With a global population about 7 billion people and their continued growth are pressuring global natural resources, in freshwater matter this pressure is altering both the river flows; timing season of water flows; and spatial patterns in order to meet human demands both in urban as rural areas. However, water stress in urban areas are increasing and expectations by 2050 are grim with a global urban development by 70 percent moreover urbanization rate expected by 2030 in Latin America is 80 percent, thus the water concerns because of high average water consumption 220 lpd, and water leakage by 29 percent in the third largest city of Ecuador Cuenca have motivated to perform this analysis. The analysis is based on a metabolic perspective in order to determine anomalies in the urban water cycle at household level for then apply one of the tools of stormwater management in short term such as harvesting rainwater to find how feasible can be this system both individually as communally in Cuenca urban area based on criteria of rainfall, roof surface, roof material, water average consumption, and costs; in order to generate social, economic, and environmental benefits. Moreover, give recommendations and strategies in mid and long term to get an Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) model that allow ensuring the enough natural resources, environmental health, and economic sustainability for current and future demands. The main problems in the urban water cycle are in a outdated urban water management because of water leakage in the delivery network and unsuitable water pricing as well as bad consumers habits; these are affecting economically the water enterprise; nonetheless these problems are not putting in risk freshwater resources, and infrastructure capacity to meet future demands but the implementation of harvesting rainwater systems both individual as community can allow water savings by 18 percent at household level, and by 11 percent in whole water production process at city level. Moreover, the implementation can generate 750.000 job positions both direct as indirect. Finally, the risk of floods can be mitigated due to, roughly 2.88 million m3 of runoff rainwater a year are not released on rivers. To conclude, economic losses are avoiding that this money can be used to improve and maintain the current infrastructures, and development socio-technical projects in order to get a more suitable water metabolism. In other hand, encourage a harvesting culture at household level is a good strategy in short term but its feasibility is related directly to five drivers of which four can be handled such as roof surface area, roof material, domestic water consumption, and costs; in order to get most efficient systems. Finally, there are more tools and strategies to get sustainable goals in short mid and long term through an Integrated Urban Water Management model, in order to urban dwellers can move from simply consumers to a status of suppliers and managers of resources.

Water levels up- and downstream of dams are strongly affected by water levels in the reservoir as well as the discharge of the dam. To ensure that no harm comes to buildings, bridges or agricultural land it is important to ensure that the water level in the reservoir is adjusted to handle large floods. This report studies within what range the water level in the reservoir of the Yayangshan dam, located in Lixian River, can vary without causing any flooding downstream the dam or at the Old and New Babian Bridge located upstream the dam. By calculation of the designed flood, flood routing- and backwater computation, initial water level ranges in the reservoir have been set for the pre-flood, main flood and latter flood season for damages to be avoided. Due to the far distance between the dam site and the bridges, backwater effects had no influence on the limitations of the initial water level in the reservoir.

No description available.

Most of the problems with providing a continuous and sustainable energy supply for the worldwide society are negative consequences to the environment and its living habitants steaming from uses of conventional technologies. Those consequences should be minimized by developing and improving new technologies as well as by utilization of other type of feedstock than fossil fuels, such as biomass, industrial or municipal solid waste. Nowadays, gasification is the main technology for biomass conversion to energy and a great alternative for the thermal treatment of solid waste. The number of various applications for produced gas shows the flexibility of gasification and that is why allows it to be integrated with other industrial processes, as well as power generation systems.             The main objectives of this thesis were to present behavior of different kind of feedstock undergoing pyrolysis/gasification processes in reactors using highly preheated agents and additionally compare the compositions of produced gases. In this thesis two different systems were presented; the first is lab-scale gasifier for the treatment of biocoal, automotive shredder residue (ASR), refuse derived fuel (RDF), biomass (straw pellets) and plastic waste (polyethylene) and the second one is a large up-draft, fixed bed gasifier used for investigation of biocoal. The thesis was divided into four main parts: beginning with theoretical introduction, subsequently showing outcomes from investigations carried out on lab-scale test unit, large HTAG facility and finishing on short conclusions.

