The requirements on the products and production processes within the manufacturing industry are continuously increasing according to environmental standards. The new requirements are coming from a growing awareness of what our planet can provide for example by the global challenge of climate change. The industry needs to reduce energy consumption and waste to meet the upcoming requirements. One of the processes with high environmental impact in a discrete manufacturing industry is the paint shop. Surface treatment is also of great importance to maintain a high quality product. In scientific literature, technological risk is one of the barriers in implementing environmental conscious manufacturing. Therefore the area of sustainable operations management needs building bridges with other functions and disciplines such as economics, strategies and behavioral sciences in order to manage the transitions. The supply of competence around paint shops today is usually provided by suppliers and other sources within the industry and to make the collaboration to work is essential. In this process of collaboration with external sources, substantial measurements are required to maintain the desirable quality. In order to ensure the competence of testing the quality eventuate when switching technology at a pre-treatment line, this report sets out to explore what the challenges to be taken into consideration are when to assure the product- and- process quality. To respond to this question, a multiple case study is conducted during spring 2016 where the phenomenon to study is the change process and the unit of analysis is the challenges that can be faced during the verification process. The case studied is automotive companies located in Sweden which are producing components for heavy duty vehicles. Data collection is performed by studying documents, participatory observations and semi-structured interviews. The results will give insights to academia on what challenges that are occurring during the verification process of implementing new and cleaner technologies. The conclusions are drawn upon the literature and the empirical results. The managerial implications are to increase the awareness of any potential barriers in the verification process in order to be prepared for managing the technological change process.

Pre-treatment of wheat straw(lignocellulosic) biomass is a crucial step as it has direct impact on the subsequent yield of enzymatic saccharification and alcohol fermentation processes in the production of biofuel. Twin screw extrusion is a highly feasible pretreatment method and has been received great interest in the recent year pre-treatment studies. Twin screw extrusion is a continuous process, where the biomass feedstock can be subjected to a combination of simultaneous physical, thermal and chemical treatments. Steam explosion is a batch process and is the most commonly used method for lignocellulosic pre-treatment. In the initial stage of this study, the yield of glucose obtained from enzymatic saccharification for both methods (extrusion and steam explosion) were compared to identify the most effective pre-treatment approach. Effectiveness of the conventional steam explosion pre-treatment was used as benchmark for the directions of development of effective extrusion fractionation for wheat straw. In subsequent study, the impact of physical operating parameters (moisture, barrel temperature, compaction, screw speed and size reduction before extrusion) over twin screw extrusion with and without NaOH were studied. Low temperature (50°C) and increased moisture extrusion were preferred extrusion conditions. Yield of glucose can be improved by addition of NaOH (0.04g / g straw) and barrel temperature profile optimisation. Post extrusion washing was recommended. Findings from FTIR and TGA help to understand the chemical and structural changes took place in the pre-treatment and can be correlated with the glucose yield at the end of enzymatic hydrolysis. Characterisation analysis was extended to FT-NIR, morphology, crystallinity and specific surface area analysis to analyse the structural changes of lignocellulose biomass in extrusion pre-treatment and correlation with glucose yield. Chemometric analysis was used to statistically process large amounts of spectral data. The PCA scores plots showed good cluster segregation of the samples and were thus able to distinguish the effects of different pre-treatment conditions. The PLS regression models for both FTIR and FT-NIR showed good statistical regression and predictive ability correlated to the glucose yield. For the lignin ultilisation study, crude lignin was recovered from black liquor and fractionated with solvents. Lignin and the fractions were characterised with solvent solubility, SEC, UV, FTIR, 1H and 13C NMR and evaluated for the antioxidant activity with AAI ranged from 0.3 to 2.4. Reason for the low performance was proposed and experiment was extended to the intended application performance screening. Lignin application study was further extended to assess the feasibility of using lignin as an antioxidant in carboxylated acrilonitrile-butadiene rubber, XNBR glove. Evaluation involved physical observation, mechanical properties and thermal analysis – DSC-OIT after incorporation of lignin into XNBR glove. Lignin antioxidant performance was compared with current chemical antioxidant in used in industry. A part from antioxidant behaviour, lignin was also found can enhance the softness of XNBR film after accelerated heat aging.

