategies are evaluated: direct supply from crops to biorefinery and using intermediate-collectors. Additionally, crop exploitation factors and biorefinery sizes are used to generate several scenarios in which the strategic decision of location as well as all the tactic decisions are made. Some mixed integer linear programming models are proposed to figure out all relevant decision problems.The results suggest that the Northwest study area as the best option to locate the biorefinery and recommend the intermediate-collector storage strategy. Moreover, the key information about critical biomass, crops and times are also provided.     

Environmental performance and plant closure

This study uses a sample of plant closings as the testing stage to examine the financial consequences of variant environmental performance records and stakeholder pressure levels. It compares 117 manufacturing facilities closing down between 1998 and 2000 to 351 facilities surviving through this period, along four measures of environmental performance. It shows that in the ten years prior to closure, closing facilities reduce their toxics emissions relatively more and incur somewhat stronger community and regulatory pressures than surviving ones. The results persist through alternative versions of the model and suggest that the environmental performance of closing facilities is at least as good as that of surviving ones. The mix of environmental practices of closing facilities differs from that of surviving ones with the former engaging in significantly less recycling of waste than the latter. Closing facilities focus more on end-of-pipe measures while surviving ones engage in more pro-active strategies, consistent with evidence in the literature of a positive relation between pro-active environmental practices and performance. Stakeholder pressures, in some cases (e.g., in pollution intensive industries), may be associated with unrecoverable costs to facilities, including closure, depending on the environmental management choices of the facilities.     

水电建设对地方经济发展影响实证研究——以云南省永善县溪洛渡水电站为例

基于溪洛渡水电站投资和云南省永善县经济发展数据,采用Granger因果关系检验方法分析水电建设对地区GDP、社会消费和居民收入的影响。研究结果表明,溪洛渡水电站建设投资对永善县GDP、社会消费品零售额和城镇居民人均可支配收入增长具有显著推动作用,但对永善县农民人均收入增长的作用不显著。地方政府应加大转移支付力度,以水电开发建设为契机推动农村基础设施建设和城镇化进程,将水电开发收益惠及更多人群。     

Public and private roles in plant health management

World-wide, government institutions play an important role in the management of plant health. This paper develops a conceptual framework in which suppliers and demanders jointly determine the optimal level of plant health in a hypothetical market. Next this paper argues that this market falls short of reaching an optimal plant health situation due to the public good nature of plant health and due to the presence of asymmetric information. A range of commonly applied and novel solutions to this market failure are then discussed.     

电力建设项目的质量成本管理研究——以A电厂建设项目为例

以项目质量成本管理理论为依据,结合A电厂工程项目施工的质量成本管理现状,分析了A电厂工程项目在现场安装质量成本管理过程存在的问题,提出了电力建设质量成本管理的理念,总结提出了具体且可操作的质量成本管理对策以及相关问题的运作思路,以此为基础提出电力建设质量成本管理的途径和方法。同时,为其他电力企业加强质量成本管理提供借鉴。     

我国能效电厂建设试点分析

介绍了能效电厂的概念,对广东、江苏等省份开展能效电厂试点建设的现状、组织管理体系、融资模式、激励政策以及实施效果等进行了分析,深入剖析了我国能效电厂试点过程中存在的主要问题,最后从政府和电网企业2个层面提出了促进我国能效电厂建设的有关建议。     

植物检验检疫学教学改革的实践探索

从现代社会对人才素质的需要出发,根据植物检验检疫学课程的特点,进行了如下教学改革：在讲授过程中,注重教材的合理选择,贯彻启发式原则,运用讲授法、类比法等教学方法,布置撰写课程论文;实验环节,优化实验指导,进行电化教学,有机地结合虚拟实验与实际实验,调动学生学习的主动性。     

Foreign Acquisition,Domestic Acquisition and Plant Survival

The literature has postulated that foreign capital participation (through mergers and acquisitions) is associated with more advanced technologies being injected into the acquired targets, and thus it might be reasonable to assume that foreign acquisitions would generate larger effects than domestic acquisitions to the acquired targets. This paper contributes to the discussion by examining the effects of foreign acquisitions versus domestic acquisitions on plant survival to both born-domestic and born-foreign plants. Using 26 cohorts of plants born in Canada between 1973 and 1998, the paper finds that both foreign acquisitions and domestic acquisitions significantly increase life durations of born-domestic plants, although domestic acquisitions generate larger effects. For born-foreign plants, neither foreign acquisitions nor domestic acquisitions significantly change their life span.     

水轮发电机推力油槽油位下降的原因分析与处理

2009年末,大唐碧口水力发电厂3号水轮发电机组在运行的一周内出现三次推力油槽油位下降的现象,给机组的正常运行构成了极大的威胁,同时也增加了大量的维护成本。经过对可能造成推力油槽油位下降多种原因进行分析论证,最终确认导致的推力油槽油位下降的原因为推力轴承油冷却器渗漏。在秋检时对3号机10台推力轴承油冷却器进行打压试验,发现4号油冷却器存在渗漏现象,将4号冷却器进行了整体更换后回装,机组运行至今再未发生推力油槽油位下降的现象。     

Valuing climate protection through willingness to pay for biomass ethanol

This study uses a multi-part, split-sample contingent valuation method (CVM) and fair share (FS) survey to better understand the public's valuation of mitigating global climate change through its willingness to pay for biomass or “cellulosic” ethanol. In addition to a basic CVM question, a related scenario was developed that asked half of the survey respondents to state their fair share cost to lessen a potential food shortage in the next decade, also through the expanded use of cellulosic ethanol. Three alternative biomass feedstocks were assessed: farming residues, forestry residues and paper mill wastes, and municipal solid wastes. Overall a slightly larger proportion of respondents were WTP extra for cellulosic ethanol in the basic CVM scenario than in the FS scenario, though no significant differences were found in the WTP for the different feedstocks. Bid curve lognormal regression results for the two models were similar, supporting the idea that asking a FS rather than a conventional WTP question may be justifiable in some circumstances, such as in cases of a national emergency.