81results about How to "Minimize investment" patented technology

A system and method of reducing consumption of electricity used to cool electronic computer data center, networking, and telecommunications equipment, and to reduce the incidence of thermal failure of electronic components, includes provision of one or more partitions to reduce the volume of the cooled environment supplying coldest possible cooled air from air conditioning systems to a chamber adjacent to racks containing the electronic components, preventing dilution of the supplied cooling airflow by warmer air from outside of the reduced volume environment, and controlling the delivery of cooling air flow through the reduced volume of the cooled environment.

The present system comprises a transmitting apparatus for digital broadcast which includes an original signal generating section, delaying section, information amount reducing section, and transmitting section. A receiving and reproducing apparatus for digital broadcast includes a signal reception front stage unit for receiving a high quality signal and a low quality signal, mode determining section and reproducing section composed of a delaying section and selecting section for selectively reproducing the high quality signal and the low quality signal. By employing time diversity, the transmitting apparatus sends the low quality signal having a smaller bandwidth and the high quality signal so that the low quality signal has a preceding time lag relative to the high quality signal, and the receiving apparatus reproduces broadcasting programs. Utilizing the frequency band for broadcast effectively, many broadcasting programs can be increased, and the investment for providing a gap filler can be minimized.

An electronic shopping system facilitates purchase transactions via a wireless telephone. A purchase transaction program is downloaded from the seller's server to a purchaser's wireless telephone via a program loader contained within the purchaser's wireless telephone. The purchase transaction program is stored in a program memory of the purchaser's wireless telephone. The purchase transaction program is used by the purchaser to facilitate the selection of items to be purchased, as well as payment therefor. An external bar code reader is attached to the wireless telephone to facilitate the selection of items to be purchased and is controlled via the downloaded purchase transaction program.

A shower trench drain apparatus includes a shower trench drain body of polymeric material having an integrally-formed drain channel with angled bottom surface and drain opening or openings, a waterproof membrane over the drain body, a clamp ring retaining the membrane to the drain body, and a grate adjustably retained to the drain body by a height adjustment mechanism. The trench drain body formed from a block of material such as PVC or ABS, which are compatible with approved plumbing materials and codes. The block has a flat bottom adapted for horizontal support during installation and includes integrally-formed features facilitating adjustment during installation while minimizing components and separate parts and simplicity of installation.

An integrated solution strategy that integrates multiple domains together in a seamless and standardized way for increasing a users control over facilities and equipment. This integrated approach can lead to a reduction of energy usage, more efficient energy usage, increased safety, health, and security of a facility and its occupants, optimized production in industrial settings, and associated and other economic advantages. Accurate, reliable information about a facility or equipment is essential to making timely, informed decisions. Enhanced automation provides a reliable means of collecting and assembling a variety of operating data and archiving that data into a central database for evaluation, reporting, forecasting, and negotiation with resource marketers.

A method of providing pre-authorized communication services and/or transactions via a plurality of networks, including accepting and processing a request from a user to provide at least one of a communication service, a transaction and user account information via a plurality of networks of different types, verifying that the user is authorized to receive the at least one of the communication service, the transaction, and the user account information, and that an account associated with the user has a sufficient amount currently available for payment of the at least one of the communication service and the transaction and charging, in real time, an authorized account associated with the user as the at least one of the communication service and the transaction is provided.

A method for producing clean energy from coal by feeding the coal in a reactor which is sealed to the atmosphere and moving the coal in the reactor while injecting oxygen to combust a portion of the coal in a substoichiometric mode to devolatilize the coal and yield a pressurized hydrogen rich raw gas which contains coal-derived cancer causing distillates and hydrocarbons together with a hot char. The distillates and the hydrocarbons are cracked to result in a cracked gas of essentially 2H₂ and 1CO which after desulfurization becomes an ideal synthesis gas that can be synthesized to a liquid fuel for heating and transportation as an alternate to petroleum.

The hot char is gasified in an air blown gasifier to produce a fuel gas and a molten slag which are jointly directed out of the gasifier through a common port which is maintained open for the free flow of both. The fuel gas and the molten slag separate from each other by flowing both gas and slag through a molten bath in a submerged manner in order to effectively scrub the fuel gas in the molten bath while it bubbles out of the bath.

