Economy of scale

For the above reasons, gas Is typically economic to develop only if it can be used locally, i.e. if a local demand exists. The exception to this is where a sufficient quantity of gas exists to provide the economy of scale to make transportation of gas or liquefied gas attractive. As a guide, approximately 10 Tcf of recoverable gas would be required to justify building a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant. Globally there are few such plants, but an example would be the LNG plant in Malaysia which liquefies gas and transports it by refrigerated tanker to Japan. The investment capital required for an LNG plant Is very large typically in the order of 10 billion. 

Chemical conversion processes can also be used for moisture and oxygen removal. These tend to be the same ones developed for the smaller point-of-use purifiers. Consequently there is Httle economy of scale and they are seldom able to be regenerated. 

Approximately 50—55% of the product from a coal-tar refinery is pitch and another 30% is creosote. The remaining 15—20% is the chemical oil, about half of which is naphthalene. Creosote is used as a feedstock for production of carbon black and as a wood preservative. Because of modifications to modem coking processes, tar acids such as phenol and cresyUc acids are contained in coal tar in lower quantity than in the past. To achieve economies of scale, these tar acids are removed from cmde coal tar with a caustic wash and sent to a central processing plant where materials from a number of refiners are combined for recovery. 

Reciprocating Compressors. Prior to 1895, when Linde developed his air Hquefaction apparatus, none of the chemical processes used industrially required pressures much in excess of I MPa (145 psi) and the need for a continuous supply of air at 20 MPa provided the impetus for the development of reciprocating compressors. The introduction of ammonia, methanol, and urea processes in the early part of the twentieth century, and the need to take advantage of the economy of scale in ammonia plants, led to a threefold increase in the power required for compression from 1920 to 1940. The development of reciprocating compressors was not easy Htfle was known about the effects of cycles of fluctuating pressure on the behavior of the... 

There is mote than one way to make PV systems cost effective, ie, by making mote efficient and less expensive devices, by stimulating the market toward higher sales in order to justify production volume increases to achieve economies of scale, and by combinations of these options. In any case, modules must operate tehably for long periods of time. 

As with ah thin-film PV technologies, the projected manufacturing costs of a-Si H ahoy PV modules fah rapidly with annual manufacturing volume, ie, MWp /yr. The primary driver of this volume cost reduction is the volume—cost relationship of commercially available thin-film processing equipment. Thin-film coating machines often have capacities equivalent to 3—5 yr, so that manufacturing economies of scale are more fully realized at the... 

Production, Storage, and Shipment. All U.S. producers have at least a 75,000-t aimual capacity. There are some small plants and small producers in Europe with less than 20,000-t capacity. These are gradually being shut down, and any new plant would have to be large in order to reach economies of scale in the present market (ca 1995), which is highly competitive. 

Economic Aspects. Isophthahc acid in North America sold for 1.19— 1.32/kg in 1994, depending on the shipment method. The price of xylene plays a role, although not to the same extent as -xylene in terephthaUc acid. The far lower production volumes and smaller plant sizes for isophthahc acid do not give the same economies of scale. 

There is no economy of scale as more prints are made, as is the case for conventional printing. This limits electrophotography to the short-mn market. 

The expected annual sales volume is important not only for estimating sales revenue, but also for the selection of plant capacity (20) or process type. An economy of scale is typical of many process operations because both investment and some operating costs tend to vary with capacity to a fractional power less than unity. 

The total plant, whether single or multiple trains, should nonnally be of the established commercial maximum size. Otherwise, without maximum economy of scale, it will be difficult to compete in the marketplace. 

The economies of scale that follow from large reactors producing more economically than smaller ones. 

Structurally the difference between PEN and PET is in the double (naphthenic) ring of the former compared to the single (benzene) ring of the latter. This leads to a stiffer chain so that both and are higher for PEN than for PET (Tg is 124°C for PEN, 75°C for PET is 270-273°C for PEN and 256-265°C for PET). Although PEN crystallises at a slower rate than PET, crystallization is (as with PET) enhanced by biaxial orientation and the barrier properties are much superior to PET with up to a fivefold enhancement in some cases. (As with many crystalline polymers the maximum rate of crystallisation occurs at temperatures about midway between Tg and in the case of both PEN and PET). At the present time PEN is significantly more expensive than PET partly due to the economies of scale and partly due to the fact that the transesterification route used with PEN is inherently more expensive than the direct acid routes now used with PET. This has led to the availability of copolymers and of blends which have intermediate properties. 

A few of the oxide ores of copper can be reduced directly to the metal by heating with coke, but the bulk of production is from sulfide ores containing iron, and they require more complicated treatment. These ores are comparatively lean (often 0.5% Cu) and their exploitation requires economies of scale. They are therefore obtained in huge, open-pit operations employing shovels... 

A cargo barge travels up the Rhine. Though weather conditions can affect timeliness, the economies of scale usually make water transport cheaper than rail. (Corbis Corporation)... 

Because rail systems exhibit economies of scale. 

All the countries that produce nuclear waste have chosen the same alternative for the ultimate disposition of HLW, deep geological isolation, and they did so indepeiideiitly of one another. The United States has the most radioactive nuclear waste and the most complicated array of waste types of any nuclear country. Only in the United States can one find the same economy of scale for waste handling. Thus, it leads the world in most activities aimed at safe isolation. Ill France, Japan, and Great Britain, however, reprocessing is routinely practiced. Those countries reprocess HLW for many other countries. As mentioned above, reprocessing is not currently allowed in the United States. 

---