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Agriculture currently faces a number of environmental sustainability issues. Three key issues that are the focus of this study are greenhouse gas emissions, depletion of mineral phosphorus resources and cadmium contamination in agricultural soil. Biomass can potentially be used as a renewable energy source and can also be returned to improve the nutrient and drainage structure of agricultural soils. Sustainable management of biomass and agriculture can have significant impacts on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from a region. Moreover, it reduces the demand for external energy supply, phosphorous (P) based fertilizer, and it??s associated Cadmium (Cd) impurity which can contaminate the soil, plant and food chains. These three issues have typically been considered separately, and managed by different agencies or organisations. The aim of this thesis is to develop an integrated decision support tool that can be used for evaluating alternative options for management and resource recovery from biomass for enhancing recovery of energy, returning carbon (C) and phosphorus (P) from biomass back to soil, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and also cadmium (Cd) contamination in an agricultural region. This research employed a combination of the tools of Material Flow Analysis (MFA), Geographic Information System (GIS) and Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA). MFA is used as the primary tool for this research. GIS and CBA are combined with MFA in later stages of the overall procedure to develop an integrated decision support tool. This integrated tool has been applied to the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area (MIA) in Australia. Tracking the flow of essential substances using MFA has identified current resource management efficiency and substances accumulation across the region. Integrating a spatial analysis tool (GIS) with MFA has provided a feedback driven monitoring tool for evaluating trends of spatial accumulation of substances on agricultural land. This enables the time remaining before acceptable limits are exceeded to be estimated on a spatial basis. Integrated MFA and CBA has been applied to evaluate the tradeoffs and potential synergies of alternative biomass management options. Overall the tool can assist in evaluating the effectiveness of alternative scenarios and visualise the results to stakeholders in a systematic way.

This thesis has been performed in Gaborone, Botswana, where all interviews and relevant research data collection took place. The main method of data collection was a semi-structured interviews with relevant parties involved in waste management and generation in Gaborone.This work is part of a larger feasibility study called “Gaborone Transfer and Recycling Station (GTARS)”. The main objective is to make waste management in Gaborone more sustainable, taking environmental, social and economic aspects into account. The aim of this master thesis is to investigate the waste flow rates and composition in the capital city of Botswana, Gaborone. Taking this into account, other factors which directly influence waste generation and composition are identified. The findings show that currently in the year 2014, the city of Gaborone is generating about 348 tons of solid waste per day.Further investigation showed that illegal dumping is a prominent practice in Gaborone, mostly due to the long distance to the landfill and generally low environmental awareness amongst the citizens of the city. The waste generation rates are increasing every year, because the city of Gaborone is expanding rapidly and economic conditions facilitate the increasing urbanization rate. The analysis done till the year 2024 indicate that waste amounts might reach up to 433 tons of solid waste generated per day. Waste composition analysis is constrained, because of the limited data sources available on this subject, but the analysis shows that paper, biodegradable waste and plastics are the main fractions found in the municipal waste stream. / Gaborone Transfer and Recycling Station (GTARS)