After separation the fuel gas is treated for sulfur removal and is in condition for use as an efficient gas turbine fuel for power generation by virtue of its mass, while producing very low NO_x emissions when combusted. This fuel gas can also be used for raising steam and for clean burning in industrial heating. The method is capable of making coke and/or activated carbon.

The present invention relates to a process for the production of propylene in which in a first step isobutanol is subjected to a simultaneous dehydration and skeletal isomerisation to make substantially corresponding olefins, having the same number of carbons and consisting essentially of a mixture of n-butenes and iso-butene and in a second step n-butenes are subjected to methathesis, said process comprising:

• a) introducing in a reactor a stream (A) comprising isobutanol, optionally water, optionally an inert component,
• b) contacting said stream with a catalyst in said reactor at conditions effective to dehydrate and skeletal isomerase at least a portion of the isobutanol to make a mixture of n-butenes and iso-butene,
• c) recovering from said reactor a stream (B), removing water, the inert component if any and unconverted isobutanol if any to get a mixture of n-butenes and iso-butene,
• d) fractionating said mixture to produce a n-butenes stream (N) and to remove the essential part of isobutene optionally recycled with stream (A) to the dehydration/isomerization reactor of step b),
• e) sending the stream (N) to a methathesis reactor and contacting stream (N) with a catalyst in said methathesis reactor, optionally in the presence of ethylene, at conditions effective to produce propylene,
• f) recovering from said methathesis reactor a stream (P) comprising essentially propylene, unreacted n-butenes, heavies, optionally unreacted ethylene,
• g) fractionating stream (P) to recover propylene and optionally recycling unreacted n-butenes and unreacted ethylene to the methathesis reactor.

By utilizing a cell phone carried by a driver or a fellow passenger to exchange with a base station during talking (through polling during non-talking), position information of the cell phone is obtained. The position information is collected and gathered as probe data and by matching the data with road map data, traffic congestion information on roads is generated. Then, when a business car of a driver carrying a cell phone is not traveling in a range initially predicted, it is decided whether position data of the cell phone is suitable as probe information and accurate traffic congestion information is generated.

A process for the deep desulfurisation of hydrocarbons (HC), in particular Natural Gas Condensate (NGC), and HC comprising diesel, pre-extracted diesel and naphtha, is described which is capable of reducing the sulfur content of these HC from 500 to 30 ppm. The process comprises contacting the hydrocarbon material with an oxidant selected from organic peroxy acids, organic peroxides, inorganic peroxides and mixtures thereof, in at least a stochiometric amount sufficient to oxidise a sulfur compound to a sulfone compound; contacting the hydrocarbon material with an aqueous extractant to allow at least a portion of the oxidised sulfur compounds to be extracted into the aqueous extractant, and separating the hydrocarbon material from the aqueous extractant to give a hydrocarbon material of reduced sulfur content. Optionally, the process may include a second and subsequent extractions with the aqueous extractant to further reduce sulfur content. A final extraction with an IL may be conducted. The invention also provides for substitution of the aqueous extractant with an IL in one or more of the other extraction steps. The extractants and by products generated during f01 oxidation can be recovered by simple distillation techniques.

A method and system for identifying relevant metrics among metrics that are measured to determine conformance with a service level agreement. The method includes selecting two sets of points, each set representing a given number of measurements for an individual metric and setting a separate threshold for each of the sets of points. The threshold values are selected to produce a set of quadrants so as to maximize distribution of points of intersection of each of the sets of points between a second quadrant and a fourth quadrant in a four-quadrant graph. The method can be performed on a computer system.

Facilitating communications between an electronic payment device and an issuer host includes storing in the payment device a set of personalization parameters. A first set of status information indicative of available status information relating to the payment device is transformed into a second set of status information based on the set of personalization parameters, and/or a second set of actions is selected from a first set of actions indicative of available actions to be performed by the payment device based on the set of personalization parameters and an order received from the issuer for initiating at least one corresponding action in the payment device. The second set of status information includes a subset of the first set of status information; the second set of actions includes a subset of the first set of actions. The payment device transmits the second set of status information to the issuer and/or initiates the actions in the second set of actions corresponding to the order received from the issuer.