In Sweden, the dominating source for emissions of degradable organic substances to water is the pulp and paper industry. The organic substances increase oxygen consumption in the recipient which subsequently threatens aquatic species. Improved process engineering, process closures and use of external treatments have in recent years drastically lowered the Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD). However, the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) has not been reduced to the same extent, as some organic substances are more persistent and must be treated with more advanced techniques. Chemical precipitation, which can bind large parts of the remaining COD into solid matter, making it possible to be removed from the effluent by various separation technologies, contributes to an efficient COD removal. However, the direct operating cost for the treatment is high as large amount of chemicals are used in the process, and large quantities of sludge generated. In the near future EU pulp and paper industry will have to meet new regulatory demands on COD discharges, and pulp mills in Asia, South-America and Oceania will meet stringent discharge demands. It is therefore of interest to review alternative treatments in regards to technical, environmental and economical feasibility in the treatment of pulp and paper mill wastewaters. Much interest has been shown for Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOP), which is why these techniques have been evaluated in this thesis. The first part of the report consists of a literature review where processes with the following oxidants have been reviewed: 1. Ozone (O3); 2. Ozone + Hydrogen peroxide (O3/H2O2); 3. Fenton’s reagent (Fe2+/ H2O2); 4. Ozone + Ultraviolet light (O3/UV); 5. Hydrogen peroxide + Ultraviolet light (H2O2/UV); 6. Photo-Fenton’s reagent (Fe2+/ H2O2/UV); 7. Titanium dioxide + Ultraviolet light (TiO2/UV). Ozone treatment (1) and ozone in combination with hydrogen peroxide (2) were chosen for further experimental studies. The experiments were conducted at Wedecos (Xylem Water Solutions) laboratory in Germany and tested on wastewater from three different Swedish mills: A, B and C. The experimental results indicate that treatment with ozone is an efficient method for elimination of COD from pulp and paper mill wastewaters. A relatively high COD reduction (41 % for Mill A, 31% for Mill B and 53% for Mill C) was achieved for all wastewaters with an applied ozone dosage of 0.2g O3/L, without an appreciable impact on other parameters such as pH, N-tot, NO2-, NO3-, NH4+, P-tot and PO43-. There are indications that the nature of the wastewater has an impact on the COD removal efficiency and that TMP wastewater is easier to oxidize in comparison to wastewater from sulphate mills. The combination with hydrogen peroxide did not show any further COD reduction compared to ozone treatment alone, thus confirming the results Ko et al. showed in their study in 2009. Oxidation with ozone is seen as more environmental alternative in comparison to chemical treatment (precipitation/flocculation) because contaminants in the wastewater are destructed rather than concentrated or transferred into a different phase, which leads to the decrease of COD, colour and toxicity without the need to handle large amounts of sludge. However, a subsequent biological treatment may be necessary for removal of BOD as a BOD increase is registered for all wastewater treated in this study. The costs are on the other hand higher in comparison to chemical treatment even though there are indications of cases when treatment with ozone can be profitable (e.g. if the cost for sludge handling increases in the future, price for chemicals increases and electricity price decreases). There are some uncertainties regarding the system and there is no clear evidence that toxic by-products are not formed. More research must be done and more full-scale installations must be reported before the pulp and paper industry is willing to invest in oxidation