· · · Institutional Repository

In recent years the oil price increased to levels never seen before. This thesis attempts to identify the factors responsible for this enormous rise in prices. In this thesis the following research question is posed: ‘Can oil price movements be predicted one quarter or a year ahead, on the basis of economic factors and production and inventory levels?’ Through arguments given in literature many potential factors that might influence the oil price are identified. These factors influence the demand side of oil or the supply side. Because the identified factors are mostly qualitative in nature, proxies needed to be found for these factors. With these proxies the factors were made quantitative. With a statistical approach called ‘stepwise regression’ two models were constructed. A yearly model was formed. It turned out that the most relevant factor for movements in the oil price was the pressure of the economic development of the emerging and developing economies. Statistically, the surge in oil prices can be explained primarily through the growth of the emerging and developing economies. Because the data of the emerging and developing countries is only available on a yearly basis, another proxy was introduced for the emerging and developing economies to construct a model on a quarterly basis. The GDP of Mexico excluding oil revenues is taken as a proxy. The stepwise regression showed that on a quarterly basis the GDP of Mexico excluding oil revenues statistically accounted best, of all factors taken as input, for the oil price movements. The above leads to the conclusion that the enormous growth of the emerging and developing economies put so much pressure on the demand side, that prices rose to the never before seen levels. The models (and the underlying variables) introduced in this research, give insight in important drivers of the oil price. With this knowledge, future oil price movements might be foreseen.

Africa is the largest producer of raw cashew nuts: more than a third of the world production is produced in Africa, but cashew processing in Africa is marginal and fluctuating. In the 70s Mozambique was the second largest cashew processing country, after India, but currently only African exports of processed cashew kernels account for a mere 4% of all cashew exports; Brazil, India and Vietnam are the largest processed cashew exporters. This research intends to support cashew processors in the African countries. The objective of this research is to identify bottlenecks for cashew processing in Africa and support African cashew processors in their quality management effort to strengthen their market position. The bottlenecks are identified by analysing the value chain, the institutions in this chain and the quality management at the cashew processors. The value chain is described along the global value chain framework of Gereffi, Humphrey, & Sturgeon (2005), who describe value chains as supplier or buyer driven. As the cashew value chain is trader driven (Gibbon, 2001), the framework is adapted. The main bottleneck identified in the value chain is that African countries miss a lot of value because only the production phase is represented significantly in the African countries. Cashew processing is fragmented and thus cannot maintain their market position. The four layer model of Koppenjan and Groenewegen (2005) is used as a framework to analyse the institutional environment. The four layer model categorises institutions in four layers: actors, arrangements, formal rules and informal rules. The bottleneck in the institutional environment is that African cashew processors need to fulfil food safety standards (such as the standard of the British Retail Consortium) and social working conditions standard (such as the Social Accountability 8000) to strengthen their market position. If the cashew processors do not fulfil the quality standards, they are likely to lose buyers in Europe and the US. The Food quality management functions model is developed by Luning and Marcelis (2007) to identify functions that contribute to the realization of food quality. This model is applied to cashew processors to identify bottlenecks in their quality management. Cashew processors need to develop a food quality management system themselves to fulfil the BRC requirements. This requires extensive knowledge on hygiene and quality management, which is currently not available at cashew processors. The cashew processors need quality management support to fulfil quality requirements such as the BRC food standard. In western countries often support is given in the form of a quality management manual, provided by the government, or by company headquarters, but these are largely absent in Africa. The quality management support is therefore given the form of a quality manual. A Cashew quality manual is developed to support African cashew processors. The goal of the Cashew quality manual is two-fold: to support cashew processors to gain certification and to improve quality. The current Cashew quality manual is designed in compliance with the BRC standard on food safety and the SA8000 standard for social working conditions, but in time other standards can be added. An implementation plan is composed that explains how the manual should be implemented. In this plan attention is given to adapting the manual to practice, training the employees and management, implementing all procedures, checking the company and improving the company based on the results of the check. The Cashew quality manual enables the cashew processors to cooperate more intensely with each other and traders because standardized policies and procedures permit easier communication. In this way the African cashew processors move from a captive relation with the processed cashew trader to relational governance.

