| 1. |
- Dreos, Ambra, 1987, et al.
(författare)
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Exploring the potential of a hybrid device combining solar water heating and molecular solar thermal energy storage
- 2017
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Ingår i: Energy & Environmental Science. - : Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). - 1754-5692 .- 1754-5706. ; 10:3, s. 728-734
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A hybrid solar energy system consisting of a molecular solar thermal energy storage system (MOST) combined with a solar water heating system (SWH) is presented. The MOST chemical energy storage system is based on norbornadiene- quadricyclane derivatives allowing for conversion of solar energy into stored chemical energy at up to 103 kJ mol(-1) (396 kJ kg(-1)). It is demonstrated that 1.1% of incoming solar energy can be stored in the chemical system without significantly compromising the efficiency of the solar water heating system, leading to efficiencies of combined solar water heating and solar energy storage of up to 80%. Moreover, prospects for future improvement and possible applications are discussed.
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| 2. |
- Hellsmark, Hans, 1974, et al.
(författare)
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Teknologiska innovationssystem inom energiområdet: En praktisk vägledning till identifiering av systemsvagheter som motiverar särskilda politiska åtaganden
- 2014
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Syftet med denna rapport är att illustrera hur ett praktiskt inriktat ramverk, tekno- logiska innovationssystem (TIS), kan användas av analytiker och beslutsfattare vid departement och myndigheter för att analysera strategiskt viktiga teknikområden ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????I rapporten analyseras fem TIS centrerade kring havsbaserad vindkraft, marin energi, ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? systemsvagheter som bromsar områdets vidare utveckling, vilka som kan åtgärdas av systemets aktörer och vilka som motiverar särskilda politiska åtaganden. Rapporten utgör därmed ett underlag för att formulera åtgärder för att åstadkomma ökad innova- tion, teknikspridning och industrialisering inom ovan nämnda teknikområden.Studien har även möjliggjort en jämförande analys av likheter och skillnader ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? mellan områdena – de är starka respektive svaga av olika orsaker. Detta visar att ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Samtidigt har områdena gemensamma drag. Systemets aktörer, där även politiska ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????- skapsnätverk. Men de har varit sämre på att skapa tidiga nischmarknader som ger utrymme för fortsatt lärande och kostnadsreduktion. Sådana nischer kan ibland skapas av marknadens aktörer, men ofta krävs politiska styrmedel. De behövs för att investeringar i kunskapsutveckling ska kunna nyttiggöras och för att en bred industriell utveckling inom nya områden skall göras möjlig i Sverige.Vidare presenteras lärdomar kring vad en aktiv teknikpolitik innebär. Två huvud- ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????- hällsbygget och därför bör vara ett politikområde bland många samt att den skarpa ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????- ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? olika faser av innovationssystemets utveckling.För att lyckas med en aktiv teknikpolitik behövs en hög grad av koordinering ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? teknikområden så att ”rätt” typ av åtgärder kan sättas in vid ”rätt” tidpunkt av ”rätt” aktör. TIS-ramverket lyfts här fram som en metod för att skapa ett sådant underlag. Slutligen presenteras en metod för projektbedömningar som syftar till att stötta handläggare i utvärderingar av projekt inom nya teknikområden.Rapporten i sin helhet riktar sig särskilt till beslutsfattare och handläggare vid myndigheter, departement och politiker, men även andra organisationer och indi- vider med intresse av att högt ställda klimatmål ska kunna nås samtidigt som en positiv näringslivsutveckling möjliggörs.
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| 3. |
- Molander, Sverker, 1957, et al.