Material flows in Urban Metabolism play a key role for the purpose of building urban areas and growing the economy. There is lack of standard method for accounting of material flows within and across the boundaries of urban systems. This thesis aims to assess the Urban Metabolism of small-scale urban area through the application of the Economic Wide Material Flow Analysis and enhance the scope of the method by adding water flows, which could potentially become a basis for the development of the method in the future. First, the application of the Economic Wide Material Flow Analysis in urban areas was studied through a literature review and then the enhanced Economic Wide Material Flow Analysis was applied to Stockholm Royal Seaport using bottom-up data. Using bottom-up data resulted in detailed information, however, full comparison between urban areas was not possible due to data gaps. The results showed the importance of the method for enhancing Urban Metabolism analysis and amending resource management. Spotting available secondary and recycled resources in the socioeconomic system as a part of application of the method is beneficial to sustain the natural resources use. Since still the method is developing for small-scale urban areas, a mixture of this method and other recommended methods by having focus on data collection is suggested for integrating databases and comprehensive analysis. / Under de senaste decennierna har stadsområden expanderat snabbare än tidigare. Genom att öka människors tendens att bo i stora städer kommer naturresurser att behövas för att tillgodose stadsområdens växande behov. Materialflöden i stadsmetabolismen spelar en nyckelroll för att bygga miljövänligt och växande ekonomin. Det saknas en standardmetod för redovisning av materialflöden inom och över gränserna för stadssystem. Denna avhandling syftar till att utvärdera stadsmetabolismen genom att använda tillämpning av bred ekonomisk materialflödesredovisning och förbättra metodens omfattning genom att lägga till vatten- och genomströmningsflöden som potentiellt kan bli bas för utvecklingen av metoden i framtiden. Först studerades tillämpningen av ekonomiskt bred materialflödesredovisning i urbana områden genom litteraturöversikt och sedan tillämpades den förbättrade analysen av ekonomiskt bred materialflöde på Norra Djurgårdsstaden med hjälp av bottom-up data. Att använda bottom-up-data resulterade i detaljerad information, men fullständig jämförelse mellan stadsområden var inte möjlig på grund av dataklyftan Resultaten visade vikten av materialflödesredovisning för att förbättra urban metabolismanalys och ändra resurshantering. Att hitta tillgängliga sekundära och återvunna resurser i det socioekonomiska systemet som en del av tillämpningen av metoden är fördelaktigt för att upprätthålla användningen av naturresurser. Eftersom metoden fortfarande utvecklas för småskaliga stadsområden föreslås en blandning av denna metod och andra rekommenderade metoder såsom, livscykelbedömning, genom att fokusera på datainsamling för att integrera databas och omfattande analys.

The systems analysis of biomass in the Borås municipality is conducted so as to identify the amount of biomass consumed by certain designated systems for this study. Using the principles of urban metabolism and material flow accounting, the system boundary is setup and biomass is categorized into system specific entities which are to be quantified. The symbiosis principle and the cascading approach of resource utilization are used to determine the systems which are working together and the resources they share among each other. Selected flows are established to be calculated for paper and paper products; fuel and construction wood; biogas; and blended transportation fuels. The flows are considered one by one, it is found that the consumption system and the waste management system are main players in the flow of paper and its products. The flow of fuel and construction wood is surveyed across different companies in the municipality for 2013. The fate of the waste construction wood for 2011 is traced across the waste handling systems of Borås Energi och Miljö till the Combined Heat and Power plant at Ryaverket. The quantities of fuel wood consumed by the CHP and residential heat are received from statistical sources. The main players in the biogas production flow are the waste management system and the digesters at Gässlösa and Sobacken. The consumption of enriched biogas is then examined for different transportation sub-systems. The flows for blended fuels is considered for petrol, diesel; separately analysed from them are their blended quantities of ethanol and other renewable additives. The sold quantities of petrol and diesel have been received from the market survey for the year 2013. The flows are then individually validated by common critical parameters to determine how reliable the information sources are. The resulting flows are discussed for the symbiosis of resources and significance of urban metabolism concepts. / Program: Masterutbildning i energi- och materialåtervinning

<p>The BMW Group uses load units for the transportation of assembly parts from the suppliers to the plants and for the internal material flow. This thesis analyses the advantageousness of introducing a load unit with a new size. There are three reasons why the current choice of containers is not sufficient. Firstly, there is a certain range of assembly parts that does not fit very well into the existing standard load units. Secondly, the average measurements of the parts have grown in the last years and thirdly, several of the existing containers leave unused space in the transportation vehicles.</p><p>For this the relevant costs and other, more qualitative aspects like the placing at the assembly line are considered. A container size is identified that offers a significant savings potential. For this potential the handling and transportation costs are identified as the relevant leverages. These costs are found to depend mainly on the utilisation degree of the load units.</p><p>To calculate the different utilisation degrees, a packing-algorithm in form of a four-block heuristic is applied and its results are extrapolated on the basis of existing BMW packing information. Thus, several assembly parts are identified that fit better into the suggested load unit than in the existing ones. These results are assessed using BMW’s expense ratios for handling and transportation. 80 parts are determined for which the migration to the new size would result in savings of more than 5,000 EUR for each per year in Dingolfing. Together, these parts offer a savings potential of about 0.9 million Euro.</p>