A system and method for the contained aerobic treatment of biodegradable matter, especially for box composting of organic wastes, is described. The system comprises a cover is a laminate of a porous polymeric layer adhered to a woven or knit or nonwoven fabric, in which the laminate has a specific air permeability and resistance to water vapor transmission (RET).

A process for incinerating combustible materials including the steps of: delivering combustible material and inlet gases to a primary combustion chamber, the inlet gases having an oxygen content of at least 50 vol %; burning the combustible material with the oxygen of the inlet gases in the primary combustion chamber producing flue gases and solid particulates as thermal decomposition products of the burnt combustible material; passing the flue gases and particulates to a secondary combustion chamber where further combustion occurs; cooling the flue gases exiting the secondary combustion chamber; returning a portion of the cooled flue gases to at least one of the combustion chambers where the cooled gases moderate the temperature in the at least one chamber; and passing the remaining portion of cooled flue gases on to a flue gas purification system where pollutants in the flue gases and particulates are substantially converted to benign compounds or removed entirely before the flue gases are emitted into the atmosphere.

The invention discloses a wind farm economy-based active power adjusting method and system. The method comprises the following steps: (A) dividing controllable priorities of all wind generator sets in a wind farm cluster according to the electricity price, and setting the wind generator set with low electricity price to be preferentially controlled high-priority set; (B) when an execution cycle T1 is reached, distributing stand-alone expected output power to all wind generator sets in the current controllable priority; (C) setting the minimum expected output power, and labeling the sets as controllable shutdown sets when the expected output power of the sets reaches the value; and (D) when an execution cycle T2 is reached, determining the shutdown order of the controllable shutdown sets according to the accumulated use frequencies of grid-connected switches of the sets and preferentially shutting down the set of which the grid-connected switch is low in accumulated use frequency. Active power adjusting control is carried out based on the wind farm economy; and the maximum profits of the wind farm and the minimum capital investment into wind turbine components can be achieved.

The present invention (in a first embodiment) relates to a process for the simultaneous dehydration and skeletal isomerisation of isobutanol to make substantially corresponding olefins, having the same number of carbons and consisting essentially of a mixture of n-butenes and iso-butene, said process comprising:

• a) introducing in a reactor a stream (A) comprising isobutanol, optionally water, optionally an inert component,
• b) contacting said stream with a catalyst in said reactor at conditions effective to dehydrate and skeletal isomerise at least a portion of the isobutanol to make a mixture of n- butenes and iso-butene,
• c) recovering from said reactor a stream (B), removing water, the inert component if any and unconverted isobutanol if any to get a mixture of n-butenes and iso-butene,

Wherein,

the WHSV of the isobutanol is at least 1 h⁻¹ or the temperature is from 200° C. to 600° C. and the catalyst is capable to make simultaneously the dehydration and skeletal isomerization of butene.

The catalyst is a crystalline silicate of the group FER, MWW, EUO, MFS, ZSM-48, MTT, MFI, MEL or TON having Si/Al higher than 10,

• or a dealuminated crystalline silicate of the group FER, MWW, EUO, MFS, ZSM-48, MTT, MFI, MEL or TON having Si/Al higher than 10,
• or a phosphorus modified crystalline silicate of the group FER, MWW, EUO, MFS, ZSM-48, MTT, MFI, MEL or TON having Si/Al higher than 10,
• or a silicoaluminaphosphate molecular sieve of the group AEL,
• or a silicated, zirconated or titanated or fluorinated alumina.

Advantageously the stream (B) is fractionated in a step d) to produce a n-butenes stream (N) and to remove the essential part of isobutene optionally recycled with stream (A) to the dehydration/isomerization reactor of step b).

The invention relates to a method for operating a switching node of a communications network, wherein the communications network comprises a layered architectural environment and a non-layered achitectural environment. The switching node provides processing capabilities for the processing of communications services both within the layered and the non-layered architectural environment The method comprises the steps of receiving a communication service request, determining according to at least one predetermined rule as an operation mode, whether the switching node is going to act for a processing of the requested communication service as a switching node of the layered architectural environment or as a switching node of the non-layered architectural environment, and processing the requested communications service in accordance with the determined operation mode of the switching node. The invention relates further to a corresponding network node, communications system and computer program