title: Hardware in the loop evaluation of a hybrid heating system for increased energy efficiency and management

authors: Schumm, Gregor

abstract: This study presents the tests of a hybrid heating prototype, designed for retrofitting thermal treatment plants like pasteurization, to use hot water and steam in controlled ratios. In the food industry, steam with a temperature above 140°C usually supplies the thermal production processes. The majority of processes require temperatures below 100°C and could be supplied more eficiently by cogeneration, heat recovery or heat pumps. These low temperature heat sources can only be combined with the rigid steam system if the demand structure is changed to a hybrid use of hot water below 100°C and steam. The hybrid heating system (H2S) increases the energy efficiency by integrating the highest possible amount of low temperature heat and responds to sudden changes in the supply structure, like demand response strategies on intermittent renewable energies and the changing availability of hot water and steam. The technical implementation is realised by a hydraulic interconnection of heat exchangers and valves. A smart algorithm controls the integration of hot water and steam into the thermal process. For reasons of food safety and product quality defined process temperatures have to be met. Prerequisite for functional verification on a laboratory scale is a simulation of the process heat demand and potential of hot water during the entire production cycle. The load profiles and relevant process parameters are passed in real time to a hardware-in-the loop (HIL) test-bed and returned to the simulation respectively. Two scenarios, hot water integration from heat pump and demand response management with a gas engine CHP and an electrical steam generator, were evaluated and the functionality of the H2S was proved. Up to 78 % of the final energy demand can be reduced by the H2S based implementation of a heat pump. The control response of the system, even with fluctuating hot water potential and temperature, met the requirements of the dairy industry.

text: Hardware in the loop evaluation of a hybrid heating system for increased energy efficiency and management This study presents the tests of a hybrid heating prototype, designed for retrofitting thermal treatment plants like pasteurization, to use hot water and steam in controlled ratios. In the food industry, steam with a temperature above 140°C usually supplies the thermal production processes. The majority of processes require temperatures below 100°C and could be supplied more eficiently by cogeneration, heat recovery or heat pumps. These low temperature heat sources can only be combined with the rigid steam system if the demand structure is changed to a hybrid use of hot water below 100°C and steam. The hybrid heating system (H2S) increases the energy efficiency by integrating the highest possible amount of low temperature heat and responds to sudden changes in the supply structure, like demand response strategies on intermittent renewable energies and the changing availability of hot water and steam. The technical implementation is realised by a hydraulic interconnection of heat exchangers and valves. A smart algorithm controls the integration of hot water and steam into the thermal process. For reasons of food safety and product quality defined process temperatures have to be met. Prerequisite for functional verification on a laboratory scale is a simulation of the process heat demand and potential of hot water during the entire production cycle. The load profiles and relevant process parameters are passed in real time to a hardware-in-the loop (HIL) test-bed and returned to the simulation respectively. Two scenarios, hot water integration from heat pump and demand response management with a gas engine CHP and an electrical steam generator, were evaluated and the functionality of the H2S was proved. Up to 78 % of the final energy demand can be reduced by the H2S based implementation of a heat pump. The control response of the system, even with fluctuating hot water potential and temperature, met the requirements of the dairy industry.

year: 2016

title: Microbial diversity in relation to human activity in historic areas of Ross Dependency, Antarctica

authors: Minasaki, Ryuji

abstract: The goal of this study was to undertake a relatively broad microbiological investigation at historic areas of Cape Evans and Ross Island. The two phylogenetically diverse targets were Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent for anthrax disease, and filamentous micro-fungi associated food products. The human activities were presumed to have played a significant contribution to the introduction of non-indigenous Bacillus anthracis and many filamentous micro-fungi at the historic areas on Ross Island. 

Bacillus anthracis was suspected to be present at Cape Evans based on a circumstantial clinical analysis of the death of the member in Captain Robert F Scott's Terra Nova Expedition in 1912. Detection methods based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting B. anthracis specific genes on chromosome and two plasmids were employed. DNA extraction was performed by a bead-beating technique from 74 environmental samples. PCR efficiency was compromised probably due to inhibitors in DNA extracts, but improved with higher concentrations of Taq polymerase. Initially a total of 74 environmental samples were screened with one set of primers before positively tested 19 samples were rigorously investigated with seven sets of primers. Nested PCR also increased the target specificity and detection levels. Sequence analyses of the several positive samples from PCR reactions were characteristic to B. anthracis. 