The BMW Group uses load units for the transportation of assembly parts from the suppliers to the plants and for the internal material flow. This thesis analyses the advantageousness of introducing a load unit with a new size. There are three reasons why the current choice of containers is not sufficient. Firstly, there is a certain range of assembly parts that does not fit very well into the existing standard load units. Secondly, the average measurements of the parts have grown in the last years and thirdly, several of the existing containers leave unused space in the transportation vehicles. For this the relevant costs and other, more qualitative aspects like the placing at the assembly line are considered. A container size is identified that offers a significant savings potential. For this potential the handling and transportation costs are identified as the relevant leverages. These costs are found to depend mainly on the utilisation degree of the load units. To calculate the different utilisation degrees, a packing-algorithm in form of a four-block heuristic is applied and its results are extrapolated on the basis of existing BMW packing information. Thus, several assembly parts are identified that fit better into the suggested load unit than in the existing ones. These results are assessed using BMW’s expense ratios for handling and transportation. 80 parts are determined for which the migration to the new size would result in savings of more than 5,000 EUR for each per year in Dingolfing. Together, these parts offer a savings potential of about 0.9 million Euro.

All processes in society produce waste. In nature, the waste is normally used as a resource for another process, but in human societies waste is often discarded. These discarded materials end up in places for depositing waste known as landfills. The increase in population, and humans’ tendency to improve their quality of life, has led to an increase in consumption of material. More material consumption means generating more waste, and more waste means bigger landfills. The increasing size of landfills has brought some other issues, such as increased land use and higher environmental impact. However in these landfills a lot of valuable materials are discarded and the concept of landfill mining (LFM) has been proposed in order to solve these issues and use landfills as a possible source of materials. Landfill mining is not yet a common practice, and the first barrier for this is the uncertainty of the amount and value of materials within landfills. The purpose of this study is to prospect the amount of metals in one specific landfill, in this case Gärstad landfill in Linköping, Sweden.  This is a first step to show the feasibility of landfill mining as an alternative way of extracting materials. The study is limited only to metals because they are one of the most important resources in today’s society. The theoretical background of the study is based on material flow analysis (MFA). Two approaches are used to study the materials in the landfill. The first is top-down which studies the flows of materials and the second is bottom-up which studies the stocks of material in the landfill. Based on these approaches the method was developed. First the system boundaries in time and space were defined. Then the amount of waste in landfill was estimated from the two mentioned approaches. In the end the metal content of the waste was estimated. Some criteria are also defined to compare the accessibility of the metals in the landfill. The results of this study show that there is a considerable amount of metals in the landfill, and that ash deposits resulting from incineration are the most interesting source of metals; with iron, aluminium, copper and zinc being the most abundant. The results are presented by type of waste, area of the landfill and accessibility in order to identify the hotspots. Later it is discussed that the method is cheap and fast but highly depends on previous data and available information. Also the metal content of the landfill is compared with natural ores. In the end the metal content of the landfill is evaluated and estimated to be around 3 billion SEK. It shows that aluminium, titanium and copper have the highest value money wise. As conclusion it was shown material flow analysis is a valid way to prospect landfills. But further cost-benefit analysis must be carried out to determine if landfill mining is justifiable. Also some recommendations are proposed to Tekniska Verken in order to facilitate future studies. The first is to develop a systematic way for landfilling different kind of waste and document them. Second is to include metals which have economic potential in the regular sampling from landfill. / Många processer i samhället generar avfall. I naturen används avfallet normalt som en resurs i en annan process, men i människliga samhällen kastas avfallet oftast bort. Bortkastat material hamnar förr eller senare oftast i deponier. Befolkningsökningen och människans tendens till att försöka förbättra sin livskvalitet har lett till en ökad materialkonsumtion. Högre konsumtion genererar mer avfall, och mer avfall kräver större deponier. Växande avfallsanläggningar leder i sin tur till ökad markanvändning och högre miljöpåverkan. I dessa anläggningar finns det emellertid stora mängder värdefullt material deponerat, och från dessa läcker både tungmetaller och metan ut, vilket är skadligt för miljön. Landfill Mining (LFM) har föreslagits som en lösning på dessa problem och avfallsanläggningarna används då även som en möjlig källa till material. Landfill mining är idag inte vanligt förekommande och det huvudsakliga hindret är de många osäkerheterna kring ett sådant projekt, till exempel; hur mycket material finns i deponierna och hur mycket är det värt? Syftet med den här studien är att uppskatta metallinnehållet i en specifik avfallsanläggning, i det här fallet Gärstad avfallsanläggning i Linköping. Detta är ett första steg i att utröna genomförbarheten av LFM som en alternativ resursbas. Studien är begränsad till metaller eftersom dessa håller på att ta slut i jordskorpan och det vore därför intressant att finna nya materialkällor till dessa. Den teoretiska bakgrunden till den här studien är baserad på materialflödesanalys (MFA). Två metoder har använts för att prospektera Gärstad. Dels top-down, som studerar flödet av material, dels bottom-up, som studerar materialförrådet i avfallsanläggningen. Avfallens totalmängd var uppskattad genom att beräkna flödet in och ut från anläggningen. Sedan använde vi tidigare gjorda provtagningar av avfallets metallmängder för att uppskatta metallinnehållet. Slutligen analyserades metallernas tillgänglighet baserad på typ av avfall, och om deponi delområdet var sluttäckt. Resultatet visar att det finns mycket metaller deponerat i Gärstad. Askan från avfallsförbränningen visade sig vara den avfallstyp med rikast metallinnehåll. Järn, aluminium, koppar och zink är de vanligaste förkommande metallerna. Metallkoncentrationen av avfallsanläggningen kan jämföras med naturliga malmer. Värdet av metallerna i Gärstad uppgår till cirka 3 miljarder. Dock är endast 30 % av metallerna tillgängliga med dagens teknik. De största värdena finns enligt följd i aluminium, titan och koppar. För att identifiera hotspots, redovisas resultatet enligt avfallstyp, lokalisering och tillgänglighet. MFA är ett fungerande prospekteringsverktyg för deponier. Metod är billig och snabb men beroende av att det finns tillgänglig data. Innan deponin transformeras till en gruva bör emellertid först en kostnad och nyttoanalys genomföras för att undersöka genomförbarheten vidare. Rekommendationer för att underlätta framtida utgrävningar är att utveckla ett systematiskt sätt att deponera olika typer av avfall och att dokumentera dem. De metaller som har ekonomisk potential bör dessutom inkluderas vid den normala provtagningen av deponerat avfall.

