Simulation process of biodiesel production over heterogeneous catalysts

Biodiesel production is a very promising area due to the relevance that it is an environmental-friendly diesel fuel alternative to fossil fuel derived diesel fuels. Nowadays, most industrial applications of biodiesel production are performed by the transesterification of renewable biological sources based on homogeneous acid catalysts, which requires downstream neutralization and separation leading to a series of technical and environmental problems. However, heterogeneous catalyst can solve these issues, and be used as a better alternative for biodiesel production. Thus, a heuristic diffusion-reaction kinetic model has been established to simulate the transesterification of alkyl ester with methanol over a series of heterogeneous Cs-doped heteropolyacid catalysts. The novelty of this framework lies in detailed modeling of surface reacting kinetic phenomena and integrating that with particle-level transport phenomena all the way through to process design and optimisation, which has been done for biodiesel production process for the first time. This multi-disciplinary research combining chemistry, chemical engineering and process integration offers better insights into catalyst design and process intensification for the industrial application of Cs-doped heteropolyacid catalysts for biodiesel production. A case study of the transesterification of tributyrin with methanol has been demonstrated to establish the effectiveness of this methodology.

Simulation process of biodiesel production over heterogeneous catalysts

Biodiesel production is a very promising area due to the relevance that it is an environmental-friendly diesel fuel alternative to fossil fuel derived diesel fuels. Nowadays, most industrial applications of biodiesel production are performed by the transesterification of renewable biological sources based on homogeneous acid catalysts, which requires downstream neutralization and separation leading to a series of technical and environmental problems. However, heterogeneous catalyst can solve these issues, and be used as a better alternative for biodiesel production. Thus, a heuristic diffusion-reaction kinetic model has been established to simulate the transesterification of alkyl ester with methanol over a series of heterogeneous Cs-doped heteropolyacid catalysts. The novelty of this framework lies in detailed modeling of surface reacting kinetic phenomena and integrating that with particle-level transport phenomena all the way through to process design and optimisation, which has been done for biodiesel production process for the first time. This multi-disciplinary research combining chemistry, chemical engineering and process integration offers better insights into catalyst design and process intensification for the industrial application of Cs-doped heteropolyacid catalysts for biodiesel production. A case study of the transesterification of tributyrin with methanol has been demonstrated to establish the effectiveness of this methodology.

Innovation, networking and globalisation:the role of regional innovation systems in the global innovation process

In the global economy, innovation is one of the most important competitive assets for companies willing to compete in international markets. As competition moves from standardised products to customised ones, depending on each specific market needs, economies of scale are not anymore the only winning strategy. Innovation requires firms to establish processes to acquire and absorb new knowledge, leading to the recent theory of Open Innovation. Knowledge sharing and acquisition happens when firms are embedded in networks with other firms, university, institutions and many other economic actors. Several typologies of innovation and firm networks have been identified, with various geographical spans. One of the first being modelled was the Industrial Cluster (or in Italian Distretto Industriale) which was for long considered the benchmark for innovation and economic development. Other kind of networks have been modelled since the late 1970s; Regional Innovation Systems represent one of the latest and more diffuse model of innovation networks, specifically introduced to combine local networks and the global economy. This model was qualitatively exploited since its introduction, but, together with National Innovation Systems, is among the most inspiring for policy makers and is often cited by them, not always properly. The aim of this research is to setup an econometric model describing Regional Innovation Systems, becoming one the first attempts to test and enhance this theory with a quantitative approach. A dataset of 104 secondary and primary data from European regions was built in order to run a multiple linear regression, testing if Regional Innovation Systems are really correlated to regional innovation and regional innovation in cooperation with foreign partners. Furthermore, an exploratory multiple linear regression was performed to verify which variables, among those describing a Regional Innovation Systems, are the most significant for innovating, alone or with foreign partners. Furthermore, the effectiveness of present innovation policies has been tested based on the findings of the econometric model. The developed model confirmed the role of Regional Innovation Systems for creating innovation even in cooperation with international partners: this represents one of the firsts quantitative confirmation of a theory previously based on qualitative models only. Furthermore the results of this model confirmed a minor influence of National Innovation Systems: comparing the analysis of existing innovation policies, both at regional and national level, to our findings, emerged the need for potential a pivotal change in the direction currently followed by policy makers. Last, while confirming the role of the presence a learning environment in a region and the catalyst role of regional administration, this research offers a potential new perspective for the whole private sector in creating a Regional Innovation System.

