| 1. |
- Ramírez Villegas, Ricardo, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Combined environmental and economic assessment of energy efficiency measures in a multi-dwelling building
- 2019
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Ingår i: Energies. - : MDPI AG. - 1996-1073. ; 12:13
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this study is to assess how different renovation scenarios affect the environmental and economic impacts of a multi-dwelling building in a Nordic climate, how these aspects are correlated and how different energy carriers affect different environmental impact categories. In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the European Union has set an agenda in order to reduce energy use in buildings. New buildings on the European market have a low replacement rate, which makes building renovation an important factor for achieving the European Union goals. In this study, eight renovation strategies were analyzed following the European Committee for Standardization standards for life cycle assessment and life cycle costs of buildings. This study covers all life cycle steps from cradle to grave. The renovation scenarios include combinations of photovoltaics, geothermal heat pumps, heat recovery ventilation and improved building envelopes. Results show that, depending on the energy carrier, reductions in global warming potential can be achieved at the expense of an increased nuclear waste disposal. It also shows that for the investigated renovation strategies in Sweden there is no correlation between the economic and the environmental performance of the building. Changing energy carriers in Sweden in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions can be a good alternative, but it makes the system more dependent on nuclear power.
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| 2. |
- Andersen, Niklas, et al.
(författare)
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Wind turbines’ end-of-life : Quantification and characterisation of future waste materials on a national level
- 2016
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Ingår i: Energies. - : MDPI AG. - 1996-1073. ; 9:12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Globally, wind power is growing fast and in Sweden alone more than 3000 turbines have been installed since the mid-1990s. Although the number of decommissioned turbines so far is few, the high installation rate suggests that a similarly high decommissioning rate can be expected at some point in the future. If the waste material from these turbines is not handled sustainably the whole concept of wind power as a clean energy alternative is challenged. This study presents a generally applicable method and quantification based on statistics of the waste amounts from wind turbines in Sweden. The expected annual mean growth is 12% until 2026, followed by a mean increase of 41% until 2034. By then, annual waste amounts are estimated to 240,000 tonnes steel and iron (16% of currently recycled materials), 2300 tonnes aluminium (4%), 3300 tonnes copper (5%), 340 tonnes electronics (<1%) and 28,000 tonnes blade materials (barely recycled today). Three studied scenarios suggest that a well-functioning market for re-use may postpone the effects of these waste amounts until improved recycling systems are in place.
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| 3. |
- Arushanyan, Yevgeniya, et al.
(författare)
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Environmental Assessment of Possible Future Waste Management Scenarios
- 2017
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Ingår i: Energies. - : MDPI AG. - 1996-1073. ; 10:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Waste management has developed in many countries and will continue to do so. Changes towards increased recovery of resources in order to meet climate targets and for society to transition to a circular economy are important driving forces. Scenarios are important tools for planning and assessing possible future developments and policies. This paper presents a comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) model for environmental assessments of scenarios and waste management policy instruments. It is unique by including almost all waste flows in a country and also allow for including waste prevention. The results show that the environmental impacts from future waste management scenarios in Sweden can differ a lot. Waste management will continue to contribute with environmental benefits, but less so in the more sustainable future scenarios, since the surrounding energy and transportation systems will be less polluting and also because less waste will be produced. Valuation results indicate that climate change, human toxicity and resource depletion are the most important environmental impact categories for the Swedish waste management system. Emissions of fossil CO2 from waste incineration will continue to be a major source of environmental impacts in these scenarios. The model is used for analyzing environmental impacts of several policy instruments including weight based collection fee, incineration tax, a resource tax and inclusion of waste in a green electricity certification system. The effect of the studied policy instruments in isolation are in most cases limited, suggesting that stronger policy instruments as well as combinations are necessary to reach policy goals as set out in for example the EU action plan on circular economy.
