Pyrolysis of mixed engineering plastics: Economic challenges for automotive plastic waste

Chemical recycling of complex plastic waste via pyrolysis can reduce fossil resource dependence of the plastics value chain and greenhouse gas emissions. However, economic viability is crucial for its implementation, especially considering challenging waste streams with high shares of engineering plastics that have lower pyrolysis product quality than standard thermoplastics waste. Thus, this study conducts a techno-economic assessment determining the profitability factors of pyrolysis plants for automotive plastic waste in Germany including different plant capacities and calculating cost-covering minimum sales prices for the resulting pyrolysis oil. Main findings are that due to economies of scale, the cost-covering minimum sales prices vary between 1182 €/Mg pyrolysis oil (3750 Mg input/year) and 418 €/Mg pyrolysis oil (100,000 Mg input/year). The pyrolysis technology employed must be robust and scalable to realize these economies of scale. Large plant capacities face challenges such as feedstock availability at reasonable costs, constant feedstock quality, and pyrolysis oil quality, affecting pyrolysis oil pricing. Due to the limited yield and quality of pyrolysis oil produced from these technically demanding feedstocks, policy implications are that additional revenue streams such as gate fees or subsidies that are essential to ensure a positive business case are necessary. Depending on the assessed plant capacity, additional revenues between 720 and 59 €/Mg pyrolysis oil should be realized to be competitive with the price of the reference product heavy fuel oil. Otherwise, the environmental potential of this technology cannot be exploited.

Instance dataset for resource-constrained project scheduling with diverging material flows

This data article describes an instance dataset motivated by the problem of scheduling a project with diverging material flows. Such material flows are released during the execution of the project and are subject to limited processing and storage capacities. Typical examples are nuclear dismantling or other deconstruction/demolition projects, where large amounts of material must be classified, scanned for hazardousness, and processed accordingly. The problem setting is mathematically described as a resource-constrained project scheduling problem with cumulative resources (RCPSP/c). The RCPSP/c deals with finding a project schedule with minimal makespan that satisfies temporal, renewable resource, and cumulative resource constraints. In total, the dataset comprises 192 artificially generated instances that are suitable for testing models and solution methods. In addition, we provide our best found solution for each instance and different modeling variants (e.g., for two types of objective functions). These solutions were computed by heuristic solution methods. The dataset serves as a benchmark for researchers evaluating the performance of solution methods for the RCPSP/c or the more general problem class with resources that can be produced and consumed.

Thermal Bridges on Building Rooftops

Thermal Bridges on Building Rooftops (TBBR) is a multi-channel remote sensing dataset. It was recorded during six separate UAV fly-overs of the city center of Karlsruhe, Germany, and comprises a total of 926 high-resolution images with 6927 manually-provided thermal bridge annotations. Each image provides five channels: three color, one thermographic, and one computationally derived height map channel. The data is pre-split into training and test data subsets suitable for object detection and instance segmentation tasks. All data is organized and structured to comply with FAIR principles, i.e. being findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. It is publicly available and can be downloaded from the Zenodo data repository. This work provides a comprehensive data descriptor for the TBBR dataset to facilitate broad community uptake.

A dynamic network design model with capacity expansions for EoL traction battery recycling - A case study of an OEM in Germany

The growth of the battery powered vehicle market will lead to an increasing amount of End of Life (EoL) electric vehicle battery systems (EVBSs) in the future. Although pointed out as a future challenge by research as well as industry, the analysis and design of EoL traction batteries' recycling networks have not been conducted extensively. Existing quantitative optimization models do not contain dynamic characteristics that are of importance for a growing market. We present a dynamic EoL battery reverse supply chain optimization model that allows planning over multiple periods and multiple supply chain layers while including capacity expansions of disassembling centers and recycling plants. The model is applied to a case study of an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of battery electric vehicles that handles all EoL recycling activities for its batteries in a single stakeholder-driven network in Germany. The average EoL costs per EVBS were estimated to decrease by over 35% from 2030 to 2044 due to using larger processing facilities that benefit from economy of scale and lower transportation costs because more locations exist. The network change is driven by the growth of EoL EVBS supply.

