• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• 제23권4호
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• pp.256-262
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• 2014

Cycle length of domestic nuclear power plants is determined by the demand-supply plan of utility company. The target cycle length is achieved by adjusting the number of feed fuel assembly and fuel enrichment. Traditionally, utility company first select the number of feed fuel assembly and then find out the fuel enrichment to achieve the special cycle length. But it is difficult to find out if this method is most economical than any other combinations of the enrichment and batch size satisfying the same cycle length. In this paper, core depletion calculation is performed to find out the optimum combination of the enrichment and batch size for given target cycle length in terms of fuel cycle cost using commercial core design code; CASMO/MASTER code. To minimize the uncertainty resulting from transition core analysis, levelized fuel cycle cost analysis was applied to the equilibrium cycle core in order to determine the optimum combination. The sensitivity study of discount rate was also carried out to analyze the levelized fuel cycle cost applicable to countries with different discount rates. From the levelized fuel cycle cost analysis results, the combination with smaller batch size and higher fuel enrichment becomes more economical as the discount rate becomes lower. On the other hand, the combination with higher batch size and lower fuel enrichment becomes more economical as the discount rate becomes higher.

• Clean Technology
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• 제29권1호
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• pp.53-58
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• 2023

This study shows the summary of the economic performance of excess electricity conversion to hydrogen as well as methane and returned conversion to electricity using a fuel cell. The methane production process has been examined in a previous study. Here, this study focuses on the conversion of methane to electricity. As a part of this study, capital expenditure (CAPEX) is estimated under various sized plants (0.3, 3, 9, and 30 MW). The study shows a method for economic optimization of electricity generation using a fuel cell. The CAPEX and operating expenditure (OPEX) as well as the feed cost are used to calculate the discounted cash flow. Then the levelized cost of returned electricity (LCORE) is estimated from the discounted cash flow. This study found the LCORE value was ¢10.2/kWh electricity when a 9 MW electricity generating fuel cell was used. A methane production plant size of 1,500 Nm³/hr, a methane production cost of $11.47/mcf, a storage cost of $1/mcf, and a fuel cell efficiency of 54% were used as a baseline. A sensitivity analysis was performed by varying the storage cost, fuel cell efficiency, and excess electricity cost by ±20%, and fuel cell efficiency was found as the most dominating parameter in terms of the LCORE sensitivity. Therefore, for the best cost-performance, fuel cell manufacturing and efficiency need to be carefully evaluated. This study provides a general guideline for cost performance comparison with LCORE.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of IIIuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers Conference
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• 한국조명전기설비학회 2003년도 학술대회논문집
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• pp.289-290
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• 2003

This paper gives a method for the minimization of the fuel cost by optimal generation. Derivation of the sensitivity of system loss by optimization technique is introduced and the loss sensitivities are substituted into the optimality conditions to obtain the minimized fuel cost.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• 제13권4호
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• pp.167-175
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• 2011

Evaluation of fuel consumption for the various road condition and vehicle type is necessary to perform the economic analysis of road construction which is important for the efficient design and management of road. Economic analysis of road should consider the social cost which can be divided into agency cost including initial construction expense, maintenance cost, and so on, and user cost consisting of vehicle operating cost, congestion cost, etc. Since vehicle operating cost depends on the traffic volume, fuel consumption that is a major part of vehicle operating cost will change by traffic volume as well. Fuel consumption is significantly affected by vehicle speed and road condition, especially the roughness. Thus, fuel consumption should be evaluated in terms of road condition, which is not currently considered. In this study, the estimation model of fuel consumption for the passenger cars in Korea has been developed by considering the road condition. First, the relationship between vehicle speed and fuel consumption that is used to calculate the vehicle operating cost for investment evaluation of transportation facility and the initial feasibility study of road construction was investigated. Second, with the consideration of road roughness, fuel consumption of the passenger car was measured. From the measurement, it was found that fuel consumption increased by $80m{\ell}$ per 100km driving as the roughness increased by 1m/km. Therefore, it is recommended that for the economic analysis of road design and management, the fuel consumption should be a function of road roughness.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• 제13권4호
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• pp.271-282
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• 2015

External cost is cost imposed on a third party when producing or consuming a good or service. Since the 1990s, the external costs of nuclear powered electricity production have been studied. Costs are a very important factor in policy decision and the external cost is considered for cost comparison on electricity production. As for nuclear fuel cycle, a chosen technology will determine the external cost. However, there has been little research on this issue. For this study, methods for external cost on nuclear power production have been surveyed and analyzed to develop an approach for evaluating external cost on nuclear fuel cycles. Before the Fukushima accident, external cost research had focused on damage costs during normal operation of a fuel cycle. However, accident cost becomes a major concern after the accident. Various considerations for external cost including accident cost have been used to different studies, and different methods have been applied corresponding to the considerations. In this study, the results of the evaluation were compared and analyzed to identify methodological applicability to the external cost estimation with nuclear fuel cycles.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• 제35권9호
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• pp.765-776
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• 2011