Frontline employees' collaboration in industrial service innovation:routes of co-creation's effects on new service performance

From a Service-Dominant Logic (S-DL) perspective, employees constitute operant resources that firms can draw to enhance the outcomes of innovation efforts. While research acknowledges that frontline employees (FLEs) constitute, through service encounters, a key interface for the transfer of valuable external knowledge into the firm, the range of potential benefits derived from FLE-driven innovation deserves more investigation. Using a sample of knowledge intensive business services firms (KIBS), this study examines how the collaboration with FLEs along the new service development (NSD) process, namely FLE co-creation, impacts on service innovation performance following two routes of different effects. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) results indicate that FLE co-creation benefits the NS success among FLEs and firm’s customers, the constituents of the resources route. FLE co-creation also has a positive effect on the NSD speed, which in turn enhances the NS quality. NSD speed and NS quality integrate the operational route, which proves to be the most effective path to impact the NS market performance. Accordingly, KIBS managers must value their FLEs as essential partners to achieve successful innovation from an internal and external perspective, and develop the appropriate mechanisms to guarantee their effective involvement along the NSD process.

Managing supply chain knowledge in the new product development process:a social network analysis approach

The aim of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework for studying the knowledge transfer problem within the supply chain. The social network analysis (SNA) is presented as a useful tool to study knowledge networks within supply chain, to visualize knowledge flows and to identify the accumulating knowledge nodes of the networks. © 2011 IEEE.

A European competence framework for industrial pharmacy practice in biotechnology

Project Report: The PHAR-IN ("Competences for industrial pharmacy practice in biotechnology") looked at whether there is a difference in how industrial employees and academics rank competences for practice in the biotechnological industry. A small expert panel consisting of the authors of this paper produced a biotechnology competence framework by drawing up an initial list of competences then ranking them in importance using a three-stage Delphi process. The framework was next evaluated and validated by a large expert panel of academics (n = 37) and industrial employees (n = 154). Results show that priorities for industrial employees and academics were similar. The competences for biotechnology practice that received the highest scores were mainly in: . "Research and Development", . "Upstream" and "Downstream" Processing', " . "Product development and formulation", " . "Aseptic processing", ."Analytical methodology", . "Product stability", and . "Regulation". The main area of disagreement was in the category "Ethics and drug safety" where academics ranked competences higher than did industrial employees.

Team diversity and leadership: Tests of model of process and direct effects

A model was tested to examine relationships among leadership behaviors, team diversity, and team process measures with team performance and satisfaction at both the team and leader-member levels of analysis. Relationships between leadership behavior and team demographic and cognitive diversity were hypothesized to have both direct effects on organizational outcomes as well as indirect effects through team processes. Leader member differences were investigated to determine the effects of leader-member diversity leader-member exchange quality, individual effectiveness and satisfaction.^ Leadership had little direct effect on team performance, but several strong positive indirect effects through team processes. Demographic Diversity had no impact on team processes, directly impacted only one performance measure, and moderated the leadership to team process relationship.^ Cognitive Diversity had a number of direct and indirect effects on team performance, the net effects uniformly positive, and did not moderate the leadership to team process relationship.^ In sum, the team model suggests a complex combination of leadership behaviors positively impacting team processes, demographic diversity having little impact on team process or performance, cognitive diversity having a positive net impact impact, and team processes having mixed effects on team outcomes.^ At the leader-member level, leadership behaviors were a strong predictor of Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) quality. Leader-member demographic and cognitive dissimilarity were each predictors of LMX quality, but failed to moderate the leader behavior to LMX quality relationship. LMX quality was strongly and positively related to self reported effectiveness and satisfaction.^ The study makes several contributions to the literature. First, it explicitly links leadership and team diversity. Second, demographic and cognitive diversity are conceptualized as distinct and multi-faceted constructs. Third, a methodology for creating an index of categorical demographic and interval cognitive measures is provided so that diversity can be measured in a holistic conjoint fashion. Fourth, the study simultaneously investigates the impact of diversity at the team and leader-member levels of analyses. Fifth, insights into the moderating impact of different forms of team diversity on the leadership to team process relationship are provided. Sixth, this study incorporates a wide range of objective and independent measures to provide a 360$\sp\circ$ assessment of team performance. ^

