• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.298-310
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• 2020

Fuel management can play enormous role in fire management in tropical dry forests. However, unlike the temperate forests, knowledge on implications of different fuel management methods in tropical forests is often inadequate. In this study, the implications of prescribed burning and hand thinning treatments on implementation cost, fuel loading and post-treatment fire behaviour were tested and compared in degraded forests and teak plantations in two forest reserves of different levels of dryness in Ghana. The study found that prescribed burning was less expensive (62.02 US Dollars ha-1) than hand thinning (95.37 US Dollars ha-1). The study also indicated that the two fuel management methods were able to reduce fuel loading in degraded forests and teak plantations. However, prescribed burning was more effective in reducing fuel loading than hand thinning. While the relative change of fuel reduction was 13% higher in prescribed burning than the hand thinning in degraded forest, it was 41% higher in prescribed burning than hand thinning in teak plantations. The fire behaviour of post-treatment experimental fire was also lower in prescribed burning than the hand thinning and control plots. Fuel management, therefore, has a great potential in fire management in degraded forests and teak plantations in Ghana.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.707-714
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• 2022

Hydrogen production using solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOEC) is a promising technology because of its efficiency, cleanness, and scalability. Especially, high-power SOEC system has received a lot of attention from researchers. This study compared and analyzed the low-power and high-power SOEC system in term of economic. By using revenue requirement method, levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) was calculated for comparison. In addition, the sensitivity analysis was performed to determine the dependence of hydrogen cost on input variables. The results indicated that high-power SOEC system is superior to a low-power SOEC system. In the capital cost, the stack cost is dominant in both systems, but the electricity cost is the most contributed factor to the hydrogen cost. If the high-power SOEC system combines with a nuclear power plant, the hydrogen cost can reach 3.65 $/kg when the electricity cost is 3.28 ¢/kWh and the stack cost is assumed to be 574 $/kW.

• Ocean policy research
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.1-28
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to analyze the substitution among production factors of Korean distant water longline fisheries in IATTC waters. In the analysis, the translog function which have one output variable of total cost and input variables of labor, fuel, fishing gear, and capital was established and it was transformed into simultaneous equations by each cost. Then, variables of equations were estimated by SUR (seemingly unrelated regression) model. Since distant water longline fisheries is a fishing type with high fuel usage, substitution of fuel with other factors was mainly analyzed. Results showed a substitute relation between fuel and labor as well as fuel and fishing gear, while a complementary relation between fuel and capital. In addition, it was analyzed that magnitude of fuel elasticity with other factors would be inelastic.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.58 no.8
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• pp.1485-1495
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• 2009

This paper presents a novel approach to economic dispatch (ED) with nonconvex fuel cost function as combinatorial optimization problems (COP) while most of the conventional researches have been developed as function optimization problems (FOP). One nonconvex fuel cost function can be divided into several convex fuel cost functions, and each convex function can be regarded as a generation type (G-type). In that case, ED with nonconvex fuel cost function can be considered as COP finding the best case among all feasible combinations of G-types. In this paper, a genetic algorithm is applied to solve the COP, and the ${\lambda}-P$ function method is used to calculate ED for the fitness function of GA. The ${\lambda}-P$ function method is reviewed briefly and the GA procedure for COP is explained in detail. This paper deals with two kinds of ED problems, namely ED with multiple fuel units (EDMF) and ED with prohibited operating zones (EDPOZ). The proposed method is tested for all the ED problems, and the test results show an improvement in solution cost compared to the results obtained from conventional algorithms.

• International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.468-476
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• 2008

This paper presents a novel approach to economic dispatch (ED) with nonconvex fuel cost function as combinatorial optimization problems (COP) while most of the conventional researches have been developed as function optimization problems (FOP). One nonconvex fuel cost function can be divided into several convex fuel cost functions, and each convex function can be regarded as a generation type (G-type). In that case, ED with nonconvex fuel cost function can be considered as COP finding the best case among all feasible combinations of G-types. In this paper, a genetic algorithm is applied to solve the COP, and the $\lambda$-P table method is used to calculate ED for the fitness function of GA. The $\lambda$-P table method is reviewed briefly and the GA procedure for COP is explained in detail. This paper deals with three kinds of ED problems, namely ED considering valve-point effects (EDVP), ED with multiple fuel units (EDMF), and ED with prohibited operating zones (EDPOZ). The proposed method is tested for all three ED problems, and the test results show an improvement in solution cost compared to the results obtained from conventional algorithms.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.13-20
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• 2022

