Plastic is one of the most universal materials used today. With a good future view, with new implementations and applications, it makes a lot of time to look at the production and management of the plastic materials. Plastic materials that have been used in our daily lives cause serious environmental problems. Millions of tons of these non-degradable plastics accumulate in the environment every year. The basic problem is that plastic is not naturally occurring in nature since containers are usually made of polyethylene terephthalate. This means that microorganisms do not have the ability to break it down to the current cycle. It takes hundreds of years for plastic containers to break down, not biologically but only degenerate into smaller and smaller pieces. Plastic breaks down into smaller pieces that become smaller and smaller until we cannot see them with the naked eye, mainly through heat and UV light. Although we cannot see them, they are still present and become part of our nature forever. Bioplastics is the plastic industry's tool to try to reduce these little pieces of our nature that will remain forever so that they do not grow more. With today's plastic packaging, which is said to be bioplastic, additives of, for example, cobalt and nickel, which are said to make it easier for the polymers to break down over time, have proven to be not as effective as they thought. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) are polymers which are biodegradable as based on their composition have different physical properties. PHA is a family of natural polyesters synthesized from various microorganisms discovered in 1926. Once discovered, interest has been high due to their biodegradability and its production from renewable resources. The polymers can be described generally as production from microorganisms under controlled conditions, where they occur naturally in organisms that classify them as biopolymers. Some of these polymers are already industrially produced on a large scale today. However, many still apply to several new areas but must be optimized for commercial production. Biopolymers can be classified into four groups. Amino-acid-based polysaccharides from bacteria, polyphenol-based and polyesters that this study is looking at. Depending on what the microorganisms possess for character traits and what they give to the substrate to break down, it gives polyesters with different physical properties. This case is a short-chain polyester to be formed, more specifically P3HB which is a three-carbon PHB polyester in its polymer which can be up to 5-7 units long. To avoid ongoing problems, a solution is needed. A solution that has received much attention to reduce plastic residues in nature is the use of biodegradable plastics and among them polyhydroxyalkanoates. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are common intracellular compounds found in bacteria, archaea and in few eukaryotes such as yeast and fungi. PHA acts as an energy storage polymer that is produced in some microorganisms when the carbon source is abundant and other nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, oxygen or sulfur are limited. These polymers accumulate intracellularly up to 90% of the dry weight of the cell under nutritional conditions and act as energy saving materials. It has resembled mechanical properties like the traditional oil-based plastic such as polypropylene or polyethylene that can be formed with other synthetic polymers. PHA plastics possess many more applications, in agriculture, packaging and in the medical industry. It is biodegradable and also immunologically compatible. What the PHAs plaster can cause is an ultimate decomposition from a non-fossil source, which is exactly why it is very attractive. The purpose of this study was that from a hypothesis see within a limited time frame of ten hours of bio sludge from Gruvön, Skoghall and Bäckhammar's use could accumulate PHA with the aid of added readily degradable substrate. The process of the study will be a small part of a current research project together with Paper Province, Promiko, Pöyry and RISE. The aim of their study is to use residues from the forest industry to make hydrogen as well as bioplastics. This study will help to look at a subprocess of their cascading process. The aim of the study is to be able to measure the amount of PHA that could accumulate and rank the potential of the different uses. Using chemical analysis methods and extractions, it will provide opportunities to measure the accumulation of PHA in the various bacterial cultures of biomass from the use. The methods involve soxhlet extraction to successfully extract PHA from the bacteria. Dosage of substrate is sodium acetate piped from egg-diluted solution at 600 mg per dosage. In order for the dosage to be added at the right time, DO and the pH of the reactors were measured and logged throughout the course. FT-IR is used to view the course of events during the experimental period, linked to known features that may indicate that PHA is present in the bio sludge. Nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen are measured, along with SÄ, SS, TOC, several before and after the experiment to compile discussion of the results. The conclusion was based on the analysis methods that the bio sludge that yielded the best yield was from Gruvöns use. This also relates best to the hypothesis of celebration and starvation, the relationship to which the bio sludge is exposed. The mine has a slurry in its five-step process which causes the bio sludge to return from step five where there is a shortage of food for bacteria to step three where there is a lot of food to consume. The rankings of the different uses relate to the hypothesis that the use of mining was best and the worst was the use of Bäckhammar. Based on the analysis methods included in the study, it can be concluded that the bio sludge that yielded the best yield was Gruvöns use with 13.6% of PHA / VS from the soxhlet extraction, the practice was best matched to the hypothesis. The ranking of the different bio sludge of the use is based on the hypothesis that Skoghall's use was second best followed by Bäckhammar's use which was the worst in accumulating PHA in the bacterial culture.

