Competing economic factors

A wide range of chemicals are used in water treatment. Lime is used both as an alkali and as a source of calcium ions. As an alkali, it competes in certain processes with caustic soda and soda ash. The choice between alternative chemicals is generally based on economic factors and on the ease of use in a particular installation. 

Petroleum industry is a global branch of the world eeonomy, an important political and economic factor of our civilization. At this time, there is no alternative source of energy, which could able to compete with hydrocarbons and natural gas particularly for availability, abundance, efficiency, and safety. 

Radiation exposures at the research reactor facility shall be subject to dose constraints that are set or approved by the regulatory body or another competent authority for the purpose of ensuring that the relevant dose limits are not exceeded. In all operational states, the main aims of radiation protection shall be to avoid unnecessary exposure to radiation and to keep doses below the dose constraints and as low as reasonably achievable, social and economic factors being taken into account. 

Radiation exposure to the public and the operating personnel shall be ensured in the design and operation to be as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA), social and economic factors being taken into account. This requirement implies that the hazardous consequences from the practice of radioactive waste incineration should be reduced by suitable protective measures to a value such that further reductions become less justified in relation to the additional expenditure required. The dose equivalent to individuals shall not exceed the applicable dose limits set by the competent authority. Further guidance on radiation protection principles may be found in Ref. [6]. 

The choice of a material is the result of several compromises. For example, the technical appraisal of an alloy will generally be a compromise between corrosion resistance and some other properties such as strength and weldability. And the final selection will be a compromise between technical competence and economic factors. In specifying a material, the task usually requires three stages ... 

A moderate growth of these appliance production figures can be expected - depending on many socio-economic and technical factors as well as entrepreneurial activities among competing companies and brands. 

A significant fraction, more than 25%, of the low-density polyethylene (LDPE) (Sec. 3-14a) produced by radical polymerization consists of various copolymers of ethylene. LDPE has come under increasing economic pressure in recent years because of a combination of factors [Doak, 1986]. High-density polyethylene (HDPE) has displaced LDPE in applications such as blow-molded bottles and thin films where the increased strength of HDPE is preferred over the clarity of LDPE. Linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) (Sec. 8-1 lc) competes effectively with LDPE in terms of both cost and properties. New producers of ethylene have entered the LDPE market because of a lack of alternatives for their feedstocks. Many LDPE producers use copolymerization as a strategy to obtain products more resistant to displacement by HDPE and LLDPE. 

The reactor system selected will influence the economics of the process by dictating the size of the units needed and by fixing the ratio of products formed. The first factor, reactor size, may well vary a hundredfold among competing designs while the second factor, product distribution, is usually of prime consideration where it can be varied and controlled. 

The minimum acceptable rate of return (MARK) for a venture depends on a number of factors such as interest rate, cost of capital, availability of capital, degree of risk, economic project life, and other competing projects. Management will a(bust the MARK depending on any of the above factors to screen out the more attractive ventures. When a company invests in a venture, the investment must earn more than the cost of capital and should be able to pay dividends. 

Insect infestation of grains results in an annual loss of 500 million dollars. Present methods of chemical control are relatively unsatisfactory. There can be no doubt but that radiation could do a more satisfactory job than the chemicals, since it can treat infestation both inside and outside the kernels. A complete economic and logistic evaluation of the problem has been formulated by Chamberlain (Cl). The original cost estimate was low by a factor of 1.78. This mistake was corrected in a later version of the paper. He shows that isotope radiation can compete with conventional treatment methods if the irradiator can be located in the terminal warehouse and a charge of 1 cent/bu. can be assessed for the deinfestation. 

An economical evaluation of phenol processes is complicated by the number and variety of competing processes. Table XXII compares some key features of various phenol processes, based on two excellent, recent reviews (4,15). Hay et al. (15) point out that synthetic phenol processes currently account for 98% of the phenol produced in the United States and Canada. The various phenol processes currently used are listed in Table XXIII. An economic comparison between a number of phenol processes is given in Table XXIV. Based on this table, the Raschig, Cumene, and Dow toluene processes are equivalent with regard to return price. Therefore, selection must be made on the basis of other factors, such as value of intermediates and by-products, ease of operation, and initial investment. 

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