Costs saving

how does one deal with sizeable staffing level differences among pooled plants A common response is that a good accounting system will ensure that all costs are allocated properly. While theoretically correct, we believe this to be a pragmatically faulty conclusion, especially for indirect costs. Centralized services, support, and administration costs are sizeable in a nuclear plant and their allocation, at best, is imprecise. To be fair to all coowners, each item of difference must be looked at and dealt with individually to ensure that such costs are properly applied, and not incorrectly allocated across all owners. 

---

Fig. 3.24 shows the cost breakdown of a typical development well. As can be seen, drilling operations are the area with the largest scope for cost savings. The actual costs of a well show considerable variations and are dependent on a number of factors, e.g. ... 

Standardisation of equipment items is an area for potential cost savings, both in terms of capital expenditure (capex) and operating expenditure (opex), and is a decision which should be taken In consultation with the production operations department at the FDP stage. Standardisation can be applied to equipment items ranging from drilling platforms to valves. The benefits of standardisation are ... 

Increasing production and therefore inspection rates may increase the stress to the inspector and result in a decreasing reproducability and flaw detection rate. In addition by replacing the human inspector by a fully automatic image processing tremendeous cost savings are achieved. 

The total number of integrals computed depends greatiy on the level of complexity of the method time cost savings of 2 orders of magnitude can be realk ab initio theory n vs n ). 

Although most appHcations of fixed bed have multiple adsorber beds to treat continuous streams, batch operation using a single adsorber bed is an alternative. For purification appHcations, where one vessel can contain enough adsorbent to provide treatment for days, weeks, or even months, the cost savings and simplicity often justify the inconvenience of stopping adsorption treatment periodically for a short regeneration. 

Eeather meal, first hydroly2ed and then oxidi2ed, produces cysteic acid [13100-82-8] an excellent precursor for taurine in cats (20). Hydroly2ed feather meal may supplement the taurine provided by other dietary animal proteins and help replace part or all of the synthetic taurine in cat food formulations with considerable cost savings. 

Concentrations above 0.3% form a gel with borate which is reversible upon the subsequent addition of mannitol (a sequestrant for borate) or of acid. Usefiil combinations are formed with carrageenan (63) and xanthan gum (64) and agar. In many appHcations, it is used in combination with these gums at considerable cost savings. 

H. A. Dunford and B. Linnhoff, Cost Saving in Distillation Symposium, paper no. 10, Institution of Chemical Engineers, Leeds, U.K., 1981. 

Conceptual Design of MHD Repowered Plant. The first step toward MHD plant commercialization is a pilot-scale demonstration plant. Repowering of existing plants, actively under study both in the United States and elsewhere (65), allows use of existing systems at considerable cost savings compared to building a new plant from the ground up. It also ensures that the pilot scale demonstration occurs in a reaHstic utiHty environment and... 

A PPM program is needed to avoid equipment failures, utiHty outages, and production intermptions. From a cost savings angle it is extremely important to do preventive maintenance in order to avoid breakdowns. Periodic inspections and a good lubrication program uncover conditions that could lead to breakdowns. When problems are found eady, they can be taken care of without work intermption and costly repairs. Sometimes faciHty managers are so afraid of downtime that preventive maintenance is done too often. In other cases production does not allow adequate time to provide proper maintenance. 

The preferred route to higher purity naphthalene, either coal-tar or petroleum, is crystallisation. This process has demonstrated significant energy cost savings and yield improvements. There are several commercial processes available Sulser-MWB, Brodie type. Bets, and Recochem (37). 

As weU as imparting improved fire retardancy these materials may also result ia volume cost savings if they can be purchased for a lower price than the commodity phthalate. Precise knowledge of the compatibiHty between standard plasticizers and chlotinated paraffins is requited because some mixtures become iacompatible with each other and the PVC resias ia use at certain temperatures. Phthalate—chlotinated paraffin compatibiHty decreases as the molecular mass of the phthalate and the plasticizer content of the PVC formulation iacrease. Many compatibiHty graphs are available (1). 

Because of low injection pressure, some cost savings are possible in mold and press constmction. Mol ding cycles are somewhat longer than for injection molding. The part must be cooled in the mold long enough to be able to resist swelling from internal gas pressure. In stmctural foam parts there is almost a total absence of sink marks, even in the case of unequal section thickness. Stmctural foam has replaced wood, concrete, sohd plastics, and metals in a variety of appHcations. 

Acesulfame-K—aspartame blends exhibit a significant synergistic effect (Fig. 4) (65,66). This synergy provides large cost savings for the diet foods industry. The blend also has a more rounded taste. Each sweetener apparendy masks the off-taste associated with the other. Increased blend usage is expected. 

Other Uses. The production of finished shapes from iron powder by compacting and sintering utilizes about 100,000 t of iron powder aimuaHy copper powder (2—10 wt %) is normally added as a sintering aid. Addition of 2% tin powder or equal amounts of tin and copper powder considerably lowers the sintering temperature and time of sintering at a cost saving. The tin addition also improves dimensional control. Iron powder plus 10 wt % powdered lead—tin metal is pressed and siatered to make pistons for use ia automotive hydrauHc brake cylinders. 

Forming-Die Alloys. The tonnage of slab zinc used in this appHcation is small. The use of zinc alloy dies started in the aircraft industry during World War II (119). Zinc-based alloys cast in sand and plaster molds continue to be used for short-mn dies for steel and aluminum stampings in the automotive and aircraft industries (120). Considerable cost savings are realized with these low melting zinc-based alloys which are easy to poHsh, machine, weld, and remelt. 

---