Syftet med arbetet var att undersöka möjligheten för optimering av produktflödet. Företagets produkter transporteras på ett transportband till en gemensam process. Det nuvarande flödet till processen är inte optimerat vilket resulterar i att processen körs ineffektivt. Ackumulering av produkter innan processen ska därför undersökas som en lösning till problemet. Fyra olika ackumuleringsförslag har analyserats och jämförts: hängande bansystem, palleteringssystem, depalleteringssystem och kombination av bansystem och palleteringssystem. Förslagen har blivit bedömda och jämförda utifrån följande parametrar: yta, investeringskostnad, flexibilitet, arbetsbelastning, arbetsmiljö och tid. Hängande bansystem fick det högsta snittvärdet och valdes därför för fortsatt analys med stöd av simulering. Simuleringen gjordes i ExtendSim 7. Två simuleringsmodeller jämfördes, en med ackumulering av produkter i bansystem och en utan. Resultatet var att ackumulering av produkter kan ge en besparing på 16 procent i driftkostnader per år. Simulering av övriga förslag kan göras för att få en tydligare jämförelse mellan förslagen. Rekommendationen till företaget är att ackumulera produkter i ett bansystem. Det baseras på analys av jämförelsen. Analysen och diskussionen visar också att robothantering inte är en passande lösning på problemet, eftersom rörelserna skulle skaka om produkterna för mycket. En vidare undersökning av utformningen av bansystemet bör göras för att få fram den optimala utformningen. / The purpose of the work was to investigate possibilities for optimization of the material flow. The different products of the company are being transported by a conveyor belt to a common process. The current flow to the process is not optimized with the result that the process runs inefficiently. Accumulation of products before the process should therefore be investigated as a solution. Four different accumulating systems have been analyzed and compared: hanging conveyor belts, palletizing, depalletizing and a combination of conveyor belts and palletizing. The systems have been assessed and compared according to six parameters: area, investment cost, flexibility, work load, work environment and time. The hanging conveyor belt yielded the highest average score and was therefore chosen for further analysis with the support of simulation. The simulation was made in ExtendSim 7. Two simulation models were compared, one with accumulation of product in conveyor belts and one without. The result of the simulation part was that accumulation of product results in savings of running costs with 16 percent per year. To get a better comparison between the accumulation systems simulations of all systems can be done. The recommendation to the company is to accumulate products in a conveyor system. This is based on the analysis of the comparison. The analysis and discussion also shows that robot handling is not an appropriate solution to the problem, because the movements would shake the products too much. A further investigation of the layout should be done in order to find the optimal layout.