End products of society (e.g. sewage sludge and incineration ashes) can be used as indicators of the use of chemicals in consumer goods. Through upstream work the sources of substances released from goods may be identified before the emissions reach the end products. This thesis is a result of five studies, of which four were conducted using substance flow analyses (SFA) for silver (Ag), bismuth (Bi) and copper (Cu) reaching sewage sludge. The fifth is an SFA that explores the implications of the presence of As (from CCA-treated wood) in ashes. These studies helped fulfil the specific and overall aims of the thesis; to contribute to the general knowledge on diffuse emissions reflected in end products, by examining emissions of some heavy metals from various societal goods and the implications for end products, in this case sewage sludge and, to some extent, ashes. The results from the studies, of which four had Stockholm as a study object, show the urban flows and accumulated amounts (stocks) of the heavy metals. The largest sources of the metals Ag, Bi and Cu in sewage sludge were identified to be textiles (Ag), cosmetics (Bi) and brake linings (Cu). For As (in CCA-treated wood) and Cu updated SFAs were performed and compared with earlier studies in order to follow the development and changes in flows over time. The current use of the heavy metals studied can also be seen as a loss of resources, and as the metals should ideally be recovered as a part of a circular economy, urban and landfill mining as well as recycling are alternatives that need further exploring. The legislation of chemicals in consumer goods was identified as an important step in handling corresponding diffuse emissions.