(författare)
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Förnybara energikällors inverkan på de svenska miljömålen
- 2010
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- I denna rapport beskrivs olika förnybara energikällors negativa påverkan på desvenska miljömålen. Resultatet har presenterats i form av ett antal konceptuellabilder som länkar miljöpåverkan i energislagens livscykelsteg till specifika miljömål.De energislag som studerats är vattenkraft, vindkraft, tunnfilmssolceller, kiselbaseradesolceller, solfångare, värmepumpar samt odlade biobränslen (såsometanol och raps metylester), biobränslen från avfall (såsom biogas) och biobränslenfrån skogsråvara (såsom flis och pellets). Miljöpåverkan har inte kvantifierats idenna studie, och ingen jämförelse energislagen emellan har utförts. Vad som dockvisats är att de ovan listade energislagen påverkar många svenska miljömål, ochden påverkan kommer att växa om de aktuella svenska målen för förnybar energiförverkligas. Mer detaljerade studier kring de förnybara energislagens påverkan påmiljömålen krävs således för att undvika negativ miljöpåverkan från förnybar energii framtiden. Denna rapport har utifrån dagens vetenskapsläge kartlagt de viktigasteverkningarna på de svenska miljömålens uppfyllelse från förnyelsebar energiteknik,och utgör således en grund för ett sådant mer omfattande arbete. Avslutningsvisges ett antal rekommendationer inför fortsatta studier på området.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(författare)
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Energy and resource use assessment of graphene as a substitute for indium tin oxide in transparent electrodes
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier BV. - 0959-6526. ; 132, s. 289-297
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- One of the most promising applications of graphene is as material in transparent electrodes in applications such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and solar cells. In this study, we assess life cycle resource requirements of producing an electrode area of graphene by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and compare to the production of indium tin oxide (ITO). The resources considered are energy and scarce metals. The results show that graphene layers can have lower life cycle energy use than ITO layers, with 3–10 times reduction for our best case scenario. Regarding use of scarce metals, the use of indium in ITO production is more problematic than the use of copper in graphene production, although the latter may constitute a resource constraint in the very long run. The substitution of ITO by graphene thus seems favorable from a resource point of view. Higher order effects may outweigh or enhance the energy use benefit. For example, cheaper, graphene-based electrodes may spur increased production of LCDs, leading to increased absolute energy use, or spur the development of new energy technologies, such as solar cells and fuel cells. The latter could potentially lead to larger absolute reductions in resource use if these new technologies will replace fossil-based energy systems.
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| 6. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(författare)
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Environmental Assessment of Emerging Technologies: Recommendations for Prospective LCA
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Industrial Ecology. - : Wiley. - 1530-9290 .- 1088-1980. ; 22:6, s. 1286-1294
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- The challenge of assessing emerging technologies with life cycle assessment (LCA) has been increasingly discussed in the LCA field. In this article, we propose a definition of prospective LCA: An LCA is prospective when the (emerging) technology studied is in an early phase of development (e.g., small-scale production), but the technology is modeled at a future, more-developed phase (e.g., large-scale production). Methodological choices in prospective LCA must be adapted to reflect this goal of assessing environmental impacts of emerging technologies, which deviates from the typical goals of conventional LCA studies. The aim of the article is to provide a number of recommendations for how to conduct such prospective assessments in a relevant manner. The recommendations are based on a detailed review of selected prospective LCA case studies, mainly from the areas of nanomaterials, biomaterials, and energy technologies. We find that it is important to include technology alternatives that are relevant for the future in prospective LCA studies. Predictive scenarios and scenario ranges are two general approaches to prospective inventory modeling of both foreground and background systems. Many different data sources are available for prospective modeling of the foreground system: scientific articles; patents; expert interviews; unpublished experimental data; and process modeling. However, we caution against temporal mismatches between foreground and background systems, and recommend that foreground and background system impacts be reported separately in order to increase the usefulness of the results in other prospective studies.
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| 7. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(författare)
-
How to make policy-relevant life cycle assessments of future products? Lessons learned from nanomaterials
- 2013
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Ingår i: 6th International Conference on Life Cycle Management, Gothenburg, 25-28 August.
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Many new nanomaterials are currently being developed, and there is a great demand from policy-makers such as governments and agencies to understand the future environmental impact of nanomaterials. However, assessing the life cycle environmental impacts, e.g. in terms of emissions and energy use, related to these materials and products that contain them constitutes a great challenge, which makes it difficult to meet such needs from policy-makers. The challenge is much due to the many uncertainties that surround new nanomaterials at an early point of technological development, which makes environmental assessment methods such as life cycle assessment difficult to apply. These uncertainties include the future areas of application of the nanomaterial, future designs of products within those areas, and future production processes. When one or more of these uncertainties are present, we say that the life cycle or product chain is embryonic. This embryonic nature of nanomaterial life cycles differentiates them from the life cycles of more established products, such as cups and cucumbers. Assessing the environmental impacts of embryonic nanomaterial life cycles requires the assessor to understand the future, or rather some aspects of a number of possible futures. Hence, we need to make use of methods belonging to the field of future studies, including monitoring of trends in technology development (e.g. via patent analysis) and application areas as well as predicting and exploring by trend analysis, expert judgement, and sometimes even fantasizing. We illustrate the theoretical concept of embryonic life cycles with a number of examples of embryonic nanomaterial life cycles, including carbon nanotubes in composites, titanium dioxide nanoparticles in self-cleaning cement and graphene in electronic devices and composites. We show that a range of future study approaches may enrich, or even be essential to, policy-relevant life cycle assessments. We also show that environmental assessments such as life cycle assessment can be misused or used in questionable ways when applied to embryonic life cycles with the purpose of obtaining policy-relevant results.