Use of digital healthcare solutions for care delivery during a pandemic-chances and (cyber) risks referring to the example of the COVID-19 pandemic

During pandemics, regular service provisioning processes in medical care may be disrupted. Digital health promises many opportunities for service provisioning during a pandemic. However, a broad penetration of medical processes with information technology also has drawbacks. Within this work, the authors use the COVID-19 pandemic to analyze the chances and the risks that may come with using digital health solutions for medical care during a pandemic. Therefore, a multi-methods approach is used. First we use a systematic literature review for reviewing the state of the art of digital health applications in healthcare. Furthermore, the usage of digital health applications is mapped to the different processes in care delivery. Here we provide an exemplary process model of oncological care delivery. The analysis shows that including digital health solutions may be helpful for care delivery in most processes of medical care provisioning. However, research on digital health solutions focuses strongly on some few processes and specific disciplines while other processes and medical disciplines are underrepresented in literature. Last, we highlight the necessity of a comprehensive risk-related debate around the effects that come with the use of digital healthcare solutions.

Were the floods in the UK 2007 and Germany 2013 game-changers?

This paper examines recovery after major floods in the UK and Germany. It focuses on two areas that were badly hit by flooding: Catcliffe, near Sheffield in the UK, and Passau in Bavaria, Germany. It reports on surveys of residents and businesses in each place and on surveys of national flood experts in both countries. The two events were comparable in terms of impacts, levels of preparedness and government response and show similar patterns of speed and quality of recovery. In Germany, it took about 18 months for 90% or more of residents to get back to normal, while in the UK it took a year longer. This difference may be related to funding; in the UK, over 90% of funding came from household insurance while in Germany over 60% came from federal aid, which may have been quicker. In both countries, the economy had recovered to near normal within 12-18 months. The majority of people surveyed in both countries (74% in Germany and 67% in the UK) believe that their homes and businesses are as just as vulnerable now as they were before the respective floods. However, in the UK, half of the respondents thought their neighbourhood was safer and better prepared compared to only 11% in Germany. This may be because substantial progress has been made in improving protection in the UK in areas flooded in 2007. Both floods were considered to be 'game-changers' and resulted in a heightened awareness of flood risk, increased investment in flood defences and an increasing emphasis on citizens taking more responsibility for flood preparedness. However, the Environment Agency in the UK lacks powers to prevent development in flood-prone areas, in Germany there are issues of coordination across large catchments that cross state boundaries and the insurance sector could play a bigger role in 'building back better'. Many homes and businesses continue to be at risk from major floods and more progress needs to be made in making them more resilient. This article is part of the theme issue 'Urban flood resilience'.

The four Rs performance indicators of water distribution networks

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to review the different interpretations of four key performance indicators of water distribution networks (WDNs): reliability, resilience, redundancy and robustness. It then addresses a range of metrics which have been developed to assess the performance of critical infrastructures, in particular WDNs.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper provides a comprehensive review and categorization of performance indicators of WDNs. The main focus is on papers addressing performance indicators of water distribution systems, additionally papers on application of complex system approach to critical infrastructures are also included.

Findings

Due to this complexity, a wide range of interpretation of WDNs performance indicators exists in the literature. This represents a significant impediment toward universally accepted interpretation of these indicators Accurate assessment of WDNs’ performance depends on clear definition of system performance indicators as well as accurate quantifying of these indicators. The application of 18 metrics as a basis for assessing the system performance have been reviewed in this paper and none are particularly significant as standalone values. Combination of these indicators are required to accurately indicate the performance of WDNs.

Originality/value

The authors believe that this paper can be a valuable source of information for academic researchers and practitioners and suggests a roadmap for future works.