Cost ratio

The price differential at which coal becomes competitive with gas depends on plant size and the cost of capital, but based on estimates by the International Energy Agency (21) the required price ratio for gas to coal in North America falls into the range of 3.1 to 3.7 on an equivalent energy basis ( /MJ). Current prices give a gas/coal cost ratio nearer 1.5 to 2.0. As a result, all projected new methanol capacity is based on natural gas or heavy oil except for the proposed coal-based plant in China. 

In agriculture, the average benefit/cost ratio from insecticide use ranges from 3 to 5 return for every 1 invested by the farmer(s). There are many examples where the return is much greater. In California, treatment of sugarbeets with granular phorate systemic insecticide to control the aphid and... 

Pilot plant costs range from 10,000 to 10,000,000, but the majority are typically in the range of 50,000 to 250,000, assuming an existing facihty is available to house them. There are three basic methods for estimating the costs to design and constmct a pilot plant similarity, cost ratios, and detailed labor and materials. 

In general, similarity or general cost ratios estimates are used for developing screening estimates when an estimate is required quickly and a limited accuracy is acceptable. Detailed cost ratios or detailed labor and materials estimates are generally developed prior to actual appropriation of funds to develop a better estimate for budgeting and cost control purposes. 

Table 9-63 uses the data of Fig. 9-44 to compare the relative fixed-capital costs for plant constnic tion in other countries with those for the United States. The relative cost ratios were developed from data similar to those in Table 9-62. Labor ratios were corrected for the different local rates and hours per working week, job duration, and degree of mechanization available in other countries. Some of these factors are difficult to estimate, and the final total ratios give a reasonable order-of-magnitiide value for relative construction costs for equivalent plants in the countries indicated.

In considering either multiple payments or cash into and out of a company, the present values are additive. For example, at 6 percent interest, the present value of receiving both 1,000 in one year and 1,000 in three years would be 943.40 + 839.62 = 1,783.06. Similarly, if one were to receive 1,000 in one year, and pay 1,000 in 3 years the present value would be 943.40 - 839.62 = 103.78. It is common practice to compare investment options based on the present-value equation shown above. We may also apply one or all of the following four factors when comparing investment options Payback Period Internal Rale of Return Benefit-to-cost Ratio and Present Value of Net Benefit. But as we will see later, it is rate of return that is usually the most enlightening when considering an investment. 

It is eommon praetice to eompare investment options based on the present-value equation shown above. We may also apply one or all of the following four factors when comparing investment options Paybaek period Internal rate of return Benefit-to-cost ratio and Present value of net benefit. 

Capital investments can also be selected on the basis of other measures of performance such as return on investment, internal rate of return, and benefit-cost ratio (or savings-to-investment ratio). Flowever, care must be taken in the application of these methods, as an incremental analysis is required to ensure consistent comparison of mutually exclusive alternatives. Also, rather than requiring a separate value to be calculated for each alternative, as in the case of the life-cycle cost method, these other methods incorporate the difference between two mutually exclusive alternatives within a single measure. For example, the net benefits measure directly pressures the degree to which one alternative is more economically desirable than another. 

A recent study of the Penn-Lincoln Parkway indicated that the annual program investment of 220,000.00 for their roadside assistance program reduces congestion delay by more than. S47,000 hours per year (and a benefit-cost ratio of 30 1). 

The most difficult feature of this method is that for each type of plant or plant product as well as for each type of equipment there is a break-point where the 0.6 no longer correlates the change in capacity. For small equipment or plants in reasonable pilot or semi-works size, the slope of the cost curve increases and the cost ratio is greater than 0.6, sometimes 0.75, 0.8 or 0.9. From several cost values for respective capacities a log-log plot of capacity versus cost will indicate the proper exponent by the slope of the resultant curve. Extrapolation beyond eight or ten fold is usually not too accurate. 

Marketing forecasts for batteries have been compiled from the Annual Reports published by several battery companies. Information based on the trade journals and investor s brochures, which surveyed and evaluated the present and future global distribution of battery types, was collected. Points of interest were the availability of batteries and their performance/cost ratios, but also geographical usage in connection with social considerations, such as per-... 

CBA is the economic analysis, such as with design developments and research programs, in which both the inputs to produce the intervention (or costs) and its consequences or benefits are expressed in monetary terms of net savings or a benefit-cost ratio. A positive net saving or a benefit-cost ration greater than one indicates the intervention saves money. 

Seawater is increasingly being used as a RW source for industrial water, drinking water, and boiler FW because of both a lack of suitable alternatives in some areas of the world and constantly improving RO water production-cost ratios. Seawater TDS levels vary around the world, from approximately 36,000 to more than 45,000 ppm. As TDS levels increase, the RO applied pressure requirement typically may increase from 800 to 1000 psig or more to maintain recovery rates (usually 25-35%). 

Organisms capitalize on their relationships in a variety of ways, from birds and bees pollinating plants to mollusks taking up cnidocysts from prey. Parasitism is another type of relationship with ancient roots. Ordinarily defined as a —/+ relationship in which one member of a pair, the host, suffers a loss of fitness, while the other member, the parasite, benefits, parasitism may be better understood as a successful relationship in which the benefit/cost ratio reverses itself at the parasite s departure from its host. At that time, the parasite, rather than the host, pays an energetic premium. 

See also Economic aspects Cost indexes, 9 526-527 Cost of acquisition (COA), 15 471 Cost of haulage, of limestone, 15 37 Cost of ownership (COO), 15 471 Cost ratio construction cost estimation, 19 464-465... 

The optimal defense theory predicts that the benefit/cost ratio of defenses will be maximized by natural selection. When a plant consists of different kinds of tissues, within-plant variation in defenses is predicted to depend on the value of the plant part for fitness and on its risk of becoming grazed. The more valuable the tissue is... 

The accuracy/cost ratio of conventional multideterminantal methods depends on two factors. The first, the correlation or n-particle factor (discussed earlier), can be successfully reduced via the rapidly converging coupled-duster ansatz [see Eq. (13.4)]. The second, file one-partide factor, is the primary reason why predictions with spectroscopic accuracy using conventional expansion methods are hardly feasible even for the helium... 

Polytetrafluorethylene or PTFE (sometimes called TFE) is the most commonly used, the best known and, perhaps, has the highest performance, with excellent performance/ cost ratios. Its main drawback is the impossibility of processing it by conventional molten-state methods. All the hydrogen atoms of polyethylene are replaced by fluorine, leading to the following formula ... 

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