Uncertain and unstable policy support has often been claimed to be a major cause of the slower than expected deployment technologies for production advanced biofuels. We investigate economic rationale this claim by applying real options framework incorporating uncertainties regarding energy prices, investment costs, prevalence support, in terms an per produced unit biofuel depending on greenhou...

a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Pd nanowires Nonenzymatic and enzymatic bioelectrocatalysis Glucose oxidase Biofuel cells Bioelectrocatalysis was demonstrated with palladium (Pd) nanowire array electrode via nonenzymatic and en-zymatic methods for glucose, which was validated by the generation of anodic current in the presence of glucose. The vertically standing Pd nanowires used for the fabric...

Due to the successful use of the Saccharoflex 2000 reflectance measurement instrument on the estimation of refined sugar colour elsewhere in the world, it was decided by Tongaat-Hulett Sugar to evaluate the instrument at the refinery in Durban. Tests were carried out on first, second, third and fourth refined sugars, the results of which showed a good correlation between the ICUMSA colour measu...

This study examined the impact of Human Resource (HR) practices (selection, training, compensation, and appraisal) and participation on the financial performance of U.S. petrochemical refineries. Survey results from HR and Operations respondents indicated that appraisal and training were significantly related to workforce skills and that training and compensation were marginally related to work...

We present a methodology for automatic corrosion detection in digital images of carbon steel storage tanks and pipelines from a petroleum refinery. The database consists of optical digital images taken from equipments exposed to marine atmosphere during their operational life. This new approach focuses on color and texture descriptors to accomplish corroded and noncorroded surface area discrimi...

We present the prototype omVR, which is a Virtual Reality based safety training system in a petroleum refinery. It provides an advanced technique for personnel safety training and allows users to navigate through the training setup and interact with parts of the refinery. By using a head mounted display a high degree of immersion is achieved. omVR is the implementation of a training scenario, w...

The current study evaluates the performance of a pilot scale fed batch reactor (FBR), fo llowed by coagulation and sand filtration, for the treatment of an oil refinery wastewater. The total reductions in COD, BOD, oil contents and phenol were 95.11%, 94.30%, 99.47% and 100%, respectively, with FBR followed by coagulation and sand filtration. This FBR-coagulation-sand filtration treatment syste...

Due to the benefits reported on the use of continuous centrifugals in refineries elsewhere in the world, it was decided by Tongaat-Hulett Sugar Ltd to evaluate the Schultz, Tait and Greig (STG) continuous centrifugal at their sugar refinery in Durban, South Africa. This paper deals with the installation, commissioning and evaluation of the continuous centrifugal. Results of tests done on first ...

Traditional optimization of production system and utility system is carried out separately which cannot ensure that the entire refinery system is optimized globally. In this paper, a novel integrated approach is proposed to optimize process production planning and utility system operation simultaneously. A refinery-wide mixed integer nonlinear programming model is proposed and the traditional m...

Engineering microorganisms to produce biofuels is currently among the most promising strategies in renewable energy. However, harvesting these organisms for extracting biofuels is energy- and cost-intensive, limiting the commercial feasibility of large-scale production. Here, we demonstrate the use of a class of transport proteins of pharmacological interest to circumvent the need to harvest bi...