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| 4. |
- Eriksson, Ola
(författare)
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Energy and Waste Management
- 2017
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Ingår i: Energies. - : MDPI AG. - 1996-1073. ; 10:7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Waste management and energy systems are often interlinked, either directly by waste-to-energy technologies, or indirectly as processes for recovery of resources-such as materials, oils, manure, or sludge-use energy in their processes or substitute conventional production of the commodities for which the recycling processes provide raw materials. A special issue in Energies on the topic of “ Energy andWaste Management” attained a lot of attention from the scientific community. In particular, papers contributing to improved understanding of the combined management of waste and energy were invited. In all, 9 papers were published out of 24 unique submissions. The papers cover technical topics such as leaching of heavy metals, pyrolysis, and production of synthetic natural gas in addition to different systems assessments of horse manure, incineration, and complex future scenarios at a national level. All papers except one focused on energy recovery from waste. That particular paper focused on waste management of infrastructure in an energy system (wind turbines). Published papers illustrate research in the field of energy and waste management on both a current detailed process level as well as on a future system level. Knowledge gained on both types is necessary to be able to make progress towards a circular economy.
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| 5. |
- Eriksson, Ola, et al.
(författare)
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Energy Recovery from Waste Incineration : The Importance of Technology Data and System Boundaries on CO2 Emissions
- 2017
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Ingår i: Energies. - : MDPI AG. - 1996-1073. ; 10:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Previous studies on waste incineration as part of the energy system show that waste management and energy supply are highly dependent on each other, and that the preconditions for the energy system setup affects the avoided emissions and thereby even sometimes the total outcome of an environmental assessment. However, it has not been previously shown explicitly which key parameters are most crucial, how much each parameter affects results and conclusions and how different aspects depend on each other. The interconnection between waste incineration and the energy system is elaborated by testing parameters potentially crucial to the result: design of the incineration plant, avoided energy generation, degree of efficiency, electricity efficiency in combined heat and power plants (CHP), avoided fuel, emission level of the avoided electricity generation and avoided waste management. CO2 emissions have been calculated for incineration of 1 kWh mixed combustible waste. The results indicate that one of the most important factors is the electricity efficiency in CHP plants in combination with the emission level of the avoided electricity generation. A novel aspect of this study is the plant by plant comparison showing how different electricity efficiencies associated with different types of fuels and plants influence results. Since waste incineration typically have lower power to fuel ratios, this has implications for further analyses of waste incineration compared to other waste management practises and heat and power production technologies. New incineration capacity should substitute mixed landfill disposal and recovered energy should replace energy from inefficient high polluting plants. Electricity generation must not be lost, as it has to be compensated for by electricity production affecting the overall results.
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| 6. |
- Eriksson, Ola, et al.
(författare)
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Life cycle assessment of horse manure treatment
- 2016
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Ingår i: Energies. - : MDPI AG. - 1996-1073. ; 9:12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Horse manure consists of feces, urine, and varying amounts of various bedding materials. The management of horse manure causes environmental problems when emissions occur during the decomposition of organic material, in addition to nutrients not being recycled. The interest in horse manure undergoing anaerobic digestion and thereby producing biogas has increased with an increasing interest in biogas as a renewable fuel. This study aims to highlight the environmental impact of different treatment options for horse manure from a system perspective. The treatment methods investigated are: (1) unmanaged composting; (2) managed composting; (3) large-scale incineration in a waste-fired combined heat and power (CHP) plant; (4) drying and small-scale combustion; and (5) liquid anaerobic digestion with thermal pre-treatment. Following significant data uncertainty in the survey, the results are only indicative. No clear conclusions can be drawn regarding any preference in treatment methods, with the exception of their climate impact, for which anaerobic digestion is preferred. The overall conclusion is that more research is needed to ensure the quality of future surveys, thus an overall research effort from horse management to waste management.
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| 7. |
- Hadin, Åsa, et al.