Pyrolysis is an important step in the thermal conversion of biomass. During this study, the influence of temperature, heating rate and holding time on fast pyrolysis volatile product yields were investigated. The focus was mainly on the precursors of NOx (NH3, HCN and HNCO), since most biomass contains a considerable amount of nitrogen and the knowledge on the formation of the NOx precursors in biomass is limited. The studied types of biomass are dry distillers grain with solubles (DDGS) and palm kernel cake (PKC). For this purpose, a heated grid reactor was used, that was designed and used before in the work of Gianluca Di Nola. Because of the limited means to determine the temperature within the reactor and possible differences between the measured and actual temperature, a CFD model of the reactor was made.

Optimization is the mathematical process through which the set of conditions is obtained that produces the maximum or minimum value of a specified function. To solve different types of optimization problems several algorithms has been developed. They can be globally distinguished as deterministic or stochastic algorithms. Further on deterministic and stochastic methods can be divided in gradient based and derivative-free methods, simulated annealing and evolutionary algorithms respectively. Optimization methods mentioned above are used in many fields including engineering. This thesis is dedicated to the optimization of the design of a radial compressor using an optimization algorithm.

Experimental study towards selective catalytic conversion of raw synthesis gas.

Process technology is in development for the long term. This thesis presents an agent concept, part of an agent-based model, specified to the conceptual level, that deals with technical complexity of process technology, and can help to assess the economic value of combinations of connected process technology.

Simulations were performed concerning pf-combustion of biomass, coal and blends. The focus was on the fated alkali species; a novel reaction scheme was inplemented in the software package chemkin. Trends in the flue gas cooling path were predicted.

This research forms a basis for the process of quantifying and simulating the reactions occurring within a Solid Oxide Fuel-Assisted Electrolysis Cell and the results emanating from it. This relatively new alternative application within the known SOFC is a subject of great interest. Initial laboratory tests predict it's highly efficient hydrogen production ability. A summation of previous works will be followed by a detailed explanation of the theory behind the SOFEC. In the whole report, comparisons will constantly be made with a SOFC, in an attempt to better understand the processes involved. This theoretical knowledge is expanded with a mathematical description of the internal processes involving the cell voltage, current density, resistance and voltage drop. These variables are linked together through a single equation. Based on the known SOFC equation, a SOFEC variant is proposed. This is done by breaking down the steps performed within Cycle Tempo. These are analyzed individually, an alterations are made. Afterwards, the actual programming code is analyzed, and all alterations are summarized. They are changed according to the proposed theory. With a working program, the results are finally analyzed and compared to the theory. This is followed by a chapter covering explaining the basics of the hydrogen economy. The advantages and problems occurring from this are summarized and a possible future implementation of the SOFEC is given. The report end with a conclusion and recommendations.

Green metropolis is a pioneering European project for extensive tri-national collaboration between the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Its starting point is to develop a sustainable future for the post-industry area. As one of the major tasks in the project, to explore possibilities for new energy has been taken into consideration, which makes the area as a test field for the graduation lab of energy landscape. South Limburg is the Dutch part in region of Green metropolis which gathers all of the mining sites in Netherlands. As the central part of ‘ParkStad’ in South Limburg, Heerlen is a city developed on the basis of mining industry which has witnessed the prosperity and decline of the Dutch mining industry. The city is going through a depression since the mining industry was over. The project aims at reactivating the post-industrial city with an approach of landscape, which deals with both of recalling the old energy landscape as identity of the city and creating new energy landscape. To achieve this goal, the infrastructure lines will be used as a design instrument not only to invite people to perceive the new landscape, but also to work as the new structure for urban development. Thus, new life will be injected to the city with a new green heart transformed from an integration of the post-industrial sites, existing landscape and shrinking area.