The use of microorganisms notably bacteria in mineral processing industry is presently one of the leading emerging pre-treatment techniques being employed for the processing of double refractory gold ores and concentrates. Currently numerous studies are in progress to further improve upon the efficiency of the bacterial process and to investigate the potential of other microorganisms. In this study, microbial pre-treatment of double refractory gold ore (sample A) and concentrate (sample B) was investigated using a white-rot fungus, Tramestes versicolor (ATTC 20869). Pulp density, temperature, pH and retention times were the process variables considered. Preliminary studies investigated the amenability of selected pure sulfide sulfur minerals, various types of coal and ore sample A to fungal degradation. Various pre-treatment scenarios were also studied to optimize gold extraction. These were single stage, a two-step and two stage processes involving the well known chemolithotrophic bacteria Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans (ATTC 15494), Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans (ATTC 19859) and Leptospirillum ferrooxidans (ATTC 53992), the bacterium, Streptomyces setonii (ATTC 39116) and the white-rot fungus, Tramestes versicolor. Preliminary results for sample A indicated that T. versicolor did not degrade sulfides significantly at its optimum growth conditions (pH range of 4.5 – 5.0) and carbonaceous matter was not degraded but rather passivated as preg-robbing decreased significantly. Lignite was inert to passivation by T. versicolor unlike bituminous coal and to lower extent anthracite. Stimulated alkaline conditions (pH range of 9.5 – 10.5) recorded the overall best sulfur oxidation. Results of both the single stage and two-step processes confirmed that carbonaceous matter was passivated by T. versicolor; as preg-robbing decreased significantly from 18.1% to ≤ 1.0%. Gold extraction by cyanidation of the pre-treated sample A was 82.5% for the two-step as against 80.5 % for the single stage and 15.0% for the untreated sample. Application of the two-step and single stage process conditions to sample B resulted in 93.3% and 89.9% gold extraction respectively as against untreated concentrate of 30.5%. For the various two stage pre-treatment processes investigated, the abiotic - S. setonii process recorded the best gold extraction of 81.5% for sample A. S. Setonii degraded carbonaceous matter unlike T. versicolor which passivated it. However, it takes only 3 - 7 days for T. versicolor to effect passivation and eliminate preg-robbing while 14 - 56 days is required for S. setonii to degrade carbonaceous matter significantly. The result of the novel microbial pre-treatment process indicated that sulfide sulfur was degraded under alkaline conditions and carbonaceous matter passivated by T. versicolor at its optimum growth conditions. This led to a significant improvement in gold extraction from the double refractory gold ore and concentrate investigated. / Thesis (Master, Mining Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2008-09-22 16:42:01.272

Owing to the maldistribution of precipitation in the harsh climatic region has resulted in the deficit between freshwater demand and natural supply or water scarcity in these countries. Seawater desalination has emerged as one of the most reliable methods to bridge this gap. However, the thermal desalination (MED and MSF) process faces challenges related to surface scaling phenomena, such as temperature and seawater concentration. Innovative thermodynamic processes and technologies have the potential to overcome these limitations. On one hand, the top brine temperature (TBT) limit can be raised by partially removing the multivalent ions such as SO42-, Mg2+, Ca2+, Cl-, and Na+ dissolved in the seawater. One of the main drawbacks of the current MED processes is their vulnerability to scaling at temperatures above 70°C.. This limitation deprives the technology to be energy efficient and reduces its optimal productivity. However, by implementing an optimized pre-treatment of seawater feed using NF membranes, the efficiency of the process can be significantly improved. In the pilot plant, the experiment was conducted to investigate the efficacy of NF (nanofiltration) as a physical pre-treatment method for partially removing undesirable ions of dissolved salts in Red Sea water, thereby mitigating scaling issues beyond the upper TBT limit in thermal desalination systems. Utilizing the NF-270 membrane, the optimal operating feed pressure of 15 bar was determined to ensure effective ion removal while minimizing operational expenditures (OpEx). The results demonstrated high removal rates, with 97% removal of Sulfate (SO42-), 73% removal of Magnesium (Mg2+), 49% removal of Calcium (Ca2+), 17% removal of Sodium (Na+), and 16% removal of Chloride (Cl-). By employing NF as a pre-treatment method, the concentrations of these ions were significantly reduced, allowing for thermal desalination plants to operate at higher temperatures, with a maximum TBT of 120°C. This, in turn, has the potential to substantially increase water production yield in thermally driven plants by incorporating a greater number of stages in a green new design plant or by exploiting larger temperature differences in existing plants.

