Why the Applied Studies Centre  exists is as follows:

 

The Applied Studies Centre is a for-profit consultancy which specialization is in power plant project construction and operations cost analysis.  This site exists as a downloadable library for capabilities development in both developing countries and in the industrial West.  It is created in response to an observed and measurable decline in expertise in the non-degree’d disciplines which support the activities of registered professional mechanical, electrical and civil engineers. 

 

In the mechanical contracting industry worldwide, there is a critical shortage of young persons who wish to work the white-collar end of things armed with but basic skills of mathematics, science and a solid business writing style.  This not only applies to purchasing and construction cost estimating functions, but also to proposal writing and pricing development in sales departments of construction contractors.  Not everyone wants a college education and the political and cultural baggage which goes along with being a degree’d licenced professional, and there is more of a need for good staff personnel than for yet more managers.   The staff of the Applied Studies Centre hopes to make good on making available to the apt student of power plant building the tools needed for an interesting and exciting career providing power to the people.

 

It is also our aim to aid and assist the technical writer, project tracking and reporting clerk, and regulatory permit writer to improve their skills in getting the point across to those whom they serve.

 

Lastly, it is a well-known quirk of our Western economy that most of the essential day-to-day methods of conducting mechanical construction on an industrial scale are rules of thumb passed on by cross-mentoring by peers, with the old and grey monkeys instructing the nimble but inexperienced young ones in the finer points of stealing bananas.  The apt pupil of the knowledge provided at this site will find many of these quasi-folkloric tricks of the trade both useful and profitable. 

 

Much of the tradecraft to be presented here quite possibly could be the first instance of these methods and assumptions being put forth in print form.

             Who we are:

 

The Applied Studies Centre is an unstructured cabal of  “permatemp” (independent workers who prefer to work on a subcontract basis from project to project rather than hanging about with one company for their careers) mechanical cost analysts, proposal writers,  power plant, boiler and gas turbine sales persons, and jobsite clerks.  The Centre’s sole proprietor, site editor, and database manager is Walter James O’Brien.  As well as being  content editor for the HVAC and power generation costbook sections for Craftsman Book Company, he is a cost-estimating and project managerial thirty-one-year veteran of roughly 100-plus industrial boiler power plant construction projects, 200-plus boiler burner changeouts, over a dozen gas turbine generator installations, and twenty-odd steam turbine generator projects, including several plant decommissioning and demolition jobs.  As a cost analyst, development writer and documentation clerk, the number of feasibility studies to which he contributed since the introduction of the Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 amount to over four hundred. 

 

4 December 2009: To introduce POSITIVE MOTIVATION   to the Copenhagen Summit respecting AGW science, such as it is,  I provide a range of commonsensical ways of monetizing carbon dioxide and other combustion products.  Also, a sample downloadable spreadsheet will be provided as a planning tool for basic ammonia-based urea and ammonium sulfate manufacture.  Please see below.

 

                              

 Our Charter:

 

Our scope of work is limited to construction cost estimation to cover both workhours by task and equipment costs, equipment specification, and pre-procurement evaluation and  recommendation.  We also provide valuable insight and consulting services relating to the “last 5%” of project construction undertakings to include development of acceptance criteria for job closeout for both the contractor client and the contractor. 

 

Our training capabilities are limited to on-the-job custom-tailored apprenticeship programme development.  There is no general theoretical approach which is worth the trouble without direct mentoring along with it.  Learning by doing is the only training service we offer.  

 

We welcome the opportunity to review your scope of work, however demanding and whatever your location. Please e-mail or call at your convenience, as we are at your service.  Tell us your needs and we shall assemble the team for the job.

 

—–Walter James O’Brien, Editor

      TransActions Magazine

      Member,

      NWU Local 1981, UAW, AFL-CIO

      Freelancers Union,

      Member #88271

 

 

 

 

Serving The Mechanical Fabricator

                        Serving the Power Plant Builder

Serving the Power Plant Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul Organization

Mr. O’Brien in Haiti with the General Manager, EDH, the Minister for Public Works,  the Secretary of State for Energy and Telecommunications, and the Minister for Energy and Mining

Please post all enquiries to: editor at transactionsmagazine dot com

Alternatively, you may leave an answer-back number at 01.425.388.7384

All text, images and designs copyright 2010 Walter James O’Brien.  All rights reserved under North American, Madrid and Commonwealth Protocols.

Israel Export and

International Cooperation Institute

B2B  Import/Export Trade Portal

The only way to create lasting prosperity is

by creating jobs  through international trade

 

 

 

Israel Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor

UPDATED: Time-Tested  and API-Approved Chemical Engineering Methods for Converting Conventional Coal-Fired Plants to Coal Gasification Mode Which Are Self-Financing On a “Pay-As-You-Go” Basis:  Incremental Gasification Conversion Through Sequestering Carbon Emissions Through Steam Reforming for the Manufacture Onsite of Nitrogen and Sulfate Fertilizers, Methanol, Plastics, Toluene and Synthetic Diesel Fuel   PLEASE CLICK HERE

UPDATE   17 JAN  2010

The Applied Studies Centre Haiti programme as proposed in 2005 and was built has been resubmitted to CIDA for reconstruction following stabilization of the current situation.   

 

Our condolences to those families in Haiti who lost loved ones to this disaster, and most especially to Mr. O’Brien’s  co-workers’ families in Haiti, whomever of them still are alive.  We shall rebuild.

 

 

Please refer to the Webpage covering these developments by clicking below:

 

 

 

Project  Update