For container shipping company, fuel oil prise is a considerable expense. Since 2008, fuel oil prises have risen dramatically. An increasing fuel oil price in container shipping, in the short term, is only partially compensated through surcharges and may affect earnings negatively. This study discusses the impact of an increasing fuel oil price and capital costs for vessels on the Asia-Europe trade of 'H' Shipping Company. According to the result of 'H' carrier's operation in 2008, there were no cost differences between 8 and 9 vessels operations in case of fuel oil price with USD 169/tons while adopting USD 31,818 as a fixed cost. We can expect that the fuel oil price will not go lower than USD 200/Ton on the basis of current high oil price phenomenon. When the fuel oil price is over USD 200/ton, 9 vessel operation is more economic than 8 vessel operation even if the fixed cost is over USD 35,000.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• 제27권3호
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• pp.103-109
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• 2009

Aircraft fuel cost is the largest airline expenses in airlines who play a major role in air transportation system. Airlines have been making a great effort to save fuel as much as they can. Among these efforts, the systematic fueling strategy has been taken a growing attention since it is recognized as a very cost-effective fuel management strategy. The systematic fueling strategy is the fuel saving strategy in which extra amount of fuel is loaded to utilize the fueling cost differentiation among the cities where the aircraft operate. In this paper, the aircraft fueling optimization model is proposed. The proposed model is to calculate precise amount of loaded fuel to minimize overall fuel cost assuming that the aircraft routing for all aircrafts and fueling cost in all airports where the aircraft fly are given. Compared with heuristic fueling strategy, the result of the proposed model is promising. Therefore, it is expected that the proposed model plays a major role in fuel management strategy in airline operation.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국연소학회 2013년도 제46회 KOSCO SYMPOSIUM 초록집
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• pp.19-20
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• 2013

The cofiring of renewable fuel in coal fired boilers is an attractive option to mitigate $CO_2$ emissions, since it is relatively low cost option for efficiently converting renewable fuel to electricity by adding biomass as partial substitute of coal. However, it would lead to reduce plant efficiency and flexibility in operation, and increase operation cost and capital cost associated with renewable fuels handling and firing equipment. The aim of this study is to investigate reduction of carbon dioxide at varying percentage of biomass in fuel blend to the boiler biomass, and estimate operation and capital cost. Wood pellet, PKS (palm kernel shell), EFB (empty fruit bunch) and sludge are considered as a renewable fuels for a cofiring with coal. Several approaches by the cofiring ratio are chosen from past plant demonstrations and commercial cofiring operation, and they are evaluated and discussed for CO2 reduction and cost estimation.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• 제20권5호
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• pp.321-326
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• 2008

This paper presents and analyzes the effects of on-grid electricity cost, fuel price and initial capital cost of a CHP system, on the optimum DG and AC capacity and NPV, by using the ORNL CHP Capacity Optimizer, which was applied to a library in a university. By considering the current domestic energy cost and initial capital cost, it is shown that the installation and operation of the CHP system is not economical. However, with the current domestic CHP installation cost and fuel price, the NPV achieved by the installation of CHP system is greater when the on-grid electricity price is a factor of ${\times}1.5$ the present value. Regarding the initial capital cost of the CHP system, the reduction of the DG cost is much more economical than that of the AC cost, with respect to NPV. Electricity cost and fuel price have opposite effects on NPV, and NPV is more sensitive to an increase of the electricity cost than an increase of the fuel price.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제43권2호
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• pp.141-148
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• 2011

This paper presents the quantitative analysis results of research on the burnup effect on the nuclear fuel cycle cost of BeO-$UO_2$ fuel. As a result of this analysis, if the burnup is 60 MWD/kg, which is the limit under South Korean regulations, the nuclear fuel cycle cost is 4.47 mills/kWh at 4.8wt% of Be content for the BeO-$UO_2$ fuel. It is, however, reduced to 3.70 mills/kWh at 5.4wt% of Be content if the burnup is 75MWD/kg. Therefore, it seems very advantageous, in terms of the economic aspect, to develop BeO-$UO_2$ fuel, which does not have any technical problem with its safety and is a high burnup & long life cycle nuclear fuel.