| 1. |
- Grandell, Leena, et al.
(författare)
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Assessing Rare Metal Availability Challenges for Solar Energy Technologies
- 2015
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Ingår i: Sustainability. - MDPI AG : MDPI AG. - 2071-1050. ; 7:9, s. 11818-11837
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Solar energy is commonly seen as a future energy source with significant potential. Ruthenium, gallium, indium and several other rare elements are common and vital components of many solar energy technologies, including dye-sensitized solar cells, CIGS cells and various artificial photosynthesis approaches. This study surveys solar energy technologies and their reliance on rare metals such as indium, gallium, and ruthenium. Several of these rare materials do not occur as primary ores, and are found as byproducts associated with primary base metal ores. This will have an impact on future production trends and the availability for various applications. In addition, the geological reserves of many vital metals are scarce and severely limit the potential of certain solar energy technologies. It is the conclusion of this study that certain solar energy concepts are unrealistic in terms of achieving TW scales.
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| 2. |
- Vikström, Hanna, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
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Lithium availability and future production outlooks
- 2013
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Ingår i: Applied Energy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0306-2619 .- 1872-9118. ; 110:10, s. 252-266
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Lithium is a highly interesting metal, in part due to the increasing interest in lithium-ion batteries. Several recent studies have used different methods to estimate whether the lithium production can meet an increasing demand, especially from the transport sector, where lithium-ion batteries are the most likely technology for electric cars. The reserve and resource estimates of lithium vary greatly between different studies and the question whether the annual production rates of lithium can meet a growing demand is seldom adequately explained. This study presents a review and compilation of recent estimates of quantities of lithium available for exploitation and discusses the uncertainty and differences between these estimates. Also, mathematical curve fitting models are used to estimate possible future annual production rates. This estimation of possible production rates are compared to a potential increased demand of lithium if the International Energy Agency’s Blue Map Scenarios are fulfilled regarding electrification of the car fleet. We find that the availability of lithium could in fact be a problem for fulfilling this scenario if lithium-ion batteries are to be used. This indicates that other battery technologies might have to be implemented for enabling an electrification of road transports.
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| 3. |
- Beheshtinia, Mohammad Ali, et al.
(författare)
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Prioritizing healthcare waste disposal methods considering environmental health using an enhanced multi-criteria decision-making method
- 2023
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Ingår i: Environmental Pollutants and Bioavailability. - : Taylor & Francis Group. - 2639-5932 .- 2639-5940. ; 35:1, s. 250-269
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Healthcare Waste Disposal Method Selection (HCWDMS) is a complicated problem due to multiple and often contradictory criteria with different importance degrees. Thus, decision-makers are restored to multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods to prioritize and select the best HCW disposal methods. This study introduces an enhanced MCDM method to deal with the HCWDMS problem. To address the problem, a comprehensive list of criteria and HCW disposal methods are identified. All the criteria are categorized into four main criteria, and Fuzzy Analysis Hierarchy Process is used to determine the weights of considered criteria and sub-criteria. The study results show that environmental, economic, technical, and social criteria are the most important in selecting disposal methods, respectively. Moreover, the sub-criteria of ‘Health Risk’, ‘Release with health effects’, and ‘Capital cost’ have the highest importance, respectively. Additionally, the methods of ‘Microwave’, ‘Sterilization by autoclave’, and ‘Reverse polymerization’ have the highest priority, respectively.
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| 4. |
- Davidsson Kurland, Simon, 1986
(författare)
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Energy use for GWh-scale lithium-ion battery production
- 2020
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Ingår i: Environmental Research Communications. - : IOP Publishing. - 2515-7620. ; 2:1
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Estimates of energy use for lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery cell manufacturing show substantial variation, contributing to disagreements regarding the environmental benefits of large-scale deployment of electric mobility and other battery applications. Here, energy usage is estimated for two large-scale battery cell factories using publicly available data. It is concluded that these facilities use around 50–65 kWh (180–230 MJ) of electricity per kWh of battery capacity, not including other steps of the supply chain, such as mining and processing of materials. These estimates are lower than previous studies using data on pilot-scale or under-utilized facilities but are similar to recent estimates based on fully utilized, large-scale factories. The environmental impact of battery manufacturing varies with the amounts and form of energy used; especially as renewable sources replace electricity from fossil fuels. As additional large-scale battery factories are taken into use, more data should become available, and the reliance on outdated, unrepresentative, and often incomparable, estimates of energy usage in the emerging Li-ion battery industry should be avoided.