Anaerobic digestion and struvite precipitation are two effective ways of treating dairy manure for recovering biogas and phosphorus. Anaerobic digestion of dairy manure is commonly limited by slow fiber degradation, while one of the limitations to struvite precipitation is the availability of orthophosphate. The aim of this work was to study the use of microwave-based thermochemical pretreatment to simultaneously enhance manure anaerobic digestibility (through fiber degradation) and struvite precipitation (through phosphorus solubilization). Microwave heating combined with different chemicals (NaOH, CaO, H₂SO₄, or HCl) enhanced solubilization of manure and degradation of glucan/xylan in dairy manure. However, sulfuric acid-based pretreatment resulted in a low anaerobic digestibility, probably due to the sulfur inhibition and side reactions. The pretreatments released 20-40% soluble phosphorus and 9-14% ammonium. However, CaO-based pretreatment resulted in lower orthophosphate releases and struvite precipitation efficiency as calcium reacts with phosphate to form calcium phosphate. Collectively, microwave heating combined with NaOH or HCl led to a high anaerobic digestibility and phosphorus recovery. Using these two chemicals, the performance of microwave- and conventional-heating in thermochemical pretreatment was further compared. The microwave heating resulted in a better performance in terms of COD solubilization, glucan/xylan reduction, phosphorus solubilization and anaerobic digestibility. Lastly, temperature and heating time used in microwave treatment were optimized. The optimal values of temperature and heating time were 147°C and 25.3 min for methane production, and 135°C and 26 min for orthophosphate release, respectively. Applying manure or slurry directly to the land can contribute to pathogen contamination of land, freshwater and groundwater. Thus it is important to study the fate of pathogens in diary manure anaerobic digestion systems. The goal of the project was to establish a molecular based quantitative method for pathogen identification and quantification, compare the molecular based method with culture based method and study pathogen fate in dairy manure and different anaerobic digesters. Result showed that molecular based method detected more E.coli than the culture based method with less variability. Thermophilic anaerobic digestion can achieve more than 95% pathogen removal rate while mesophilic anaerobic digester had increased E.coli number than fresh manure, indicating temperature is a key factor for pathogen removal. In general, the overall goal of the study is to develop an integrated dairy manure treatment system. The microwave based pretreatment enhanced the subsequent biogas production and struvite precipitation, and the molecular tool based method provided a more precise and faster way to study the pathogen fate in various anaerobic digestions. / Ph. D.

It is desirable to reduce leaching of copper from home plumbing because of environmental concerns and to comply with stringent regulation of copper in wastewater and drinking water. The solubility of the scale (oxidized copper rust layer) on the copper pipe wall, which directly contacts drinking water, is a key factor controlling the maximum soluble copper release. Gradual replacement of soluble Cu(OH)2 scale to less soluble scale is desirable and occurs through a process known as "aging. The presence of sulfate, bicarbonate and orthophosphate in water can quickly convert Cu(OH)2 to less soluble solids. In some cases, this produces a desirable short-term reduction in copper solubility, but over longer time periods formation of these solids can be detrimental because they interfere with formation of very low solubility tenorite (CuO)or malachite phases. Likewise, silica present in water can sorb to Cu(OH)2 and hinder aging to low solubility tenorite, while the presence of chlorine can hasten aging by a chemical reaction with cupric species that has never been previously observed in the drinking water field. Mild chemical treatments that might be used to accelerate aging, and which could be applied to reduce environmental impacts of newly installed copper pipe, were successfully tested. Chemical pretreatments using lime, caustic, soda ash or chlorine reduced copper release by as much as 84% compared to new pipes without pretreatment. / Master of Science

