Browsing by Subject "energy"
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Item Alternatives to Petroleum Based Fuel for Marine Vessels(University of Minnesota Duluth, 2006) Skurla, James A; Jacobson, Jean; Hochsprung, Paul; Malik, Nitya; Slegh, David; Martopullo, Ela; Linde, Nicholas; Almquist-Minko, VickieItem Biomass Gasification(2010) Harstad, RachelItem Clean Energy Resource Teams Strategic Energy Plan(2006) Drake, ShannonItem Item Conservation Design for Commercial Properties(2008) Hills, SorayaItem Data for: Catalytic Resonance Theory: Negative Dynamic Surfaces for Programmable Catalysts(2021-08-14) Gathmann, Sallye R; Ardagh, M Alexander; Dauenhauer, Paul J; hauer@umn.edu; Dauenhauer, Paul J; Dauenhauer GroupCatalysts that change with time via programmed variation of their electronic occupation to accelerate surface reactions were evaluated in the case of negative adsorption energy scaling relations. Defined as the relative change in adsorption enthalpy, the gamma linear scaling parameter is negative when two adsorbates alternatively weaken and strengthen as catalysts are electronically perturbed. Simulations were conducted of a single transition state connecting two generic adsorbates representative of multiple reaction classes to understand the resulting negative gamma catalytic ratchet mechanism and its ability to accelerate catalytic reactions above the Sabatier peak and away from equilibrium. Relative to conventional positive gamma catalytic ratchets, the Sabatier volcanoes of negative gamma catalysis are narrower with greater enhancement of dynamic turnover frequency when catalysts are electronically oscillated. Promotion of the catalytic surface reaction forwards or backwards was predictable by a descriptor accounting for the relative rates of forward and reverse kinetics under oscillatory conditions.Item Discrepancy and energy in various geometric settings(2023-12) Mastrianni, MichelleThis dissertation details the author’s work on several related problems in the study of irregularities of distribution, particularly the geometric discrepancy. We begin by surveying the history of the field starting with the basic notion of equidistributed sequences in one dimension. One may quantify the distribution properties of a sequence—or more generally a point set—in some space via the discrepancy, which measures the deviation of the set from an ideal distribution. We discuss a number of important results and open problems in the study of the discrepancy function with respect to different geometric classes of sets on both the torus and the sphere, drawing connections to harmonic analysis. A significant part of the dissertation is devoted to the problem of determining the correct asymptotic for the discrepancy with respect to various classes of rotated rectangles in two dimensions. The two “extreme” cases—when the underlying class of sets consists of axis-parallel rectangles (a single direction) vs. arbitrarily rotated rectangles (all directions)—have been well-studied: the discrepancy in the former case is logarithmic in the number of points, while in the latter case it is polynomial. Thus, there is a natural question of what happens in various intermediate cases. We make partial progress on this problem in particular by proving a lower bound on the directional discrepancy where the allowed set of directions is a restricted interval. We then turn to some related problems regarding the discrepancy on the sphere. We give an overview of Beck’s bounds for the spherical cap discrepancy (which are akin to those for arbitrarily rotated rectangles in the plane), and then prove a refinement of Beck’s lower bound which removes a layer of averaging. We also consider upper bounds for the spherical cap discrepancy, and in particular give a new example of a point set (the HEALPix point set) that achieves the current best-known asymptotic for an upper bound on the spherical cap discrepancy for deterministic point sets. We conclude the paper with a brief discussion of a “greedy” sequence on the sphere which has good distribution properties in the sense of the L2-discrepancy and for which numerics suggest it may in fact achieve close to optimal discrepancy.Item Duluth's Energy Future: Economic Modeling of Proposed Biomass and Solar Initiatives(University of Minnesota Duluth, 2016) Haynes, Monica; Chiodi Grensing, Gina; Eisenbacher, Travis; Haedtke, KarenItem The Economic Impact of Constructing Five Electric Power Lines in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, 2012-2015(University of Minnesota Duluth, 2010) Skurla, James A; Jacobson, Jean; Kasim, Taha; Resch, Brian; Genest, Tanner; Almquist-Minko, VickieItem Economic Impact of Current and 10-Year Projections of Biofuels Production in Canada(University of Minnesota Duluth, 2021) Haynes, Monica; Chiodi