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| 5. |
- Eriksson, Mattias, et al.
(författare)
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Mapping of food waste quantification methodologies in the food services of Swedish municipalities
- 2018
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Ingår i: Resources, Conservation and Recycling. - : ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV. - 0921-3449 .- 1879-0658. ; 137, s. 191-199
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Since food waste valorisation measures, like energy recovery, have limited possibilities to fully recover the resources invested in food production, there is a need to prevent food waste. Prevention is most important at the end of the value chain, where most sub-processes have already taken place, like in catering facilities. In Sweden, the public catering sector serves a large number of meals through municipal organisations, including schools, preschools and elderly care homes. Many of these organisations quantify food waste, but since Sweden has 290 municipalities with a high degree of independence, the possible variation is significant. This study therefore investigated how food waste is quantified, in order to help formulate a national standard for food waste quantification. Mapping of food waste quantification practices was conducted using a questionnaire and follow-up telephone calls, achieving a response rate of 93%. Of the 290 Swedish municipalities, 55% replied that they quantify food waste on central level. The most common practice at present is to quantify plate- and serving waste from school lunches during two weeks per year, and to compile waste data in spreadsheets and compare the values against the number of plates used, giving a result in grams per portion served. There are many similarities between municipalities, so there is great potential to implement a common standard that many municipalities already fulfil. This is important in order to gain acceptance and fast implementation, thereby speeding up the process of establishing a benchmark for food waste in the Swedish public sector catering sector.
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| 6. |
- Eriksson, Mattias, et al.
(författare)
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The tree structure : A general framework for food waste quantification in food services
- 2018
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Ingår i: Resources, Conservation and Recycling. - : Elsevier BV. - 0921-3449 .- 1879-0658. ; 130, s. 140-151
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Food waste in the food services industry has been identified as an important unsustainability hotspot, but standardised methods for food waste quantification are lacking. Existing studies on waste quantity assessments have several limitations, such as short and infrequent quantifications times, large methodological variations ranging from physical measurements to visual observations, and lack of comparability across catering unit types. Since lack of comparable waste figures can lead to error-prone analysis, a general framework is needed for waste quantification in food services. This paper presents one such framework that allows data comparisons when overlapping observations are included. The framework was tested in six case studies in professional (public and private) catering units in Sweden. Data were collected from different schools, elderly care homes and hotels and fitted into the framework. The results from these case studies indicate that the framework enables catering units to focus waste quantification on their individual problem areas. It also provides the possibility to extend waste quantification over time without any loss of generalisability. A graphical representation of the framework fits the traditional tree structure and was found to act as a suitable foundation for food waste quantification in food services by structuring collected data. In order to fully utilise the potential of the tree structure, it should be supplemented with precise definitions to create a catering food waste quantification standard.
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| 7. |
- Femenias, Paula, 1966, et al.
(författare)
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How well do policies for energy efficiency and heritage values in the Swedish housing stock work
- 2021
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Ingår i: IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science. - : IOP Publishing. - 1755-1307 .- 1755-1315. ; 863:1
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper investigates how societal goals of heritage conservation and energy efficiency are handled in the management of Swedish multi-residential buildings. Interviews were made with larger owners of multi-residential stocks, and their perspectives are compared to officials at the City Planning Offices in two Swedish municipalities: Göteborg and Gotland. The questions posed are: How is heritage prioritised in relation to increased energy efficiency, climate impact and other objectives such as cost-efficiency? How important are their internal policies in comparison with external policies imposed by society? The companies express that they are proud of the heritage of their building stock, but they have not integrated heritage values in their management plans and strategies. Social issues such as safety and well-being are included, but not heritage. A consequence of this lack of systematic consideration of heritage is that measures for increased energy efficiency may conflict with conservation needs. In order for heritage values to be taken more seriously in relation to energy efficiency they would need to be integrated into such plans. The benefit from integrating heritage values in sustainable housing management is a question that should be further studied. The paper refers to SDGs 3, 11 and 13.