Incineration with energy recovery is the main disposal strategy for waste that cannot be reused or recycled, and a well-established source of energy in Europe, especially in Sweden where 2.2 Mtonnes of waste including domestic and imported municipal solid waste (MSW) and waste wood (WW) were combusted during 2015. However, owing to its inherent heterogeneous composition, inclusion of such waste in Waste-to-energy (WtE) technologies is challenging. These heterogeneities may lead to operationally-related issues in the WtE facilities and contribute to toxic emissions, which can be reduced by waste pre-treatment technologies.    This thesis examines the variations in the composition of MSW and WW streams used as a fuel supply in WtE facilities after undergoing waste pre-treatment technologies, and the effect of fuel composition on its combustion behaviour and formation of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs). The overall objective is to contribute to a more thorough understanding of the selection of waste pre-treatment technologies to mitigate harmful emissions into the atmosphere when waste fuels are combusted in WtE facilities.    This thesis describes the high variability of contaminants in domestic and imported WW and suggests adaptation of WW pre-treatment techniques to produce fuels with a low potential for generating pollutants. A comparison of mechanical solid waste pre-treatments revealed that screening and shredding is more efficient than extrusion for reducing emissions of pollutants such as PCDDs and PCDFs in combustion. The evaluation of the combustion behaviour of MSW-based fuels showed a three-stage oxidative decomposition, and an acceleration of the decomposition of the MSW compared to the lignocellulosic materials, which may be attributed to the presence of food waste and plastics in the MSW. Combustion tests of fuel blends containing WW and MSW-based fuels with different food waste content suggested that WW, not food waste content, is the key factor for the formation of PCDDs, PCDFs, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), benzenes (PCBzs) and phenols (PCPhs). Torrefaction may be a suitable technology for improving the properties of waste as a fuel e.g. due to its low PCDD and PCDF emissions. / Förbränning med energiåtervinning är det huvudsakliga sättet att ta hand om avfall som inte kan återanvändas eller återvinnas. Det är en väletablerad energikälla i Europa och särskilt i Sverige där 2,2 miljoner ton avfall, däribland inhemskt och importerat hushållsavfall och returträ, förbrändes under 2015. På grund av den heterogena sammansättningen hos hushållsavfall och returträ är förbränning av dessa material i anläggningar med energiåtervinning (så kallade WtE-anläggningar) förknippade med en del driftsrelaterade utmaningar. Det kan även ge upphov till miljöfarliga utsläpp, som dock kan reduceras genom förbehandling av avfallet. I denna avhandling har variationer i sammansättningen hos hushållsavfall och returträ som förbränns i WtE-anläggningar undersökts. Effekten av bränslemixens sammansättning och ev förbehandling på bränslets förbränningsegenskaper samt bildning av långlivade organiska föroreningar (så kallade POPar) såsom polyklorerade dibenso-p-dioxiner och polyklorerade dibensofuraner vid förbränning har utvärderats. Det övergripande målet är att bidra till en djupare förståelse av hur valet av förbehandlingsteknik för avfall kan bidra till att minska skadliga utsläpp till luft när avfallsbränslen förbränns i WtE-anläggningar. Denna avhandling beskriver den stora variabiliteten av metall- och materialföroreningar i inhemskt och importerat returträ och föreslår förbehandlingstekniker för att producera bränslen med låg potential att generera föroreningar. En jämförelse av mekaniska förbehandlingstekniker visade att mekanisk sönderdelning och separering (krossning och siktning) är mer effektivt än s.k. högtrycks-pressning för att minska utsläppen av föroreningar som dioxiner och furaner vid förbränning. Utvärderingen av bränslemixar innehållande hushållsavfall uppvisade en oxidativ nedbrytning i tre steg vid förbränning, och en accelererad nedbrytning av avfallsmaterialet jämfört med vedmaterialet i bränslet, troligen som effekt av innehållet av matavfall och plast i hushållsavfallet. Förbränningsförsök med bränsleblandningar av returträ och hushållsavfall med olika innehåll av matavfall visade att mängden returträ, och inte mängden matavfall, är den viktigaste faktorn för bildning av dioxiner, furaner, klorbifenyler, klorbensener, och klorfenoler. Torrefiering kan vara en lämplig teknik för att förbättra avfallets bränsleegenskaper, t.ex. på grund av dess låga emissioner.

A number of advanced pre-treatment techniques and methods have been evaluated for the sole purpose of improving digestibility of waste activated sludge. The pre-treatment of waste activated sludge (WAS) offers the benefit of releasing solubilized substrates, making them readily available to be utilized in the anaerobic digestion process. Other potential benefits include: reducing shock loading to the digester, improving overall digestibility and potentially providing filament / foaming control. Chlorine dioxide, a well-known disinfectant and oxidizing agent has been utilized in many drinking water processes around the world. Its use in wastewater treatment processes however is limited; especially in Canada where legislation has prevented its use for final effluent disinfection. As an oxidizing agent, chlorine dioxide induces cell rupture resulting in the release of soluble material, which when fed into the digester, may serve as readily available substrate for active microorganisms. This mode of action creates the potential for chlorine dioxide to be used as a sludge pre-treatment agent to improve digester performance and in alleviating pre-existing filamentous sludge bulking. This study was conducted using waste activated sludge obtained from the City of Winnipeg’s South End Water Pollution Control Centre (SEWPCC), with the following objectives: 1. Determine the efficacy of chlorine dioxide in alleviating pre-existing filamentous sludge bulking; 2. Determine chlorine dioxide ability to increase WAS solubilization; and 3. Define impact of chlorine dioxide on anaerobic digester performance. WAS pre-treatment using chlorine dioxide was found to be effective in alleviating filamentous bulking. This is significant as filamentous bulking in the activated sludge may lead several problems downstream. Following pre-treatment, sludge bulking was determined to be alleviated as observed by photomicrographic evidence and as measured by a 57% decrease in the stirred sludge volume index (sSVI). Particulate COD solubilization increased by 60%, 76%, and 74% over the untreated sludge for WAS pre-treated with 25, 50, and 100 mg ClO2/L (v/v), respectively. The pre-treatment of sludge using chlorine dioxide did not have any negative impact on digester performance although it also did not lead to improved performance. The volatile solids destruction and COD removal remained unchanged for both untreated and pre-treated sludge. Chlorine dioxide pre-treatment did not affect anaerobic digestion even at the lowest SRT evaluated; it is possible to decrease the digester SRT to as low as 6 days while maintaining the solids destruction and COD removal capability. Biogas production did not improve with increasing chlorine dioxide dosage during pre-treatment but also was not hindered by the pre-treatment agent. Chlorine dioxide was shown to alleviate filamentous bulking and improve solubility and has the potential to improve digester performance without negative impacts to the digester. However, the full benefit of the pre-treatment method may only be realized for complex “difficult to disintegrate” sludge types. / October 2016