technology. / I Sverige, är massa- och pappersindustrin den dominerande utsläppskällan av nedbrytbart organiskt material till vatten. När det organiska materialet når recipienten ökar syreförbrukningen eftersom stora mängder syre erfordras för nedbrytningen av materialet. Detta leder i sin tur till att de vattenlevande organismerna hotas och utsätts för syrebrist. Förbättrad processteknik, ökad processlutning och utbyggnad av extern avloppsvattenrening har under de senaste åren drastiskt sänkt den biokemiska syreförbrukningen (BOD). Däremot har den kemiska syreförbrukningen (COD) inte reducerats i samma utsträckning då delar av det organiska materialet är mer persistent och måste behandlas med mer avancerad teknik. Kemisk fällning kan idag binda stora delar av det kvarvarande COD till fast material som sedan kan avlägsnas via olika separationsmetoder. En stor nackdel med den här typen av rening är att stora mängder kemikalier används som i sin tur genererar stora mängder slam som måste tas om hand, vilket introducerar höga driftkostnader. Inom en snar framtid kommer massa- och pappersbruk inom EU att möta nya regulatoriska krav för COD utsläpp, och bruk i Asien, Sydamerika och Oceanien kommer även de att möta väldigt hårda utsläppskrav. Det är därför av intresse att granska alternativa reningsmetoder och utvärdera dess tekniska, miljömässiga och ekonomiska genomförbarhet vid behandling av avloppsvatten från massa- och pappersbruk. Mycket intresse har visats för Avancerade Oxidationsprocesser (AOP), varför dessa tekniker valts att utvärderas i detta examensarbete. Första delen av rapporten innefattar en litteraturstudie där processer med följande oxidanter studerats: 1. Ozon (O3); 2. Ozon + Väteperoxid (O3/H2O2); 3. Fenton’s reagens (Fe2+/ H2O2); 4. Ozon + Ultraviolett ljus (O3/UV); 5. Väteperoxid + Ultraviolett ljus (H2O2/UV); 6. Foto-Fenton’s reagens (Fe2+/ H2O2/UV); 7. Titaniumdioxid + Ultraviolett ljus (TiO2/UV). Utav dessa valdes ozon behandling (1) och ozon i kombination med väteperoxid (2) för vidare experimentella studier. Behandlingarna har utförts vid Wedecos (Xylem Water Solutions) laboratorium i Tyskland och undersökts på avloppsvatten från tre olika svenska bruk; A , B och C. Experimentella resultat tyder på att ozonering är effektiv behandlingsmetod för reducering av COD i avloppsvatten från massa- och pappersbruk. En relativt hög COD reducering (41% för bruk A, 31% för bruk B, och 53% för bruk C)  uppvisades för samtliga avloppsvatten med en tillämpad ozondosering på 0.2 g O3/L, utan någon märkbar inverkan på andra parametrar så som pH, N-tot, NO2-, NO3-, NH4+, P-tot och PO43-. Det förekommer indikationer om att typ av avloppsvatten har en inverkan på COD reduktionen och att TMP avloppsvatten är lättare att oxidera i jämförelse mot avloppsvatten från sulfatmassabruk. Kombinationen av ozon och väteperoxid uppvisade ingen ytterligare COD reduktion i jämförelse mot ozon som enda oxidant, och bekräftade därmed de resultat Ko et al. uppvisade i sin studie 2009. Ozonering ses som ett miljövänligare alternativ till kemisk rening (fällning/flockning) eftersom föroreningarna i vattnet destrueras istället för att koncentreras, vilket innebär att COD, färg och toxicitet kan minskas utan att stora mängder slam genereras. Dock kan en efterföljande biologisk behandling vara nödvändig för avskiljning av BOD då en BOD ökning uppvisats för samtliga avloppsvatten i denna studie i takt med att COD brutits ned till lättnedbrytbart biologisk material. Kostnaderna är däremot höga i jämförelse mot kemisk fällning även om det förekommer indikationer på fall när behandlingen kan vara lönsam (t ex om slamhanteringskostnaderna blir högre i framtiden, inköpspriset för kemikalier ökar och elpriset sjunker). Det råder vissa tveksamheter gällande systemet och det finns inga konkreta bevis på att toxiska biprodukter inte bildas. Mer forskning måste utföras och fler fullskaliga installationer måste rapporteras och innan massa- och pappersindustrin är villig att investera i oxidationstekniken.