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| 8. |
- Gunnarsson, Matilda, et al.
(författare)
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Estimating environmental and societal impacts from scaling up urine concentration technologies
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier. - 0959-6526 .- 1879-1786. ; 382
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There is a growing trend for nutrient recovery from wastewater as part of the transition to a circular economy. Most nutrients in household wastewater originate from urine and one way to facilitate reuse of these nutrients is to concentrate the urine into fertiliser products. Urine concentration technologies are still in the development phase and not implemented at scale. The aim of this study was to provide guidance to technology developers and policymakers by assessing the environmental and societal impacts of urine concentration technologies. In particular, it includes practical aspects such as worker safety, space availability and local fertiliser needs that have not been included in previous studies. Future scenarios on implementing three different urine concentration technologies (alkaline dehydration, nitrification-distillation, ion-exchange with struvite precipitation) in a planned residential area in Malmö, Sweden, were developed. The technologies were evaluated using multi-criteria assessment (MCA), with environment, technical, economic and health sustainability criteria derived from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It was found that all urine concentration technologies performed well against many of the sustainability criteria examined and can contribute to achieving SDGs, especially regarding nitrogen recovery. Specific areas for further development were identified for each technology. An impact assessment on scaling up demonstrated that nitrogen emissions to surface water were significantly reduced when more than 60% of urine in Malmö city was subjected to urine concentration. Nitrogen and phosphorus recovered from recycling only 15–30% of urine in Malmö could supply 50% of Malmö municipality's fertiliser demand.
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| 9. |
- Höök, Mikael, 1982-
(författare)
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Depletion rate analysis of fields and regions : a methodological foundation
- 2014
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Ingår i: Fuel. - : Elsevier BV. - 0016-2361 .- 1873-7153. ; 121:4, s. 95-108
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper presents a comprehensive mathematical framework for depletion rate analysis and ties it to the physics of depletion. Theory was compared with empirical data from 1036 fields and a number of regions. Strong agreement between theory and practice was found, indicating that the framework is plausible. Both single fields and entire regions exhibit similar depletion rate patterns, showing the generality of the approach. The maximum depletion rates for fields were found to be well described by a Weibull distribution.Depletion rates were also found to strongly correlate with decline rates. In particular, the depletion rate at peak was shown to be useful for predicting the future decline rate. Studies of regions indicate that a depletion rate of remaining recoverable resources in the range of 2–3% is consistent with historical experience. This agrees well with earlier “peak oil” forecasts and indicates that they rest on a solid scientific ground.
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| 10. |
- Höök, Mikael, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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Growth rates of global energy systems and future outlooks
- 2012
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Ingår i: Natural Resources Research. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1520-7439 .- 1573-8981. ; 21:1, s. 23-41
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The world is interconnected and powered by a number of global energy systems using fossil, nuclear, or renewable energy. This study reviews historical time series of energy production and growth for various energy sources. It compiles a theoretical and empirical foundation for understanding the behaviour underlying global energy systems' growth. The most extreme growth rates are found in fossil fuels. The presence of scaling behaviour, i.e. proportionality between growth rate and size, is established. The findings are used to investigate the consistency of several long-range scenarios expecting rapid growth for future energy systems. The validity of such projections is questioned, based on past experience. Finally, it is found that even if new energy systems undergo a rapid "oil boom"-development - i.e. they mimic the most extreme historical events - their contribution to global energy supply by 2050 will be marginal.
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