A kinetic study of the pyrolysis of municipal solid waste (MSW) was carried out bythermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Different runs were performed at heating rates of 5, 10and 150C/min. The effect of the N2, CO2 and O2 gas with different combination in theprocess was also evaluated. The results show that the most weight loss was obtained whenthe MSW was treated at a temperature interval of (20-750)0C which led to a weigh loss of95%. The kinetic study of the pyrolysis process showed also the gas mixture used in theprocess effect also the activation energy of the process and the presence of the CO2 in theincreased the activation energy (Ea) to 56 kJ/mol. Higher concentration of CO2 in the processlead to increase in the activation energy which is not optimal for the reaction. The treated andthe untreated samples were incubated and the biological activity was observed. The resultsshow that the pretreated samples did not have any biological activity. From these results itcould be concluded that the thermal pretreatment could be an alternative way for of waste forlong period of time, which could have significant impact in i.e. for transportation anddurability during storage. / Program: Högskoleingenjörsutbildning i kemiteknik

Orange cultivation is a huge industry which increasing for each year. By the year 2010 theorange production of the world is expected to reach 66.4 million tons per year. Most of theoranges are used for orange juice production. Consequently, a large amount of organic wastes,including seeds, segment membranes and peel, counting up to half of the weight of usedoranges, are generated As alternatives to land filling and incineration, source separation andcomposting together with biogas production are being considered as suitable methods fortreating this fraction of wastes, because it holds a high amount of organic materials in form ofvaluable carbohydrate polymers. However, the presence of peel oil, limonene, known to haveantimicrobial effects, has showed to be a strong inhibitor for the biogas producingmicroorganisms. Therefore the orange peel waste (OP) was mixed with the organic fraction ofmunicipal solid waste (MSW) in this study to keep the concentration of this inhibitorycompound at low level.Based on the results from previous batch experiments, this study was performed in order toconfirm and develop the possible use of orange peel waste in biogas production. Since thebatch experiments showed that the methane production was not affected, when a mixture of70% MSW and 30% OP (calculated on the basis of volatile solids (VS) content added) wasused as substrate, a continuous anaerobic digestion experiment was performed using the samemixture of MSW and OP as a substrate in this study. Furthermore, a reactor utilizing onlyMSW was used as a control. Both reactors were operated during 35 days at thermophilicconditions (55ºC), with an organic loading rate of 3gVS/L/day and a hydraulic retention timeof 21 days. The methane production was around 0,5 Nm3/kgVS/day in both reactors duringthe first period of operation. However, the production of methane started to decrease after 20days followed by a sharp decrease during the last 5 days in the orange peel-containing reactor.Furthermore, a steadily increase (from 4,85g/L to 6,51g/L) in the total content of volatile fattyacids (VFA) could be observed here, while the total content of VFA in the control reactorremained at low levels (0,84g/L). A second experimental set up using a decreased amount ofOP (20% OP and 80% MSW) in the substrate mixture and operating at the same conditions sthe previous experiment was also performed and showed similar trends in the results. Thefailure of the process can be explained by inhibition in the system, which led to theaccumulation of VFA’s resulting in a decreased and finally no methane production. Thisinhibition might be caused by the accumulation of the inhibitory compound, limonene,presented in the orange peel waste. Therefore some treatment of the OP is necessary prior todigestion to avoid this inhibition. Batch digestion of treated vs untreated OP showed that themethane production of treated OP could be increased to 0,628 Nm3/kgVS compared to that of0,408 Nm3/kgVS from the untreated sample. Further investigations utilizing this treated OPfraction in continuous biogas process are necessary in the future.