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In this thesis project, different existing granular activated carbon regeneration methods/technologies are assessed based on existing literature. The project aims to identify and analyse the method with the highest on-site regeneration potential by using the Himmerfjärdsverket wastewater treatment plant as a reference and performing a cost estimation analysis.  Information is gathered about different methods from the literature study and then sorted into the following parts: working principle, technology readiness and cost, advantages and disadvantages, and references (case studies). The methods are then assessed and compared by a scoring and weightage system, where the factors which are regeneration efficiency, ease of implementation, sustainability, cost, and reliability are weighted and then scored for each method. Furthermore, the highest scoring method is then compared to the proposed regeneration method at Himmerfjärdsverket.  The results from my comparison and assessment show that chemical regeneration is the highest scored method, followed by microwave and wet-oxidation regeneration methods. On applying chemical regeneration at Himmerfjärdsverket, it is found out that it may indeed be cheaper and more sustainable than the proposed off-site regeneration method. However, thermal and biological regeneration are better alternatives at Himmerfjärdsverket than microwave and wet- oxidation.  From the above results, chemical regeneration has the highest potential for on-site regeneration of granular activated carbon in Sweden. / Läkemedel i vatten är ett stort hot mot miljö och hälsa. Kommunalt avloppsvatten består av avloppsvatten från hushåll, privata och offentliga institutioner och dagvattenavrinning. En viktig läkemedelskälla i avloppsvatten är ett läkemedel som kommer in via urin och / eller avföring. Olika tekniker finns för avlägsnande av farmaceutiska rester och andra mikroföroreningar från avloppsvatten. En sådan teknik är adsorptionen av dessa rester med hjälp av Granulärt Aktivtkor (GAC). Aktivtkor (AC) är ett kolhaltigt material med liten pordiameter, stora porvolymer och hög specifik yta rea vid bearbetning. Det anses vara det bästa adsorptionsmedlet för att adsorbera organiska, oorganiska och giftiga metalljoner som finns i avloppsvattnet. Det finns två typer av aktivtkol som används för att avlägsna farmaceutiska rester: Granulärt aktivtkol och pulveriserat aktivt kol.  Denna forskning syftar till att identifiera, jämföra och bedöma befintlig regenereringsteknik för att hitta den teknik som har störst potential och använda den på ett referensavloppsreningsverk. Det finns olika metoder för regenerering av använt aktivt kol (SAC). Dessa är termisk regenerering, kemisk regenerering, biologisk regenerering, elektrokemisk regenerering, mikrovågsregenerering och våt-oxidationsregenerering. Metoderna listas och förklaras med hjälp av deras arbetsprincip, beredskap, kostnad, fördelar, nackdelar och referenser till studier där de har använts.  Flera kriterier / faktorer beaktas för bedömning och jämförelse av olika regenereringsmetoder. Faktorerna poängsätts sedan med hjälp av ett viktat poängsystem. Var och en av de ovannämnda faktorerna görs mellan 0–5 och tilldelas en vikt mellan 1–3. En högre poäng betyder bättre prestanda i den givna faktorn. Medan en högre vikt betyder betydelsen av faktorn.  Från bedömningen visar sig kemisk regenerering vara den mest lämpliga metoden för regenerering av GAC på plats. Den minst lämpliga metoden är biologisk regenerering med en total poäng på 39. De två bästa regenereringsmetoderna på plats är kemisk och mikrovågsregenerering. I procent har kemisk regenerering och mikrovågsregenerering en rating på 93,3% och 90%. För att validera resultatet av bedömningen används Himmerfjärdsverket som referensavloppsverk.  Himmerfjärdsverket bygger om och expanderar till en högteknologisk anläggning. Den nya anläggningen kommer att bestå av modern reningsteknik och hög reningskapacitet. Den planerade nya anläggningen förväntas vara klar 2025, medan byggandet påbörjades i januari 2020.  I en studie genomförd av Syvab i samarbete med Ramboll, IVL och SU anges att det skulle behövas kolförbrukning på 15–20 g / m3 vatten. Den totala kostnaden per behandlat avloppsvatten skulle sannolikt öka med 20–30% till 2027 om läkemedelsreningen genomförs på Himmerfjärdsverket med hjälp av GAC och av regenereringsmetoden utanför anläggningen. Himmerfjärdsverket kommer att konsumera 3,92 ton kol dagligen eller 27,56 ton varje vecka. Detta kommer att kosta 28,7 miljoner SEK / år för 20 000 EBV (i värsta fall) och 11,5 miljoner SEK / år för 50 000 EBV.  Medan kostnaden för kemisk regenerering av GAC med högsta regenereringseffektivitet uppskattas till 27,4 miljoner SEK / år för användning av flytande NaOH-lösning och 17,7 miljoner SEK / år för användning av fast NaOH för 20 000 EBV. För mängden 573 t / år kol kommer NaOH-förbrukningen att vara 2083,5 t / år, vilket kommer att kosta 7,1 och 10,9 miljoner SEK / år för 50 000 EBV.  Eftersom kostnad är en av de viktigaste faktorerna som motverkar tillämpningen av metoder som är lika tillförlitliga som termisk regenerering. Om termisk regenerering implementeras på Himmerfjärdsverket kan installationen användas för att regenerera GAC från andra reningsverk från Stockholm. 2 GAC-bio filter i serieskapare bättre förutsättningar för biologisk regenerering av GAC samt ger låga föroreningskoncentrationer och höga syrekoncentrationer. För att lägga till det producerar Himmerfjärdsverket biogas som kan användas för att uppnå höga temperaturer som krävs enligt denna metod eller generera den erforderliga elen eller båda. I alla tre fall kommer kostnaden att minskas ytterligare.  Avslutningsvis har kemisk regenerering den högsta regenereringspotentialen på plats bland alla andra studerade metoder. Medan termisk regenerering är nära den andra på grund av kolförlusten. En pilotstudie krävs för att validera de regenereringseffektivitet som nämns i litteraturen och bearbetningsförhållandena och typerna av adsorbera vid Himmerfjärdsverket behöver utvärderas liksom behandlingsförhållandena.