Today global warming mitigation, natural resource conservation and energy saving are some of the significant concerns of different industries, such as cement and concrete industries. For that reason, a streamlined life cycle assessment (LCA) model of one ton of a Portland cement, CEM I produced in Cementa AB’s Degerhamn plant, has been developed by using the LCA software KCL-ECO. LCA is a tool that identifies in which stages of a product’s life cycle the most environmental burdens occur. The environmental analysis was limited to identify total energy consumption and total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per ton of Portland cement. Results show that the most significant energy consumption and CO2 emissions are related to clinker kiln, due to the process of calcination of limestone and fuel combustion in the kiln. Of total CO2 emissions, 52 % and 46 % result from the calcination process and fuel combustion respectively.  One of the applications of CEM I is in construction of concrete bridges. Therefore an LCA model of a concrete bridge located north of Stockholm was developed in KCL-ECO. Environmental indicators calculated are: total CO2 emissions and energy consumption through the entire life cycle of the bridge. CO2 uptake or carbonation of the concrete during the service life of the product and end of life treatment is one of the advantages of concrete products. During the carbonation process, some of the total CO2 released from calcination will be absorbed into the concrete. Results indicate that production of raw materials and transports during the life cycle of the concrete bridge, are main contributors to total CO2 emissions. Among raw materials, cement production has the highest CO2 emissions. Energy consumption is mainly related to concrete and concrete products production. CO2 uptake during the use phase of the bridge is small compared to total CO2 emissions from calcination. Furthermore, the results show that different waste handling practises result in different CO2 uptake behaviours. The total CO2 uptake from crushing and storing of the demolished concrete (scenario 1) and landfilling of the demolished concrete (scenario 2) is 10 % and 5 % of the total CO2 emissions from calcination respectively.  Since comparison of different construction materials from an environmental point of view is always desirable, the LCA tool was used to compare the total energy consumption and the CO2 emissions from a concrete bridge and a wooden bridge. The functional unit was defined as 1 square meter of bridge surface area, since the bridges were of different sizes and shapes. In this comparison the total emissions and energy consumption were much higher for the concrete bridge than for the wooden bridge.  In order to show how different assumptions could affect the results, a virtual concrete bridge with the same shape and size as the wooden bridge was designed and compared with the wooden bridge. The functional unit selected for this case was one bridge. In this case the virtual concrete bridge requires less energy, while the wooden bridge emits less CO2 to the atmosphere. For the wooden bridge, CO2 in growing forests was included, which could be debated. Overall, a comparison of the environmental performance of the wooden bridge and the concrete bridges was more complex than initially expected and great care is recommended in choosing material and application. With concrete, the design (and quantity of material used) seems to be a very sensitive parameter and may result in much larger energy used and CO2 emissions than a wooden bridge. On the other hand, the virtual bridge comparison showed that concrete advantages such as higher durability and lower maintenance may be theoretically combined with a comparable energy and climate performance as a wooden alternative.

Social Responsibility(SR)is gathering accumulative attentionrecently.It has become a key criterion of business campaign among companies.This thesis studiesthe current SR performancein two branch companies inAtlas Copco (China), Atlas Copco (Nanjing) Construction and Mining Equipment Ltd. andWuxi Pneumatech Air/Gas Purity Equipment Ltd.Interviews were made separately with company staff, including employees from management level and staff from workshop. ISO 26000 was adoptedas aguiding standard when conducting SR investigation and following analysing work.Core subjects of ‘Labour Practices’, ‘the Environment’ and ‘Community involvement and development’ in ISO 26000 were thethreeresearching aspects in the work. For each detailed actions and expectations in the subject, particular comments and acorresponding rating score aregiven according to its status quo. These rating scoresare utilized in the gap analysing process to illustrate the differences between the current SR situation and theexpectations illustrated in ISO 26000.Moreover, the disparity between twoselected companies is alsodefined by illustrating theirfinal scores on each issueina radar chart.As a result from the assessment,bothcompanies have a far way to go to entirely accomplish ISO 26000’s requirements. For the core subject which is strong at, their current measures need to be kept and finely turned; for the weak core subjects, more attentions should be attracted and concrete actions should be conducted. Social Responsibility(SR)is gathering accumulative attentionrecently.It has become a key criterion of business campaign among companies.This thesis studiesthe current SR performancein two branch companies inAtlas Copco (China), Atlas Copco (Nanjing) Construction and Mining Equipment Ltd. andWuxi Pneumatech Air/Gas Purity Equipment Ltd.Interviews were made separately with company staff, including employees from management level and staff from workshop. ISO 26000 was adoptedas aguiding standard when conducting SR investigation and following analysing work.Core subjects of ‘Labour Practices’, ‘the Environment’ and ‘Community involvement and development’ in ISO 26000 were thethreeresearching aspects in the work. For each detailed actions and expectations in the subject, particular comments and acorresponding rating score aregiven according to its status quo. These rating scoresare utilized in the gap analysing process to illustrate the differences between the current SR situation and theexpectations illustrated in ISO 26000.Moreover, the disparity between twoselected companies is alsodefined by illustrating theirfinal scores on each issueina radar chart.As a result from the assessment,bothcompanies have a far way to go to entirely accomplish ISO 26000’s requirements. For the core subject which is strong at, their current measures need to be kept and finely turned; for the weak core subjects, more attentions should be attracted and concrete actions should be conducted.