Green metropolis is a pioneering European project for extensive tri-national collaboration between the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Its starting point is to develop a sustainable future for the post-industry area. As one of the major tasks in the project, to explore possibilities for new energy has been taken into consideration, which makes the area as a test field for the graduation lab of energy landscape. South Limburg is the Dutch part in region of Green metropolis which gathers all of the mining sites in Netherlands. As the central part of ‘ParkStad’ in South Limburg, Heerlen is a city developed on the basis of mining industry which has witnessed the prosperity and decline of the Dutch mining industry. The city is going through a depression since the mining industry was over. The project aims at reactivating the post-industrial city with an approach of landscape, which deals with both of recalling the old energy landscape as identity of the city and creating new energy landscape. To achieve this goal, the infrastructure lines will be used as a design instrument not only to invite people to perceive the new landscape, but also to work as the new structure for urban development. Thus, new life will be injected to the city with a new green heart transformed from an integration of the post-industrial sites, existing landscape and shrinking area.

Julia Kasmire is writing her PhD dissertation on technology transitions in the Westland greenhouse area. She is looking whether Universal Darwinism (UD) can explain these processes and could lead to could policy recommendations. As a prelude to her research this report focuses on, the less ground braking, technology diffusion in the Westland greenhouse area. UD is not taking as a point of departure to be able test without prejudice whether the concept holds. In this report an answer is given to the following main research question: How does a technology diffuse through a network of greenhouse farmers in the Westland and which factors are important to this process? This is done by answering three sub questions. The first sub question is the following: What methodological individualistic framework on technology diffusion in the Westland can be developed? To answer this question first an overview is given of the literature on technology diffusion from which a preliminary framework is constructed. Central in this framework are the decision individual greenhouse farmers make. Based on their own characteristics, the characteristics of the environment and the available information on the characteristics of technologies decisions are made. This framework has been taken as a point of departure for an interview with a greenhouse farmer and subsequently questionnaires were sent to other greenhouse farmers. After this the framework was enriched with the information retrieved from the interview and the questionnaires. Important results were the fact that greenhouse farmers may be considered boundedly rational, that they value information from peers quite high and that an innovativeness/risk attitude is a differentiating characteristic. How can technology diffusion in the Westland be modeled? For the second research question an Agent Based Model (ABM) was developed. The model combines the physical and social layers of technology adoption. In the physical layer technologies are acquired and used as well as products are sold. In the social layer agents communicate about their satisfaction of their currently owned technologies. Because the agents are heterogeneous and they can only communicate about sets of technologies (not the individual benefit of one technology), they send limited information. Depending on the characteristics of the technologies the model behavior may result in technology diffusion. This has been discussed when answering the last research question: Which factors are important to technology diffusion in the Westland? Four experiments with the ABM have been performed and discussed. The first two experiments show that, at standard settings, technology diffusion does occur for technologies that are beneficial for all companies. The second experiment shows that having a high percentage of innovators (10-20%) is slowing diffusion down at first but leads to higher diffusion rates in the long run. Valuing the opinion of peers highly leads to high diffusion rates in the short run but is not the best strategy in the long (when self obtained knowledge is the most valuable). The fourth experiment shows that talking to many peers is beneficial for overall diffusion but that this effect diminishes with an increasing number of peers with who is communicated. A general important conclusion for the third sub question is that time is a very important variable in technology diffusion. The characteristics of the greenhouse farmers have different effects at different times and this research cannot tell at which point in time one should look exactly.

Newly build buildings in the Netherlands are quite sustainable but are currently less that 5% of the total amount of buildings. Cooperative building societies are getting requirements from the European Union which they have to meet in a few years (Action Plan for Energy Efficiency: Realising the Potential). The target is to reduce the current energy consumption (heating and electricity) of buildings with 20% in 2020.The hypothesis is that with the correctly selected type of heat pump, with or without the combination with a CHP in the right proportions, a heating unit configuration exists with which mid to high temperature heating can be achieved in existing apartment buildings in the Netherlands, in a sustainable and cost effective way. Three heat pumps types were highlighted and explained, the Vapor Compression Heat Pump (VCHP), the Gas Absorption Heat Pump (GAHP) and the Compression Absorption Heat Pump (CAHP). Based on the yearly average temperature and the required temperature gain for the central heating water, the CAHP was the most economical option according to data from literature. The CAHP was investigated in more detail. When the heat pump was only able to deliver 336 kWth, the best investment and annual savings relation was obtained. With this configuration the heat pump is able to fully cover the 30-50ºC temperature range only. At higher required temperature ranges the heat pump would only deliver a part (336 kWth) of the total heating demand, up to 400 kWth would be delivered by a CHP and the remaining heating demand would be provided by conventional boilers. Despite that the Net Present Value (NPV) for the CAHP is 13% higher than the NPV for VCHP configuration, the latter is preferred. Since the CAHP is a rather new technology entering the market, more research is required in order to decrease the involved risk and uncertainties of the system.