Estimating the cost of new technology insertion into an existing (or new) operating environment is of great concern and interest for those entities that own and operate that technology. New technology has many cost requirements associated with it, for instance; design, manufacturing, operation, maintenance and disposal all add to the life-cycle cost of a technology. Estimation and planning methods are needed to better match the costs associated with technology life-cycle requirements (design, manufacturing, etc.) in order to optimize the spending of funds. By optimizing (or closely matching) predicted technology life-cycle costs to a budget the new technology system will have a high probability of operating more efficiently and will minimize costs. System Dynamics has been used to understand and simulate how complex systems of people and technologies operate over time. Decisions (such as how much funding is allocated when in a technology life-cycle) that occur temporally or in a complex environment (i.e., many causes and effects) can be simulated to evaluate the impact the decision may have. Currently, the majority of decision theories and tools are focused on one moment in time (event-focused) rather than including the dynamic nature that decisions can have over time. Evaluating decisions at one instant versus taking into account the life-cycle impact a decision can have, is especially important to the US Government, where investment decisions can involve billions of dollars today, but potentially hundreds of billions later for technology life-cycle requirements. The Navy has experienced large cost overruns in the implementation of new technologies especially in the operations, support and disposal life-cycle phases. There is a lack of detailed knowledge of the dynamic nature of the technology operations, support and disposal (OS&D) processes undertaken by aircraft-carrier builders and planners. This research effort is to better understand and simulate the dynamics prevalent in the new technology implementation process and use a dynamic modeling technique, namely, System Dynamics in our study. A System Dynamics model based on the information and data obtained from experts including; General Dynamics - Newport News Shipbuilding, the Naval Sea Command Cost Estimating Group, and Virginia Polytechnic and State University - System Performance Laboratory. The model was constructed to simulate and predict the cost of operating, maintaining and disposing of a new technology. The investigation of the dynamics yields four dominant behaviors that characterize the technology OS&D process. These four dynamic behaviors are; exponential growth, goal seeking, overshoot & collapse and S-shaped growth with overshoot. Furthermore, seven dynamic hypotheses in the system are investigated. The model predicts an increase in the risk and degradation of new technologies leads to an increase in the total costs in the technology OS&D process. Three interesting insights that lead to increased total OS&D costs were; an inequality between the requirements for OS&D and provided budget, any delay in additional funding being provided and that as the new technology system grew older, it became less costly to maintain. / Master of Science