Numerous attempts have been made to create or facilitate Industrial Symbiosis networks and self-organized networks have been uncovered. Existing networks have been studied to identify its success or failure and its context. This thesis tries to suggest and assess an adapted approach to establish successful industrial symbiosis, with a case study on the northern Stockholm region. An extensive literature review, meetings with experts and stakeholder interaction by questionnaires, interviews and a workshop were used. Potential obstructions were identified, possibilities of self-organizations and planning explored and solutions suggested. Combined with the feedback from 25 questionnaires and a workshop with local stakeholders an approach to establishing industrial symbiosis in northern Stockholm was suggested and assessed. A neutral coordinator or waste companies were concluded to have a good chance of establishing an industrial symbiosis network in the region. Using existing networks, creating awareness and providing knowledge and examples are important factors for establishing an industrial symbiosis network.

Begreppet Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) innebär att företagen har ett ansvar för den påverkan dess verksamhet har på samhället. Ansvaret består i att identifiera problemområden och frågor som berör företagets intressenter, d.v.s. kunder, anställda, leverantörer, aktieägare samt lokalsamhällen och sedan aktivt agera på att ansvarsfullt sätt gentemot dessa. Det finns ett tydligt gap mellan teorier kring vad CSR är och bör innefatta och hur företagen använder sig av CSR som strategi i sin företagsverksamhet. Det finns ingen entydighet kring vad företagsansvar är och bör vara. Det är troligt att olika branscher, trots stora skillnader, också har gemensamma nämnare vad gäller identifierade utmaningar. Det är av intresse att kartlägga dessa skillnader och likheter i en branschöverskridande jämförelse för att kunna förstå hur företag bäst bör arbeta med sina CSR- strategier. Syftet med denna studie är främst att undersöka hur svenska företag inom olika branscher implementerar strategiskt hållbarhetsarbete i sin affärsverksamhet. Studien ämnar kartlägga hur företagen kommunicerar sitt arbete inom områdena miljö och socialt ansvarstagande, samt identifiera gemensamma faktorer och skillnader som är kopplade till implementering av strategisk CSR. Studien omfattar fyra svenska företag som är börsnoterade och ledande inom sin bransch: ABB, Electrolux, H&M och SEB. Denna studie utgörs av dels en litteraturstudie i syfte att undersöka den vetenskapliga forskningen kring CSR-området och dels har en rad intervjuer genomförts med de företag som ingår i studien. Litteraturstudien visar att den akademiska utvecklingen av CSR helt stannat av då nutida forskning inom området uteslutande hänvisar till tidigare studier. På grund av förvirringen kring begreppet CSR så har svenska företag helt valt övergå till att använda hållbarhet när de beskriver sitt strategiska arbete inom CSR. Resultatet visar att det har skett en branschspecifik anpassning av konceptet CSR både vad gäller tolkning och praktisk tillämpning. Det finns inga egentliga skillnader i hur företagen strategiskt arbetar med CSR eftersom samtliga företag i denna studie tillämpar samma riktlinjer och metoder för intressentanalys, materialitetsanalys osv. Den största skillnaden är vilka aktiviteter som strategierna resulterar i. Här ser man skillnader mellan olika branscher eftersom specifika prioriterade områden är nära kopplade till den egna verksamheten. Det är inte självklart att företag ska ta ett samhällsansvar. Det går inte heller att fastställa hur stort och vilken typ av samhällsansvar företagen bör ta utöver den egna verksamheten. Vad som däremot går att avgöra är att ett företag oundvikligt påverkas av samhället eftersom ett företag utgörs av människor. Slutsatsen är att ju större ett företag är, desto med ansvar kan och bör de ta. / The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) means that companies have a responsibility for the impact its activities have on society. The responsibility is to identify problem areas and issues affecting the company’s stakeholders, that is, customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders, and local communities and then actively acts in a responsible manner towards them. There is a clear gap between theories about what CSR is and should include and how companies use CSR as a strategy in their business. There is no clarity about what corporate