Several studies show that logistics facilities have spread spatially from relatively concentrated clusters in the 1970s to geographically more decentralized patterns away from urban areas. The literature indicates that logistics costs are one of the major influences on changes in distribution structures, or locations and usage of logistics facilities. Quantitative modelling studies that aim to describe or predict these phenomena in relation to logistics costs are lacking, however. This is relevant to design more effective policies concerning spatial development, transport and infrastructure investments as well as for understanding environmental consequences of freight transport. The objective of this paper is to gain an understanding of the responsiveness of spatial logistics patterns to changes in these costs, using a quantitative model that links production and consumption points via distribution centers. The model is estimated to reproduce observed use of logistics facilities as well as related transport flows, for the case of the Netherlands. We apply the model to estimate the impacts of a number of scenarios on the spatial spreading of regional distribution activity, interregional vehicle movements and commodity flows. We estimate new cost elasticities, of the demand for trade and transport together, as well as specifically for the demand for the distribution facility services. The relatively low cost elasticity of transport services and high cost elasticity for the distribution services provide new insights for policy makers, relevant to understand the possible impacts of their policies on land use and freight flows.
Distribution centres are becoming more and more relevant for spatial planning, due to their rapidly increasing size and number. There is little literature, however, that provides a generalized analysis of the size and functional attributes of distribution centres, and none that discusses the relationships between these attributes. Our aim is to fill this gap by providing new evidence and analysis to understand this relationship. We make use of an extensive database of 2888 DCs in the Netherlands to develop a new typology of DCs based on the geographical location of DCs, their functional attributes and client sector characteristics. The analysis shows that the context in which medium sized DCs are operating is more heterogeneous than in the case of very large and small size DCs. This study is a first attempt to analyse this relationship between facility size and functions based on a rich and extensive dataset of large population of DCs. The results can serve as input for further quantitative statistical analysis and international comparison.
Process Mining can roughly be defined as a data-driven approach to process management. The basic idea of process mining is to automatically distill and to visualize business processes using event logs from company IT-systems (e.g. ERP, WMS, CRM etc.) to identify specific areas for improvement at an operational level. An event log can be described as a database entry that signifies a specific action in a software application at a specific time. Simple examples of these actions are customer order entries, scanning an item in a warehouse, and registration of a patient for a hospital check-up.Process mining has gained popularity in the logistics domain in recent years because of three main reasons. Firstly, the logistics IT-systems' large and exponentially growing amounts of event data are being stored and provide detailed information on the history of logistics processes. Secondly, to outperform competitors, most organizations are searching for (new) ways to improve their logistics processes such as reducing costs and lead time. Thirdly, since the 1970s, the power of computers has grown at an astonishing rate. As such, the use of advance algorithms for business purposes, which requires a certain amount of computational power, have become more accessible.Before diving into Process Mining, this course will first discuss some basic concepts, theories, and methods regarding the visualization and improvement of business processes.
MULTIFILE
At gas stations, tetrahydrothiophene (THT) is added to odorless biogas (and natural gas) for quick leak detection through its distinctive smell. However, for low bio and natural gas velocities, evaporation is not complete and the odorization process is compromised, causing odor fluctuations and undesired liquid accumulation on the pipeline. Inefficient odorization not only endangers the safety and well-being of gas users, but also increases gas distribution companies OPEX. To enhance THT evaporation during low bio and natural gas flow, an alternative approach involves improve the currently used atomization process. Electrohydrodynamic Atomization (EHDA), also known as Electrospray (ES), is a technology that uses strong electric fields to create nano and micro droplets with a narrow size distribution. This relatively new atomization technology can improve the odorization process as it can manipulate droplet sizes according to the natural and bio gas flow. BiomEHD aims to develop, manufacture, and test an EHDA odorization system for applying THT in biogas odorization.
The energy transition is a highly complex technical and societal challenge, coping with e.g. existing ownership situations, intrusive retrofit measures, slow decision-making processes and uneven value distribution. Large scale retrofitting activities insulating multiple buildings at once is urgently needed to reach the climate targets but the decision-making of retrofitting in buildings with shared ownership is challenging. Each owner is accountable for his own energy bill (and footprint), giving a limited action scope. This has led to a fragmented response to the energy retrofitting challenge with negligible levels of building energy efficiency improvements conducted by multiple actors. Aggregating the energy design process on a building level would allow more systemic decisions to happen and offer the access to alternative types of funding for owners. “Collect Your Retrofits” intends to design a generic and collective retrofit approach in the challenging context of monumental areas. As there are no standardised approaches to conduct historical building energy retrofits, solutions are tailor-made, making the process expensive and unattractive for owners. The project will develop this approach under real conditions of two communities: a self-organised “woongroep” and a “VvE” in the historic centre of Amsterdam. Retrofit designs will be identified based on energy performance, carbon emissions, comfort and costs so that a prioritisation strategy can be drawn. Instead of each owner investing into their own energy retrofitting, the neighbourhood will invest into the most impactful measures and ensure that the generated economic value is retained locally in order to make further sustainable investments and thus accelerating the transition of the area to a CO2-neutral environment.
The European eel (Anguilla anguilla) is a delicacy fish and an integral part of the Dutch culinary history. However, the stock of adult eel has decreased significantly due to a precipitous recruitment of glass eel fall. This relates to multiple factors including obstacles in migration pathways, loss of habitat and chemical pollution. Consequently, Anguilla anguilla has become a critically endangered species and is protected under European legislation. One possible solution, explored on laboratory scale, is the captive reproduction of eels and growth of glass eel in aquaculture. A big challenge of this technique is the limiting aspect of possible nutrients for the eels in the larval stage, as the diet must be delivered in micrometric capsules (< 20 µm) with a high protein content. Such diets are not yet available on the market. Electrohydrodynamic atomization (EHDA) is a novel option to prepare a micro-diet suitable for eel larvae. EHDA is especially interesting for its narrow size distribution capabilities and for applications which require submicrometric sizes. This project aims to evaluate the use of EHDA to produce high protein content micrometric size capsules for feeding larval eels. If successful, this would assist in the captivity production of glass eel and to make the eel culture independent of wild catches, restoring the culinary market. The project will be conducted in two phases. Firstly, tests will be conducted to evaluate the necessary conditions of the capsules using EHDA. Subsequently, the obtained capsules will be tested as feed for eel larvae. The main objective is to favour the development of a more sustainable eel culture, regarding the possibilities of investigating the current fish in natura option and exchanging it for a captivity one.
