Hydrogen production technology for powering civil and industrial systems : a review
Partial use of alternative energy exemplified by hydrogen energy is expected to reduce negative impacts associated with the current dependence on fossil energy and bring net gain to regional and national economies. Hydrogen has emission levels that are far below the existing and possibly, future standards. Hydrogen energy may enhance energy security and perhaps allay concerns some concerns about global climatic change, environmental issues, energy efficiency, and infrastructure development. Since the production of hydrogen is energy-intensive, a production technique that negates this disadvantage with a high volume output within a reasonable time, is desirable.
Development of a QFD trade-off methodology for automotive hydrogen tanks
Development of automotive vehicle standards for hydrogen tanks is an emerging process. A series of best practices, in this area, was identified via literature review and confirmed by domain experts. These practices were analysed and integrated to derive an approach for design trade-off analysis. Quality function deployment (QFD) is a well-known Japanese production planning technique. It involves the construction of a series of linked matrices associating customer requirements to progressively more detailed levels of product characteristics. A QFD analogue approach was developed for this research, then applied, using actual experimental data. Fundamental to the application of good systems engineering principles is an understanding of such critical factors as cost, risk (safety) and service life (duration of use), and how these factors relate to the overall design. The key benefit of this effort is the formulation of a means by which any two implementable hydrogen tank designs for vehicles can be compared consistently with regard to trade-off between these critical factors.
An Internet-based Real-time Heavy Rainfall Display System
A new storm warning system, which can be accessed through the Internet and by cellular phones is described. At the time of a heavy rainfall for disaster prevention, it is important that every resident understand how heavy is that rainfall. A real-time heavy rainfall display system designed for all of Japan provides such information (http://www.disaster-i.net/rain/). In that system values for 1-hour precipitation, 24-hour accumulated precipitation, etc. are displayed at every observatory. Advantages are that not only the latest observations but differences from the historical highest records can be seen. Almost all information is displayed by characters so that users have easy access to the system even when the communication network is crowded. Access date for the six months after the system opened shows that the average daily number of accesses of the top page was 306, and the largest number 3078. The maximum number for daily access to all the pages was about 21,500. This is about 2% of the number obtained on the same day for a similar system operated by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (http://www.river.go.jp/).