responsibility is and should be. It is likely that different industries, despite major differences, also have common denominators in terms of identified challenges. It is of interest to identify these differences and similarities in a cross- industry comparison in order to understand how companies should work with their CSR strategies. The purpose of this study is primarily to investigate how Swedish companies in various industries implement strategic sustainability work in their business. The study intends to identify how companies communicate their work in the areas of environmental and social responsibility, and to identify common factors and differences linked to the implementation of strategic CSR. The study comprises four Swedish companies that are listed and leading within their respective industry: ABB, Electrolux, H&M and SEB. This study consists of both a literature review in order to examine the scientific research in the area of CSR and also includes a series of interviews conducted with the companies. The literature review shows that the academic development of CSR as a concept has come to a standstill since modern research in the field exclusively refer to previous studies. Because of the confusion about the concept of CSR Swedish companies are using the term sustainability when they describe their strategic work in the field of CSR. The results show that there has been an industry- specific adaptation of the concept of CSR in terms of both interpretation and practical application. There are no real differences in how companies are working strategically with CSR, as all companies in this study apply to the same policies and guidelines for stakeholder analysis, materiality analysis etc. The main difference is which activities the strategies result in. Here you see the differences between different industries, since the established areas of priority are closely linked to the companies’ own operations. It is not obvious whether companies should take social responsibility. Nor is it possible to determine how much and what kind of social responsibility companies should take in excess of its own operations. However, it is possible to determine that a company is inevitably influenced by society, since a company consists of people. The conclusion is that the bigger a company is, the more responsibility can and should it take.

This is a master’s thesis project of 30 credits written with guidance from the Swedish research institute ICT Viktoria and Industrial Ecology at KTH. This thesis is conducted by two students at KTH, one with a background in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Ecology and the other with a background in Energy and Environmental Technology. This study focuses on circular economy linked to the furniture industry in Sweden and how the transition from theoretical to practical concepts can be improved. The methods of this thesis consist of three semi-structured interviews, a survey and an analytical comparative literature review. The interviews, survey and literature review is analyzed with the purpose of finding important criteria relevant for office chairs in circular business models. The interviews are performed face-to-face with three different key persons; an office supply manager, a CEO at a refurbishing company and a product manager. The study focuses on product design within the Swedish furniture industry although some aspects regarding circular business models, logistics and psychological values are included. The results are design criteria for office chairs in circular business models and a design evaluation program for the industry built on these. The program, based on multi criteria analysis, can help reduce the gap between theory and practice of how circular economy should be implemented in the industry. By giving early feedback during the design phase on how well an office chair and a company’s structure meet circular economy criteria the authors hope to ease and speed up this transition. The main characteristics of an office chair designed for circular business models are: Durable Easy to service Adaptable Modular Homogeneous material composition in modules Although the transition to circular business models can be a comprehensive process the authors believe that if furniture manufacturers would integrate circular business models for office chairs into their business structure this would be both economically viable and highly beneficial for their environmental profile which can strengthen their position on the market.