Business process quantitative analysis and optimization for service industries

The total time a customer spends in the business process system, called the customer cycle-time, is a major contributor to overall customer satisfaction. Business process analysts and designers are frequently asked to design process solutions with optimal performance. Simulation models have been very popular to quantitatively evaluate the business processes; however, simulation is time-consuming and it also requires extensive modeling experiences to develop simulation models. Moreover, simulation models neither provide recommendations nor yield optimal solutions for business process design. A queueing network model is a good analytical approach toward business process analysis and design, and can provide a useful abstraction of a business process. However, the existing queueing network models were developed based on telephone systems or applied to manufacturing processes in which machine servers dominate the system. In a business process, the servers are usually people. The characteristics of human servers should be taken into account by the queueing model, i.e. specialization and coordination. ^ The research described in this dissertation develops an open queueing network model to do a quick analysis of business processes. Additionally, optimization models are developed to provide optimal business process designs. The queueing network model extends and improves upon existing multi-class open-queueing network models (MOQN) so that the customer flow in the human-server oriented processes can be modeled. The optimization models help business process designers to find the optimal design of a business process with consideration of specialization and coordination. ^ The main findings of the research are, first, parallelization can reduce the cycle-time for those customer classes that require more than one parallel activity; however, the coordination time due to the parallelization overwhelms the savings from parallelization under the high utilization servers since the waiting time significantly increases, thus the cycle-time increases. Third, the level of industrial technology employed by a company and coordination time to mange the tasks have strongest impact on the business process design; as the level of industrial technology employed by the company is high; more division is required to improve the cycle-time; as the coordination time required is high; consolidation is required to improve the cycle-time. ^

Emotional intelligence and leadership in organizations: A meta-analytic test of process mechanisms

The present study—employing psychometric meta-analysis of 92 independent studies with sample sizes ranging from 26 to 322 leaders—examined the relationship between EI and leadership effectiveness. Overall, the results supported a linkage between leader EI and effectiveness that was moderate in nature (ρ = .25). In addition, the positive manifold of the effect sizes presented in this study, ranging from .10 to .44, indicate that emotional intelligence has meaningful relations with myriad leadership outcomes including effectiveness, transformational leadership, LMX, follower job satisfaction, and others. Furthermore, this paper examined potential process mechanisms that may account for the EI-leadership effectiveness relationship and showed that both transformational leadership and LMX partially mediate this relationship. However, while the predictive validities of EI were moderate in nature, path analysis and hierarchical regression suggests that EI contributes less than or equal to 1% of explained variance in leadership effectiveness once personality and intelligence are accounted for. ^

Emotional Intelligence and Leadership in Organization: A Meta-analytic Test of Process Mechanisms

The present study – employing psychometric meta-analysis of 92 independent studies with sample sizes ranging from 26 to 322 leaders – examined the relationship between EI and leadership effectiveness. Overall, the results supported a linkage between leader EI and effectiveness that was moderate in nature (ρ = .25). In addition, the positive manifold of the effect sizes presented in this study, ranging from .10 to .44, indicate that emotional intelligence has meaningful relations with myriad leadership outcomes including effectiveness, transformational leadership, LMX, follower job satisfaction, and others. Furthermore, this paper examined potential process mechanisms that may account for the EI-leadership effectiveness relationship and showed that both transformational leadership and LMX partially mediate this relationship. However, while the predictive validities of EI were moderate in nature, path analysis and hierarchical regression suggests that EI contributes less than or equal to 1% of explained variance in leadership effectiveness once personality and intelligence are accounted for.

Process inventory and pollution prevention overview for the citrus industry

Florida citrus represents approximately 70 percent of the industry production in the United States; therefore, any associated agricultural and industrial contamination is of concern and a focus of attention. The use of synthetic organic chemicals has become a farmer's necessity in order to supply consumers with high quality products, free of pest damage. However, industrial citrus wastes and chemical residual levels worry not only government agencies but also consumers since they indicate a serious habitat risk. This study assesses citrus industrial processes and the paths that chemical substances follow from the time the citrus seed is planted until consumers get a final product as either fresh fruit or processed product. The study is built on information from United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) manuals, Dade County Environmental Resources Management (DERM) inspection records, United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) regulations, Florida standards, journal publications, and research reports. Pollution prevention (P2 or prevention-of-pollution) alternatives are identified; alternatives are proposed, evaluated, and included. Strategies are described and pollution prevention opportunities proposed to minimize citrus wastes generation, chemical residuals in products, their environmental impact and health risk aspects while maximizing product quality.