Grensing, Gina; Brand, Nathan; Thorsgard, HaakanAdvanced Biofuels Canada, a national industry association established to promote the production and use of advanced biofuels, contracted with the Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER) at the University of Minnesota Duluth to identify and study the economic impact of increased biofuels production on six provinces in Canada pursuant to increased demand from federal and provincial fuel regulations. The study includes the estimated economic impact of 2020 (baseline) biofuels production along with the projected (2030) economic impacts of additional biofuels production capacity based on two scenarios of lower and higher buildouts. Economic impacts are presented for the full study area (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec) as well the western (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba) and central (Ontario and Quebec) regions individually. All results are shown in 2020 Canadian dollars. Inputs used in developing the economic impact models included baseline and projected production levels, revenue, and employment, as well as detailed industry spending for each biofuel type.Item Economic Impact of Current and 10-year Projections of Biofuels Production in Canada(University of Minnesota Duluth, 2021) Haynes, Monica; Chiodi Grensing, Gina; Brand, Nathan; Thorsgard, HaakanThe study includes the estimated economic impact of 2020 (baseline) biofuels production along with the projected (2030) economic impacts of additional biofuels production capacity based on two scenarios of lower and higher buildouts. Economic impacts are presented for the full study area (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec) as well the western (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba) and central (Ontario and Quebec) regions individually. All results are shown in 2020 Canadian dollars. Inputs used in developing the economic impact models included baseline and projected production levels, revenue, and employment, as well as detailed industry spending for each biofuel type.Item Economic Impact Study for Laskin and Taconite Harbor Energy Centers(University of Minnesota Duluth, 2013) Skurla, James A; Chiodi Grensing, Gina; Jacobson, Jenna; Swenson, Colleen; Almquist-Minko, VickieItem Electricity in North St. Paul(Resilient Communities Project (RCP), University of Minnesota, 2013) Wilson, ElizabethThis project was completed as part of the 2013-2014 Resilient Communities Project (rcp.umn.edu) partnership with the City of North St. Paul. The City of North St. Paul is unique in that it operates its own electric utility, in cooperation with Minnesota Municipal Power Agency. The City sought assistance investigating and providing information to residents, businesses, and elected officials about alternative energy and energy conservation initiatives, as well as identifying strategies for dedicating electric utility revenue toward green energy initiatives such as wind, solar, and geothermal. North St. Paul Electric Utility Director Brian Frandle partnered with five teams of students in PA 5271: Energy and Environmental Policy, to investigate such opportunities. An overview presentation by course instructor Elizabeth Wilson provides an overview of the electric grid in the city is available. (Student-produced videos from the five student teams are catalogued separately.)Item Energy and Equity in the Twin Cities Workshop Summary Report(2022) Ries, Heidi; Nelson, Edwin; Chan, GabrielThe Energy and Equity in the Twin Cities Workshop, jointly convened in November 2021 by the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment (IonE) and Robert J. Jones Urban Research and Outreach-Engagement Center (UROC), fostered dialogue, collaboration, and new partnerships to drive local solutions promoting energy justice. This summary report is for people who are interested in learning about local efforts – including projects developed during the workshop – to build an equitable green energy future. It is also for people who are interested in organizing cross-disciplinary workshops rooted in equity and shared learning. The Energy and Equity in the Twin Cities Workshop sought to engage local organizations and communities that historically have been excluded from conventional energy policy convenings, which tend to cater to established experts rather than community leaders such as activists, artists, and storytellers. It also sought to engage those working to address household wellbeing and security. More specifically, the workshop aimed to advance conversation, connection, and solutions to energy injustice by building bridges between the still largely distinct fields of clean energy policymaking and frontline community advocacy.Item Federal Regulations and State Compliance for Energy Efficiency(HHH, 2015-04-27) Prebich, ThomasItem