Cost assessment

Produced from a.tura.1 Ga.s, Cost assessments of methanol produced from natural gas have been performed (13—18). Projections depend on such factors as the estimated costs of the methanol production faciUty, the value of the feedstock, and operating, maintenance, and shipping costs. Estimates vary for each of these factors. Costs also depend on the value of oil. Oil price not only affects the value of natural gas, it also affects the costs of plant components, labor, and shipping. 

The sum of the downstream costs adds roughly 7.9 cents per Hter (300/gal) and the adjustment of the final cost for an amount of methanol fuel equivalent ia distance driven to an equal volume gasoline involves a multiplier ranging from 1.6 to 2.0, depending on fuel specification and the assumed efficiency for methanol light-duty vehicles as compared to gasoline vehicles. The California Advisory Board has undertaken such cost assessment (11). 

However, we know hardly anything on these costs. Providers document all costs and health insurances keep files with all expenditure. Households have no documentation on such costs, and direct household costs are hardly recovered by health insurances. Thus, there is a major research field waiting to be covered. Merely Bozette et al. (2001) based their cost assessment on household documentations, but they do not sufQciently distinguish between household and provider costs. 

Beecham and Knapp, 2001). This instrument gathers data on service utilization, household circumstances relevant to a costing study, employment patterns and experiences, caregiver input, and income and benefit receipts. Johnston et al (1999) oflFer an excellent review of cost assessments in healthcare evaluations more broadly. 

Apart from the actual purchase cost a business pays a supplier for a chemical, there are costs that are usually not considered. Happily there has been considerable development of approaches to Total Cost Assessments or environmental accounting, and the reader is strongly encouraged to seek out more information about how this is done. Application of Total Cost Assessment will provide a strategic view of trends that can directly affect the long-term viability of a process and is well worth the effort. 

Kennedy, M.L. (1997) Total Cost Assessment for Environmental Engineers and Managers. John WUey Sons, New York. 

Cost(s). See also Economics Prices/pricing Investment costs Manufacturing costs Total cost assessment (TCA) of barley and malt, 15 534 electric furnace, 12 313-314 electricity, 12 533 of engineering thermoplastics, 10 222-223... 

Total cost assessment (TCA), 12 814 Total developed pump head, 21 57—58 Total dissolved solids (TDS), 21 646, 647 reverse osmosis removal of, 25 890 in wastewater, 25 887 Total fiber scutching, 11 612-613 Total hydrocarbon content (THC), of oxygen, 17 759-760... 

Cost assessments of technologies and, even more, projections into the future inherently bear high uncertainties, with assumptions on feedstock prices having a major impact on economics (also closely related to efficiencies via the feedstock volumes). The economics presented here should, therefore, not be interpreted as... 

From an economic point of view, the cost assessment of the recyclate depends primarily on the price retained for the waste. The recycling cost is in the range of ... 

Social Benefits/Costs Assessment Decision Information Summary... 

Social benefits/costs assessment is the process of qualitatively and systematically evaluating the impacts made on all society by individual decisions. 

The decision information summary is the final module of a CTSA. It combines the results of the risk, competitiveness conservation data summary with the social benefits/costs assessment to identify the overall advantages and disadvantages of the baseline and the substitutes from both an individual business perspective and a societal perspective. 

Flow sheets of the chemical plant were prepared with a pre-design of the main equipment. For the capital cost assessment, the factored estimate has been chosen because it considers characteristics of the process corrosive products, high temperature (up to 850°C for Section II) and high pressure (up to 50 bar for the helium coolant). The factored method is essentially based upon charts and formulas developed over 30 years in the petroleum and chemical industries in France (Chauvel, 2000). It consists of estimating costs of basic equipment (generally carbon steel) and correcting them for materials factors. 

In several countries, many activities on hydrogen production and cost assessments within the hydrogen economy are ongoing. Some countries have already developed their own models such as the German-French E3-database, the hydrogen cost analysis model in Canada, and other models in the United States. 

Total cost assessment (TCA) provides a comparison of costs of sustainability, and by consequence, a consistent evaluation of alternative processes. 

Furthermore, it is important to consider the accuracy and available resources when defining a mixture problem. It can be difficult to determine the accuracy and costs beforehand, because accuracy often trades off with costs, and it is influenced by data availability and the actual risk level. Efficiency considerations imply that an assessment should be as cheap as possible, but sufficiently detailed to make a motivated decision. For site-specific assessments, a detailed and costly assessment is necessary only when the actual risks are close to the level that is considered unacceptable. For other outcomes, for example, when the actual risk is much lower or higher than the unacceptable level, a more crude and cheap assessment may suffice. Similar reasoning applies when deriving safe exposure or concentration levels. If limited data are available, a conservative value may be derived. If implementation of this conservative value turns out to be too costly, it is worthwhile to invest resources in gathering additional data and subsequently deriving a more accurate value. This is reflected in the loops of the risk assessment approach (Figure 5.1), which has resulted in many tiered approaches, such as those discussed in Section 5.4.4. 

It may be useful to calculate a model project using simple average figures and compare the result with more exact cost assessment methods in order to find the best and simplest way to calculate future budgets with a sufficient degree of exactness and confidence. 

As the population ages and chronic diseases become more crucial to health care cost assessment, increasingly expensive but more effective prescription medications will be used. 

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