Esforços governamentais locais para o desenvolvimento: desenhos, tendências e limites dos Fundos de Desenvolvimento Industrial nos estados do Rio Grande do Norte, Maranhão e Ceará (1985-2010)

This research aimed to analyze the main government efforts to promote economic development in the Northeast, from 1985 to 2010, under the view that growth is crucial for increasing industrialization process and allows for more significant growth patterns. The analysis was the context in which state governments react to the abandonment of developmental line the federal level, in the 1980s, incorporating features of the actions called endogenous regional development and providing local players with greater responsibility in the development process. Justifies the need to analyze the following scenario: state governments in northeastern Brazil using relevant part of its resources to finance the installation and expansion of companies through tax incentives, with a view to generating income and employment, whilst waiting for an increase in output and a positive change in economic dynamism. In addition, it puts in question the fact that these policies receive such importance of state administrations for the purpose of achieving regional development. It was left to consider, therefore, the contents of the shares elected by state governments to examine the scope of these policies both in the pattern of growth, the transformation of the industrial sector and the development of the region attention to changes in state production structures. Due to limitations on the availability of data and time to carry out research, we were elected three states for the study: Rio Grande do Norte, Ceará and Maranhão. The study found that, despite the contribution of policies analyzed to economic growth, sub-national states are unable to compensate for the lack of development agencies structured at the federal level.

Análise de confiabilidade de um moto-ventilador centrífugo: aplicação no sistema de pressurização de subestação industrial para garantia da segurança operacional na indústria petroquímica

The need of the oil industry to ensure the safety of the facilities, employees and the environment, not to mention the search for maximum efficiency of its facilities, makes it seeks to achieve a high level of excellence in all stages of its production processes in order to obtain the required quality of the final product. Know the reliability of equipment and what it stands for a system is of fundamental importance for ensuring the operational safety. The reliability analysis technique has been increasingly applied in the oil industry as fault prediction tool and undesirable events that can affect business continuity. It is an applied scientific methodology that involves knowledge in engineering and statistics to meet and or analyze the performance of components, equipment and systems in order to ensure that they perform their function without fail, for a period of time and under a specific condition. The results of reliability analyzes help in making decisions about the best maintenance strategy of petrochemical plants. Reliability analysis was applied on equipment (bike-centrifugal fan) between the period 2010-2014 at the Polo Petrobras Guamaré Industrial, situated in rural Guamaré municipality in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, where he collected data field, analyzed historical equipment and observing the behavior of faults and their impacts. The data were processed in commercial software reliability ReliaSoft BlockSim 9. The results were compared with a study conducted by the experts in the field in order to get the best maintenance strategy for the studied system. With the results obtained from the reliability analysis tools was possible to determine the availability of the centrifugal motor-fan and what will be its impact on the security of process units if it will fail. A new maintenance strategy was established to improve the reliability, availability, maintainability and decreased likelihood of Moto-Centrifugal Fan failures, it is a series of actions to promote the increased system reliability and consequent increase in cycle life of the asset. Thus, this strategy sets out preventive measures to reduce the probability of failure and mitigating aimed at minimizing the consequences.

A pedagogia industrial da FIEMG: um estudo sobre o pensamento empresarial a partir da revista vida industrial (1961-1974)

The present research results of the studies and debates inherent in PhD in Education at the Graduate Program in Education at the Federal University of Uberlândia, belonging to the Research Line "Politics and Knowledge in Education." This thesis aims to analyze the contradictory meaning of education as training human history, specifically educational representative under the logic of the industrial business associated FIEMG (Federation of Industries of the State of Minas Gerais) in the context 1961-1974. This definition is justified by the historical fact that it was a period marked by the cyclical crises of capital and their impacts in the final phase of the industrialization process in Brazil: it starts with one of the apexes of economic growth in the country , driven by national developmental , continues with a severe political crisis in 1966 , also impacting the economic sphere, and finally, with the constant quest for economic stability even under high prices, hatch the factors that led to the Brazilian economy to the context of the "Economic Miracle". For this, it was necessary to link the debate between education and work from the perspective of historical materialism and dialectical their subsidies theoretical-methodological and epistemological. In the first chapter, we designed a "State of the art" category "human formation", conceived as a process of education and history, from the Marxist assumptions, aiming at the reconstruction of concepts and meanings of which is the formation of workers in contradictory logic, the bias of comprehensive training and the prospect of capital accumulation. Then, in the second chapter, we present a review about industrialization, the industrial business and its development perspective 1961-1974. The third chapter was established on a contextualization of the state and its peculiarities, the industrial business and its proposed development both nationally and at the state (Minas Gerais). Finally, in the fourth chapter, was organized dialogue with the sources, from a historical survey of the shares of the industrial business with an emphasis on education, which converged in a pedagogy industrial consolidation in line with the political and economic conditions specific period from 1961 to 1974. It has mailing bibliographic reference business thinking expressed in the concreteness of training workers and industry of Minas Gerais, in agreement with the demands of work and training of mining companies. The thesis of this study is the defense that the corporate actions which constituted pedagogy industrial concepts were articulated to political and economic development in Brazil, since the discipline to work imposed by such conceptions met the human worker training geared to the accumulation the general capital and industrial capital in particular. Establish, therefore, different logics, the state level, the scope of private foreign capital and domestic private capital, which came up the process of capital accumulation, loading, contradictorily, the possibilities of building the human beyond capital, or a teaching job.