Flooded in Sludge, Fueling the Nation: Generating Power, Waste, and Change in East Tennessee(2014-05) Hatmaker, MelissaThis project is a genealogy of the largest coal ash flood in US history that traces the intersecting forces that brought it into existence. And, it is a material analysis of the psychological, social, and geological processes that render this matter and this event largely invisible. At the intersections of environmental history, cultural geography, anthropology, and affect theory, this work centers on an analysis of power across multiple scales of social organization and through the development of the US electric grid. It is a layered account of the multiple ways desire for power and change produce a residue that perpetually accumulates. The project aims to enact a way of seeing that challenges and subtly alters the processes of knowledge production that render the ash flood invisible and outside of history. By drawing attention to the coal ash flood as a node of connection among multiple groups, ideas, and pasts, it explores how the excess production of coal ash physically and metaphorically emerges out of that which is forgotten or excluded from everyday life and the modes of knowledge production that condition it in the contemporary US.Item Fragile Energy: Power, Nature, And The Politics Of Infrastructure In The ‘New Turkey’(2016-08) Erensü, SinanThis dissertation provides a reading of political power in twenty-first century Turkey through the lens of (energy) infrastructures. By tracing the country’s bourgeoning energy infrastructures along their material, legal and financial dimensions, I examine energy’s ability to do political work and securing societal consent in Turkey, at a time when the idea of development is being privatized and the challenge of climate change encounters the country’s growing energy deficit. Relying on ethnographic and other qualitative methods collected along the path of energy infrastructures—including corridors of the bureaucracy, investment banks, construction sites, ribbon-cutting ceremonies, energy expos, local courthouses as well as electricity grids and hydropower penstocks—I argue that energy has played an under-recognized yet influential role in the establishment and sustenance of an authoritarian neoliberal experience, what is being dubbed by its founders, the ‘new Turkey’. Rather than collapsing the power harnessed from energy resources with political power, I introduce energy as a form of governmental rationality in the new Turkey that seeps into other realms of government from urban governance to counter-terrorism. The prowess of this emergent rationality, which I name as energorationality, stems from energy’s unique qualities in bringing center and periphery, urban and countryside, capital and commons together, from its ability to suture a variety of unlikely actors, policies, and ideas to each other. By examining grassroots mobilizations struggling against energy infrastructures in Turkey’s rural Eastern Black Sea Region (EBSR), I also discuss the fragility of energorationality. Mining disasters, unexpected droughts, unreliable projections, unruly villagers and urban riots, put delicate project cycles into disarray. I illustrate throughout the dissertation how energy infrastructures—small hydropower plants (small hydro, or SHP) in particular—, cause unexpected cracks as well as powerful sociopolitical alliances while converting uncharted rural and environmental settings into energy landscapes.Item Future Energy Solutions for North St. Paul: Exploring Net Zero Carbon(Resilient Communities Project (RCP), University of Minnesota, 2013) Connell, Ryan; Cruz, Alli; Laird, Angela; Tong, KangkangThis project was completed as part of the 2013-2014 Resilient Communities Project (rcp.umn.edu) partnership with the City of North St. Paul. The City of North St. Paul is unique in that it operates its own electric utility, in cooperation with Minnesota Municipal Power Agency. The city sought assistance investigating and providing information to residents, businesses, and elected officials about alternative energy and energy conservation initiatives, as well as identifying strategies for dedicating electric utility revenue toward green energy initiatives such as wind, solar, and geothermal. North St. Paul Electric Utility Director Brian Frandle partnered with five teams of students in PA 5271: Energy and Environmental Policy, to investigate such opportunities. A presentation prepared by student group 5 is available. A video produced by the students is available at https://youtu.be/rUPxwq_EG-Y. (Student deliverables from the other four student teams are catalogued separately.).Item The Future of Energy Use on Swine Farms(2017) Brumm, MikeItem Great River Energy Demand Side Management Overview(2017) Haase, Jeff