Challenges of Track Access Charges Model Redesign

It has been exactly 20 years since the common grounds for the design of track access charges (TAC) were laid for the European railways by the publication of Directive 2001/14/EC. However, these grounds were defined broadly, thus resulting in significant divergence both in the models applied by countries and during the model redesign within one country over the course of time. The participants in the process of charge system redesign includes all stakeholders from a country’s railway sector (infrastructure manager, train operating companies, the ministries responsible for transport, finance and economy, government, and regulatory bodies). Their opinions and requirements are often opposed, and they all need to be acknowledged simultaneously. This paper aims to solve the issue of ensuring continuity in the charge model redesign while achieving a balance between the requirements of all stakeholders. Moreover, it tackles the issue of producing a sustainable long-term TAC model by using survey methods and statistical analysis. The proposed approach was tested in practice during the access charge model redesign for the railways of Montenegro. The results show the importance of continual enhancement in TAC model development as one of the challenges and key precursors for the harmonization of all stakeholders’ requirements.

Unique Underbalanced Perforating Technique Reveals Unexpected Remaining Oil in Shut-In Wells in Libya

The fundamental objective of well perforating is to launch an optimum wellbore to reservoir communication. Unfortunately, not all perforating jobs deliver ideal communication quality. In this paper the rudiments of apposite perforating operations, from data integration and job design to safe implementation, are summarized to produce practical guidelines for high productivity perforating jobs. Reviving oil production in mature fields is a major challenge around the globe. In Libya, there are several mature oil and gas fields that requires production enhancement. In some of these fields the challenge was to come up with a methodology that improves the oil production with minimal well intervention while testing the wells in a much quicker way than the conventional wireline conveyed perforating, well kill, swab, and test techniques. Producing zones in Libyan oil fields have lost productivity over the years due to various activities associated with workover operations. Damage was mainly caused by existence of high salinity formation water and unfiltered brine usage to kill or control the wells. Research has proven that wellbore dynamics have a substantial impact on the success of perforating activities during this very high-paced and short-lived event. We have used a technique that combines the static and the dynamic underbalanced perforating techniques to ultimately improve the hydrocarbon production in such mature fields. Advanced downhole gun and charge system designs and downhole tools are combined to enhance oil production. Debris, scale, and crushed rock removal from the perforation tunnels by applying static underbalanced perforating techniques works very successfully in many cases. Numerous field examples and research have also shown that dynamic underbalance can greatly enhance the tunnel clean up and well productivity. In this paper we are showing that combining static and dynamic underbalanced perforating ensures the optimum perforation tunnel structure. We have applied this technique on numerous wells for the purposes of perforating and re-perforating. Several wells were reperforated to improve the well to reservoir communication quality of existing plugged and damaged perforating zones. In most of the cases new perforating intervals were also added based on production logging and reservoir saturation log results. We have gained extraordinary oil production for several wells. This methodology with improved design increased oil production more than 400% in some wells. Results of this study are presented in an easy to follow way to ensure learnings are passed on to the industry for achieving improved results elsewhere. The techniques outlined in this paper will permit enhanced perforation designs via utilizing available software packages in challenging environments where conventional approaches can be inadequate. The methodology described in this paper is unique in terms of combining the existing techniques in an accessible way.

Adaptive Power Charge Using PID Controller on DC Load Application

Battery is a very important necessity as an electrical energy storage for DC load type. However, as electric energy storage, the battery has a limit storage capacity. The battery must be recharged when the electrical energy stored in the battery has been exhausted to keep the DC load in operation. Unfortunately, batteries in different types of DC loads have different voltages and capacities. So for charging the battery also requires a different voltage. While the existing battery charger is generally static specifically for one type of battery. From this problem, the paper proposed an adaptive power charge system. A system that can adaptively charge electrical energy on batteries that have different voltages and capacities through one port. The converter used in this paper is the buck converter to lower the output voltage from the input voltage. The system uses tracking duty cycle to know the type of DC load. After knowing the type of dc load then the system determines the setting point voltage. To keep the output voltage stable, the system uses PID control. With this adaptive power charge, the charging process will be more efficient and multifunction because it can be used for various types of DC load. The system can provide an output voltage of 19 volts when connected to a laptop and provides an output voltage of 5 volts when connected to a mobile phone on setling time 10ms.

What Affects Chinese Households’ Behavior in Sorting Solid Waste? A Case Study from Shanghai, Shenyang, and Chengdu

The main aim of this study was to examine residents’ environmental behavior in sorting solid household waste, and to identify the integrative factors that contribute to their waste-separation cooperation and other related pro-environmental behaviors. This was achieved based on a questionnaire survey in Shenyang, Chengdu, and Shanghai. Methodologically, we applied a discrete choice model to examine whether individuals’ garbage sorting behaviors differ based on their characteristics, social attributes, residential circumstances, and environmental awareness, and whether these factors are correlated with individuals’ receptiveness to a refuse charge system, or to policies requiring garbage sorting. We further examined whether individuals’ garbage sorting behavior, their receptiveness to fee-based waste collection, and their receptiveness to policies requiring garbage sorting differ across areas. In this particular survey, we introduced a 16 item scale of pro-environmental behavior and a nine item scale of altruism to ascertain the ways in which internal motivational factors affect people’s environmentally conscious voluntary behavior. Overall, the present work is expected to contribute to an important understanding of the motivational forces and incentives behind human pro-environmental behavior and action. It also brings relevance to the analysis of moral solidarity in relation to the household waste disposal problems currently confronting us today.

Improvement of operational indicators of automobile internal combustion engines by development of thermogasdynamics in intake system

Piston internal combustion engines (ICE) are the most widespread sources of energy among heat engines. The ICEs are widely used as power installations on road transport. Nowadays, most of the ICEs are equipped with the boost-pressure charge system. Thermal and mechanical improvement of processes in intake system largely affects the efficiency of piston engines. The paper proposes a method of stabilization of pulsing flows in the intake system by the installation of the equalizing frame in the output channel of the turbocharger (TC). Investigations were carried out on an experimental installation that consisted of single-cylinder engine (8.2/7.1) and boost-pressure charge system (ТКR-6). Determination of instantaneous values of air flow speed and local heat transfer coefficient was conducted by the use of constant-temperature heat loss anemometer with an original design. It is established that the presence of the equalizing frame in the intake system leads to the decrease of turbulence level up to 25 % in comparison with the basic intake system (with preservation of metering characteristics). It is shown that the installation of the equalizing frame in the intake system of the ICE with TC also leads to the decrease in heat transfer intensity up to 15 % in comparison with the basic system. As a result, the authors determined values of breakdown intensity and probability of failure-free operation of engine with basic and modernized intake system.