(författare)
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Prospects for Increased Energy Recovery from Horse Manure : A Case Study of Management Practices, Environmental Impact and Costs
- 2017
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Ingår i: Energies. - : MDPI. - 1996-1073. ; 10:12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A transition to renewable energy sources and a circular economy has increased interest in renewable resources not usually considered as energy sources or plant nutrient resources. Horse manure exemplifies this, as it is sometimes recycled but not often used for energy purposes. The purpose of this study was to explore horse manure management in a Swedish municipality and prospects for energy recovery. The case study includes a survey of horse manure practices, environmental assessment of horse manure treatment in a biogas plant, including associated transport, compared to on-site unmanaged composting, and finally a simplified economic analysis. It was found that horse manure management was characterized by indoor collection of manure most of the year and storage on concrete slabs or in containers, followed by direct application on arable land. Softwood was predominantly used as bedding, and bedding accounted for a relatively small proportion (13%) of the total mix. Anaerobic digestion was indicated to reduce potential environmental impact in comparison to unmanaged composting, mainly due to biogas substituting use of fossil fuels. The relative environmental impact from transport of manure from horse facilities to anaerobic digestion plant was small. Results also indicate a relatively high cost for horse keepers to change from composting on site to anaerobic digestion in a centralized plant.
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| 8. |
- Ramirez Villegas, Ricardo, et al.
(författare)
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Environmental payback of renovation strategies in a northern climate - the impact of nuclear power and fossil fuels in the electricity supply
- 2020
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Ingår i: Energies. - : MDPI. - 1996-1073. ; 13:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this study is to assess how the use of fossil and nuclear power in different renovation scenarios affects the environmental impacts of a multi-family dwelling in Sweden, and how changes in the electricity production with different energy carriers affect the environmental impact. In line with the Paris Agreement, the European Union has set an agenda to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by means of energy efficiency in buildings. It is estimated that by the year 2050, 80% of Europe's population will be living in buildings that already exist. This means it is important for the European Union to renovate buildings to improve energy efficiency. In this study, eight renovation scenarios, using six different Northern European electricity mixes, were analyzed using the standard of the European Committee for Standardization for life cycle assessment of buildings. This study covers all life cycle steps from cradle to grave. The renovation scenarios include combinations of photovoltaics, geothermal heat pumps, heat recovery ventilation, and improvement of the building envelope. The results show that while in some electricity mixes a reduction in the global warming potential can be achieved, it can be at the expense of an increase in radioactive waste production, and, in mixes with a high share of fossil fuels, the global warming potential of the scenarios increases with time, compared with that of the original building. It also shows that in most electricity mixes, scenarios that reduce the active heat demand of the building end up in reducing both the global warming potential and radioactive waste, making them less sensitive to changes in the energy system.
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| 9. |
- Ramirez Villegas, Ricardo, et al.
(författare)
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Life Cycle Assessment of Building Renovation Measures : Trade-off between Building Materials and Energy
- 2019
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Ingår i: Energies. - : MDPI. - 1996-1073. ; 12:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The scope of this study is to assess how different energy efficient renovation strategies affect the environmental impacts of a multi-family house in a Nordic climate within district heating systems. The European Union has set ambitious targets to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2030. There is special attention on reducing the life cycle emissions in the buildings sector. However, the focus has often been on new buildings, although existing buildings represent great potential within the building stock in Europe. In this study, four different renovation scenarios were analyzed with the commercially available life cycle assessment software that follows the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) standard. This study covers all life cycle steps from the cradle to the grave for a residential building in Borlange, Sweden, where renewable energy dominates. The four scenarios included reduced indoor temperature, improved thermal properties of building material components and heat recovery for the ventilation system. One finding is that changing installations gives an environmental impact comparable to renovations that include both ventilation and building facilities. In addition, the life cycle steps that have the greatest environmental impact in all scenarios are the operational energy use and the building and installation processes. Renovation measures had a major impact on energy use due to the cold climate and low solar irradiation in the heating season. An interesting aspect, however, is that the building materials and the construction processes gave a significant amount of environmental impact.
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