Yes / The successful use of Reverse Osmosis (RO) process has increased significantly in water desalination, water treatment and food processing applications. In this work, the economic feasibility of a multi-stage RO process including both retentate and permeate reprocessing for the removal of chlorophenol from wastewater is explored using simulation and optimisation studies. Firstly, a mathematical model of the process is developed based on the solution diffusion model, which was validated using experimental chlorophenol removal from the literature, is combined with several appropriate cost functions to form a full model package. Secondly, for a better understanding of the interactions between the different parameters on the economic performance of the process, a detailed process simulation is carried out. Finally, a multi-objective optimisation framework based on Non-Linear Programming (NLP) problem is developed for minimising the product unit cost, the total annualised cost, the specific energy consumption together with optimising the feed pressure and feed flow rate for an acceptable level of chlorophenol rejection and total water recovery rate. The results clearly show that the removal of chlorophenol can reach 98.8% at a cost of approximately 0.21 $/m³.

Adoption of a streamlined BIM workflow throughout the AEC projects’ lifecycle will provide the project stakeholders with the rich information embedded in the parametric design models. Users can incorporate this rich information in various activities, improving efficiency and productivity of project activities and potentially enhancing accuracy and reducing errors and reworks. Two main challenges for such a streamlined information flow throughout the AEC projects that haven’t been sufficiently addressed by previous research efforts include lack of semantic interoperability and a large gap and misalignment of information between available BIM information provided by design activities and the required information for performing preconstruction and construction activities. This research effort proposes a framework for a knowledge-based system (KBS) that encapsulates domain experts’ knowledge and represents it through modularized rule set libraries as well as connected design automation and optimization solutions. The research attempts to provide a methodology for automatic semantic enrichment of design models as well as automated detailed design to fill the information gap between design and preconstruction project activities, streamlining BIM workflow and enhancing its value in the AEC projects.

Model-based systems engineering (MBSE) is an enterprising systems engineering methodology, which in replacing traditional, document-centric systems engineering methods, has the potential to reduce project costs, time, effort and risk. The potential benefits of applying MBSE on a project are widely discussed but are largely anecdotal. Throughout the System Engineering and Project Management industries, there is a strong desire to quantify these benefits, particularly within organizations that are looking to apply it to their complex, system of systems projects. The objective of this thesis was to quantify the benefits that model-based systems engineering presents, particularly in terms of project cost estimates. In order to quantify this qualitative data, statistical analysis was conducted on collected perceptions from industry experts and professionals. The results of this work led to identifying future research that should be completed in order to make MBSE an industry-wide standard for the development and estimation of projects.

To date, over 84% of countries worldwide have renewable energy targets (RET), requiring that a certain amount of electricity be produced from renewable sources by a target date. Despite the worldwide prevalence of these policies, little research has been conducted on ex-ante RET policy analysis. In an effort to move toward evidence-based policymaking, this thesis develops computational models to assess the tradeoffs associated with alternatives for both RET achievement and RET policy formulation, including the option of creating renewable energy credit (REC) markets to facilitate meeting an RET goal. A mixed integer linear program (MILP), a probabilistic cost prediction model and a mixed complementarity problem (MCP) serve as the theoretical bases for the RET alternative and policy formulation analyses. From these models it was found, inter alia, that RET goals set too low run the risk of creating technological lock-in and could inhibit achievement of higher goals; probabilistic cost predictions give decision-makers essential risk information, when cost estimation is an integral part of alternatives assessment; and though REC markets may facilitate RET achievement, including REC markets in an RET policy formulation may not result in the lowest possible greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).