A diverse range of filamentous micro-fungi were isolated on three different media at two different temperatures, 15 °C and 25 °C, and identified by classical morphological taxonomy from the foodstuffs and internal environmental samples of Captain Robert F Scott's historic hut at Hut Point built in 1901. In total, there were 22 taxa and 14 genera recorded including many cosmopolitan species isolated from the samples, in particular Penicillium species. An extensive literature review of the :filamentous micro-fungi found in Antarctica identified that 7 taxa isolated in the study were not reported previously. Many isolates were obtained at 15 °C while some isolates grew in the presence of antibiotics.

text: Microbial diversity in relation to human activity in historic areas of Ross Dependency, Antarctica The goal of this study was to undertake a relatively broad microbiological investigation at historic areas of Cape Evans and Ross Island. The two phylogenetically diverse targets were Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent for anthrax disease, and filamentous micro-fungi associated food products. The human activities were presumed to have played a significant contribution to the introduction of non-indigenous Bacillus anthracis and many filamentous micro-fungi at the historic areas on Ross Island. 

Bacillus anthracis was suspected to be present at Cape Evans based on a circumstantial clinical analysis of the death of the member in Captain Robert F Scott's Terra Nova Expedition in 1912. Detection methods based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting B. anthracis specific genes on chromosome and two plasmids were employed. DNA extraction was performed by a bead-beating technique from 74 environmental samples. PCR efficiency was compromised probably due to inhibitors in DNA extracts, but improved with higher concentrations of Taq polymerase. Initially a total of 74 environmental samples were screened with one set of primers before positively tested 19 samples were rigorously investigated with seven sets of primers. Nested PCR also increased the target specificity and detection levels. Sequence analyses of the several positive samples from PCR reactions were characteristic to B. anthracis. 

A diverse range of filamentous micro-fungi were isolated on three different media at two different temperatures, 15 °C and 25 °C, and identified by classical morphological taxonomy from the foodstuffs and internal environmental samples of Captain Robert F Scott's historic hut at Hut Point built in 1901. In total, there were 22 taxa and 14 genera recorded including many cosmopolitan species isolated from the samples, in particular Penicillium species. An extensive literature review of the :filamentous micro-fungi found in Antarctica identified that 7 taxa isolated in the study were not reported previously. Many isolates were obtained at 15 °C while some isolates grew in the presence of antibiotics.

year: 2003

title: Land/seascapes of exclusion: social order on the coastal margins

authors: Ryks, John

abstract: The hegemonic discourse of coastal planning and development has an impact on the social ordering of Aotearoa/New Zealand’s coastal communities in a number of ways. One way in which social order is controlled and maintained is through the (ab)use of boundaries. Boundaries constructed and maintained under the authority of government and/or funded by development dictate where people may or may not live. In many cases these boundaries are used as instruments of exclusion. Boundaries constructed by hegemonic groups exclude those who define the coast according to other criteria. The hegemonic deployment of boundaries and the domination of coastal people and place generally is explored through an analysis of discourse. This analysis is structured according to differences in social order, coded as places of Otherness (heterotopia), Euclidean coasts, and places in transition reflecting images of both the former and the latter.
Drawing on a number of coastal communities, including the Northland community of Otia (otherwise known as the Seaweed Pickers), Taylor’s Mistake, Whitianga and the wealth enclave of Pauanui, it is shown that the land/seascape of coastal Aotearoa/New Zealand is gradually being disciplined through the design of coasts that are accommodating of a particular patronage. These ‘exclusive’ coasts appear in stark contrast to those places where an alternative social ordering takes place. Here, in the absence of a Euclidean spatiality, uncertainty and liminality feature in the social construction of the coast. Residents of these places mark out and define the coast in a way that is quite different from the accepted norm, a fact that determines a particular ‘cartographic anxiety’ on the part of the dominant. This anxiety is instrumental in the construction of Otherness and the (re)production of exclusion.

text: Land/seascapes of exclusion: social order on the coastal margins The hegemonic discourse of coastal planning and development has an impact on the social ordering of Aotearoa/New Zealand’s coastal communities in a number of ways. One way in which social order is controlled and maintained is through the (ab)use of boundaries. Boundaries constructed and maintained under the authority of government and/or funded by development dictate where people may or may not live. In many cases these boundaries are used as instruments of exclusion. Boundaries constructed by hegemonic groups exclude those who define the coast according to other criteria. The hegemonic deployment of boundaries and the domination of coastal people and place generally is explored through an analysis of discourse. This analysis is structured according to differences in social order, coded as places of Otherness (heterotopia), Euclidean coasts, and places in transition reflecting images of both the former and the latter.
Drawing on a number of coastal communities, including the Northland community of Otia (otherwise known as the Seaweed Pickers), Taylor’s Mistake, Whitianga and the wealth enclave of Pauanui, it is shown that the land/seascape of coastal Aotearoa/New Zealand is gradually being disciplined through the design of coasts that are accommodating of a particular patronage. These ‘exclusive’ coasts appear in stark contrast to those places where an alternative social ordering takes place. Here, in the absence of a Euclidean spatiality, uncertainty and liminality feature in the social construction of the coast. Residents of these places mark out and define the coast in a way that is quite different from the accepted norm, a fact that determines a particular ‘cartographic anxiety’ on the part of the dominant. This anxiety is instrumental in the construction of Otherness and the (re)production of exclusion.

year: 2002