Análise das principais variáveis na flotação industrial do complexo de mineração de Tapira - MG

Faced with an agribusiness expansion scenario and the increase in fertilizer consumption due to the exponential growth of the population, it is necessary to make better use of existing reserves, by obtaining products of better quality and in adequate quantities to meet demand national. In Tapira Mining Complex, Vale Fertilizantes, the phosphate concentrate is produced with content of 35.0% P2O5 from ore with content of about 8.0% P2O5, which are intended to supply Complex Industrial Uberaba and Araxá Minero Chemical Complex for the production of fertilizers. The industrial flotation step responsible for the recovery of P2O5 and hence the viability of the business is divided into the crumbly, grainy and ultrathin circuits, and, friable and granular concentrate comprise the conventional concentrated. Today only 14.7% of the mass which feeds the mill product becomes, the remainder being considered losses in the process, and the larger mass losses are located in the waste of flotation, representing 42.3%. From 2012 to 2014, the daily global mass recovery processing plants varied from 12.4 to 15.9% while the daily metallurgical recovery of P2O5 from 48.7 to 82.4%. By the degree of variability, it appears that the plant operated under different conditions. Seen this, this study aimed to analyze the influence of operational and process variables in P2O5 mass and metallurgical recoveries of industrial flotation circuits of grainy, crumbly and ultrathin. And besides was made an analysis of the effect of ore variables, as degrees, hardnesse and the ore front 02 percentage, in global recoveries of processing plant and the effect of dosages of reagents in the recoveries obtained from the bench flotation using the experimental design methodology. All work was performed using the historical database of Vale Fertilizantes of Tapira-MG, where all independent variables were dimensionless as the experimental range used. To make the statistical analysis it used the response surface technique and the values of the independent variables that maximize recoveries were found by canonical analysis. In the study of industrial flotation circuit crispy were obtained from 41.3% mass recovery and 91.3% metallurgical recovery P2O5, good values for the circuit, and the highest recoveries occur for solids concentration of the new flotation power between 45 and 50%, which values are assigned to the residence time of the pulp in cells and industrial flotation columns. The greater the number of ore heaps resumed on the higher the mass recovery, but in this scenario flotation becomes unstable because there is enormous weight variation in the feed. Higher recoveries are obtained for mass depressant dosage exceeding 120 g / t for synthetic collector dosage of 11.6%. In the study of industrial flotation circuit of the granulate were obtained 28.3% to 79.4% mass recovery and metallurgical recovery of P2O5 being considered good values for the circuit. Higher recoveries are obtained when the front ore 02 percentage is above 90%, because the ore of this front have more clear apatite. Likewise recoveries increase when the level of pulp rougher step is highest due to the high mass of circulating step receives loads. In the analysis of industrial flotation circuit of the ultrafine were obtained 23.95% of mass recovery, and the same is maximized to depressant dosage and the top collector 420 and 300 g / t, respectively. The analysis of the influence of variables ore, it was observed that higher recoveries are obtained for ores with P2O5 content above 8.0%, Fe2O3 content in the order of 28% forward and 02 of ore percentage of 83%. Hard ore percentage has strong influence on recoveries due to mass division in the circuit that is linked to this variable. However, the hard ore percentage that maximizes recoveries was very close to the design capacity of the processing plant, which is 20%. Finally, the study of the bench flotation, has noted that in friable and granular circuits the highest recoveries are achieved for a collector dosage exceeding 250 g / t and the simultaneous increase of collector dosage and synthetic collector percentage contributes to the increase recovery in the flotation, but this scenario is suitable to produce a concentrate poorer in terms of P2O5 content, showing that higher recovery is not always the ideal scenario. Thus, the results show the values of variables that provide higher recoveries in the flotation and hence lower losses in the waste.