Aircraft weight is an important factor affecting performance and fuel efficiency. In the conceptual design stage of the aircraft, the process of balancing cost and weight is performed using empirical formulas such as fuel consumption cost per weight in estimating element weight. In addition, when an airline operates an aircraft, it promotes fuel efficiency improvement, fuel saving and carbon reduction through weight management activities. The relationship between changes in aircraft weight and changes in fuel consumption is called the cost of weight, and the cost of weight is used to evaluate the effect of adding or reducing weight to an aircraft on fuel consumption. In this study, the problems of the existing cost of weight calculation method are identified, and a new cost of weight calculation method is introduced to solve the problem. Using Breguet's Range Formula and actual flight data of the A350-900 aircraft, two weight costs are calculated based on take-off weight and landing weight. In conclusion, it was suggested that it is reasonable to use the cost of weight based on the take-off weight and the landing weight for other purposes. In particular, the cost of weight based on the landing weight can be used as an empirical formula for estimating element weight and optimizing cost and weight in the conceptual design stage of similar aircraft.

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.781-790
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• 2007

Hybrid electric vehicles(HEV) combined with more than one power sources have great potential to improve fuel economy and reduce pollutant emissions. The Integrated Starter Generator(ISG) HEV researched in this paper is a two energy sources vehicle, with a conventional internal combustion engine(ICE) and an energy storage system(batteries). In order to investigate the potential of diesel engine hybrid electric vehicles in fuel economy improvement and emissions reduction, a Dynamic Programming(DP) based supervisory controller is developed to allocate the power requirement between ICE and batteries with the objective of minimizing a weighted cost function over given drive cycles. A fuel-economy-only case and a fuel & emissions case can be achieved by changing specific weighting factors. The simulation results of the fuel-economy-only case show that there is a 45.1% fuel saving potential for this ISG HEV compared to a conventional transit bus. The test results present a 39.6% improvement in fuel economy which validates the simulation results. Compared to the fuel-economy-only case, the fuel & emissions case further reduces the pollutant emissions at a cost of 3.2% and 4.5% of fuel consumption with respect to the simulation and test result respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.1-13
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• 2021

Fuel costs represent one of the most substantial expenses for airlines, accounting for 20% - 36% of the airline's total operating cost. The present study discusses the so-called discretionary fuel that is additionally loaded at the discretion of airlines to cover unforeseen variations from the planned flight operations. The proper range of the discretionary fuel to be loaded for economic flight operations was estimated by applying Monte Carlo simulation technique. With this simulation model for loading discretionary fuel, airlines cannot only reduce the total amount of fuel to be consumed but also minimize the risk of unplanned flight disruptions caused by insufficient fuel on board. Airlines should be able to guarantee proper risk management processes for fuel boarding by carrying enough fuel to high-risk airports. This study would provide a practical guideline for loading proper amounts of discretionary fuel. Future researchers should be encouraged to improve this study by elaborating the weather variable.

• Korean Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.71-78
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• 2012

Recently, the ratio of fuel cost to the operational cost of a ship is increasing according to the increase of the international oil price. Thus, many studies are being made to reduce the cost; for example, a method for acquiring the sea state information, a method for estimating fuel consumption, a method for determining the ship's optimal route, and so on. However, these studies were not incorporated together and being independently made in different fields. In this study, by improving and incorporating such studies, a method for determining a ship economic route based on the acquisition of the sea state and estimation of fuel consumption was proposed. To evaluate the applicability of the proposed method, it was applied to an optimal routing problem of the ocean area including many islands. The result shows that the proposed method can yield the economic route minimizing fuel consumption.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.279-285
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• 2006

Recirculation for the unreacted fuel is necessary to improve the overall efficiency of the fuel cell system and to prevent fuel starvation since the fuel cell for a vehicle application is a closed system. In case of the automotive fuel cell, the ejector which does not require any parasitic power is good for the performance improvement and easy operation. It is essential to design the customized ejector due to the lack of the commercial ejector corresponding to the operating conditions of the fuel cell systems. In this study, the design methodology for the ejector customized to an automotive fuel cell is proposed. The model based sensitivity analysis prevents the time-consuming redesign and reduces the cost of developing ejector. As a result, the customized ejector to meet the desired performance within overall operating range has developed for the PEMFC automotive system.