Wet cycle microturbines Microturbines can be bought from various manufacturers nowadays as a part of combined heat and power (CHP) systems. Although the overall (electrical & heat) efficiency of these systems is quite high, the electrical efficiency is still a lot lower than what can be achieved with today’s piston engines. A possible way to increase the electrical efficiency could be to use a part of the waste heat from the microturbine to generate steam. This steam is subsequently injected back into the microturbine’s combustion chamber. The accompanying rise in mass flow and specific heat of the flue gas entering the turbine leads to a rise in power output and efficiency. A microturbine operating under these conditions is said to be in ‘wet cycle operation’. The goal of the present project is to investigate the effects of wet cycle operation on the performance of a 100 kWe microturbine-based combined heat and power system.

The hereby thesis research has been developed within the Graduation Studio “Energy Landscapes”. The Graduation Studio aimed to be a research-by-design investigation into the spatial implications of the energy issue. The objective was to guide thesis projects that could offer new sustainable energy landscapes, visualized in a combination of schemes, maps and designs .Rotterdam region was chosen, a method to understand how to analyse and design city’s public spaces as people gatherer was researched. In a second phase the energy issue came back, as a top layer, introducing a second methodology to analyse the city from an energy point of view. The target of this research was the design of a public space which could influence people energy awareness by making them participants through it by introducing the use of natural energy sources in public space design.

Sustainable performance, with the impact on climate change as the most prevalent indicator, is becoming more important to businesses. DSM, as front runner sustainable performance, formulated the objective of carbon neutral production sites. In this thesis, it was researched how the carbon footprint of a production site of DSM can be reduced to zero; reaching a state of carbon neutrality. The carbon footprint concept and how it relates to a production site has been researched. A case study was done at a production site of DSM and emission sources that determine the carbon footprint of that site were identified. From this the focus was narrowed to achieving a carbon neutral energy supply. It was investigated what energy supply technologies could be applied and what steps needs to be taken to achieve this.

There is a growing desire for sustainable design, both with firms and their clients in the built environment. However sustainability is not always integrated into designs in the same uniform manner, or at the same level. Barriers and carriers exist that influence the design and its level of sustainability for consulting engineering firms. Research into the organisational structure, project properties, design processes, knowledge management and sustainability properties, both in literature and in a case study, provide possible barriers and carries for the integration of sustainability in designs. The barriers that were found are: A new methodology cannot be implemented top-down with professional employees. Multiple actors in the design each influence the final product. The design process itself is unstructured and hard to oversee and there is no time available that allows designers to improve designs. Carriers are: There is much skill present in the field of expertise and with the designers. Integrated design can lead to more efficiency and there is a noticeable drive to increase sustainability. Improvements can be found in setting up example projects, in including sustainability as main goal for the firm and by including the construction and use phase in the design process.

Gas hubs have emerged in Europe after the liberalisation of the gas market and they are increasingly becoming more important. But the questions rises of what really constitutes a gas hub. Different perspectives in the view on gas hubs were observed among actors in the gas market. This thesis identified four perspectives: (1) A top-down perspective of the European Commission (DG Energy and DG Competition) who view gas hubs as economic nodes in the European network that facilitate spot, financial and transportation markets. (2) A bottom-up perspective of the users of gas hubs. The hub operator develops a variety of services and facilitates trading platforms with which hub users are offered a new way of doing business. (3) A regulatory design perspective of the regulatory authorities who view gas hubs as virtual balancing points in the network. And (4) a cluster perspective where hubs are viewed as places where economic value and employment is created.