Kylanläggningar som förser kylabonnenter med kyla har många gånger problem medtoppeffekter. Dessa är kortvariga kylbehov som fordrar betydligt högre kyleffekter är normaltoch inträffar bland annat vid höga utetemperaturer. Installerade kylanläggningar är sällandimensionerade för att klara toppeffekter. Då toppeffekter inträffar kan t.ex. innertemperaturerhos en kylabonnent med komfortkyla därför stiga till oacceptabla nivåer. Detta examensarbetevisar att det är möjligt att konstruera kyllager med flytande vatten som kan medföra enminskning av fast årskostnad för kylanläggningar med fjärrkyla, eller undvika att installeradeffekt behöver utökas i kylanläggningar med egna kylmaskiner. Detta kan leda till möjligavinster ur miljö- och ekonomiaspekter. Detta är möjligt genom att kylenergin som behövsunder dygnet i förhand ackumuleras under tidpunkter då kylbehovet är lägre än denkylproducerande enhetens installerade effekt. / Chiller plants that provide loads with cooling are commonly exposed to cooling power peaks.These are short cooling demands that require significantly higher cooling powers thannormally and usually occur during high outdoor temperatures. Existing plants are rarelydimensioned to handle such high, short lived cooling demands. When cooling power needspeaks indoor temperature, for example in a comfort cooling system, can rise to unacceptablelevels. This thesis shows that it is possible to construct a cold storage for liquid water thatprovides the ability of decreasing yearly fixed cost for plants provided by district cooling or toavoid the need of increasing installed cooling power capacity in plants with local chillerswhile creating possible environmental- and economical profits. This is possible due to storingof cooling energy needed for the upcoming day during times of the present day when coolingneeds are lower than the cold generating units installed power.

The dissolved silicon (DSi) has a crucial role for growth of a large group of primary producers – diatoms and, hence, impact on functioning of the aquatic food web. This thesis contributes to an increased understanding of the modifications of the DSi cycling in the Baltic Sea. The results provide new information about spatial and temporal changes in DSi concentrations and nutrient ratios for the period 1970-2001 as well as during the 20th century. For the period 1970-2001, the declining DSi trends were found at the majority of monitoring stations all over the Baltic Sea. This decrease is assumed to be mainly due to the ongoing eutrophication. It is supported by the increasing trends of inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus. The trends have implications for the nutrient ratios, DSi:DIN and DSi:DIP, which are important indicators of the state of an ecosystem. The long-term retrospective DSi budget has shown that the DSi concentrations before major hydrological alterations and eutrophication were about twice the present ones. This decrease is related to both eutrophication and anthropogenic perturbations in the catchment. The occurrence of DSi concentrations close to the potentially limiting levels has been also analysed. While DSi concentrations are still high in the northern regions of the Baltic, other areas may be at risk of developing Si limitation if the decrease in DSi concentrations persists. The results depict the Baltic Sea journey from being water body with DSi levels sufficient to support diatom production to one that may experience Si limitation and its adverse ecological consequences. / Löst kisel (DSi) har en viktig roll för tillväxten av en stor grupp av primärproducenter – kiselalger, och därmed även påverkar hela den akvatiska näringskedjan. Denna avhandling bidrar till en ökad förståelse av förändringarna i DSi kretsloppet i Östersjön. Resultaten tillhandahåller ny information om rumsliga och tidsmässiga förändringar i DSi koncentrationer såväl för perioden 1970-2001 som för hela 1900-talet. För perioden 1970-2001 återfanns minskade DSi koncentrationer på mätstationer över hela Östersjön. Minskningen antas främst bero på den pågående övergödningen. Detta antagande stöds av stigande halter av oorganiskt kväve och fosfor. Sammantaget har dessa trender en inverkan på ekosystemets tillstånd och näringsämnenas kvoter, DSi: DIN och DSi: DIP. Ur ett längre tidsperspektiv kan man se att innan övergödningen och de stora hydrologiska ombildningar i Östersjöområdet var DSi koncentrationerna ungefär dubbelt så höga som idag. Dagens förekomst av DSi koncentrationer som ligger nära de potentiellt begränsande nivåerna har också analyserats. DSi koncentrationerna är fortfarande höga i norra delar av Östersjön, men är i andra områden i riskzonen för att utveckla Si begränsning om minskningen av DSi koncentrationer fortsätter. Resultaten skildrar Östersjöns resa från att vara ett havsområde med DSi halter som är tillräckliga för att understödja kiselalgernas produktion till ett sådant som kan uppleva Si begränsning och dess negativa ekologiska konsekvenser.