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| 8. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(författare)
-
Is graphene a ”wonder material” also from an environmental life cycle perspective?
- 2014
-
Ingår i: Abstract of Papers of the American Chemical Society. - 0065-7727. ; 247
-
Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The nanomaterial graphene has attracted great interest for its many potential applications, including composites and electronic devises, and has been referred to by some as a "wonder material" from a technical point of view. However, the question remains whether graphene is also a "wonder material" from an environmental life cycle perspective. In order to investigate this, we applied life cycle assessment (LCA) to assess the cradle-to-gate environmental impacts of graphene production. The focus of the assessment was on the foreground system and on more inherent impact categories, namely energy use, water use, human toxicity, and ecotoxicity. Two different production routes were investigated. In the first, called chemical reduction, graphite is first oxidized to graphite oxide, and then reduced by hydrazine to form graphene sheets in solution that could be used in e.g. composites. The second is ultrasonication, where graphite is exposed to ultrasound, and thereby breaks up into graphene sheets in solution, also possible to use in composites. These two routes were compared on a kg of graphene basis. The results indicate that ultrasonication has a considerably lower cradle-to-gate impact than chemical reduction for all included impact categories. For example, the energy use of chemical reduction-made graphene appears to be more than 100 times higher than that of ultrasonication-made graphene. Comparing to the energy use of other nanomaterials, chemical reduction-based graphene appears to have an energy use close to the median. Ultrasonication-made graphene, however, appears to have a lower energy use than any previously assessed nano material. This implicates that the chemical industry should focus their efforts on developing the ultrasonication production route rather than chemical reduction.
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| 9. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(författare)
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Is there a "crystal ball"? Assessing environmental life cycle impacts of new nanomaterials
- 2013
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Ingår i: 7th International Society for Industrial Ecology Biennial Conference, 25-28 June, Ulsan, South Korea.
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Many new nanomaterials are currently being developed, and assessing the life cycle environmental impacts related to these materials and products that contain the materials, e.g. in terms of emissions and energy use, constitutes a great challenge. The challenge is much due to the many uncertainties that surround new nanomaterials at this early point of technological development, which makes the application of environmental assessment methods such as life cycle assessment difficult to apply. These uncertainties include the future areas of application of the nanomaterial, future designs of products within those areas, and the future production processes that will be needed to produce such products. When one or more of these uncertainties are present, we say that the product chain or life cycle is embryonic. This embryonic nature of nanomaterial life cycles differentiates them from more established products, such as cement and cucumbers. We provide a number of examples of a number of embryonic nanomaterial life cycles, including carbon nanotubes in composites, titanium dioxide nanoparticles in self-cleaning cement and graphene in electronic devices and composites, illustrating their embryonic nature. Assessing the environmental impacts of embryonic nanomaterial product chains requires the assessor to use different future studies approaches, i.e. to use a “crystal ball” to understand the future or rather different possible futures. Existing approaches include monitoring, predicting, exploring, and sometimes even fantasizing. We show how some of these approaches have been used in previous life cycle studies on nanomaterials, illustrating that they may all be relevant to include in environmental assessments and life cycle assessments in particular, but also that they can be misused or used in questionable ways. The important thing is to know which approach to apply in a certain situation in order to ensure a relevant assessment, and to avoid uses that leads to more confusion than knowledge.
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| 10. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(författare)
-
Prospective inventory modelling of emerging chemicals: The case of photonic materials
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Abstracts book (SETAC Europe Annual Meeting). - 2310-3043 .- 2309-8031. ; 29, s. 96-
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Prospective life cycle assessment (LCA), or ex-ante LCA, has been defined as an assessment of a product system modeled at a future time, before its commercialization. Such assessments bring the promise of altering emerging technologies in a more environmentally benefitial direction before they become difficult to change. Since the future cannot be known with certainty, prospective modeling need to rely on scenarios of various kinds. However, how to conduct such prospective scenario modeling in practice still has to be clarified. In this study, we have modeled two emerging chemicals that can be used for a technology called photon upconversion, which converts low-energy light into higher-energy light harvestable by solar photovoltaics, thereby increasing their efficiency. Two chemicals currently considered for this purpose are ruthenium bipyridine chloride (RBC) and diphenylanthracene (DPA). These novel, emerging chemicals have not been studied regarding environmental performance before and are consequently not present in any LCA databases. The aim of this study is to present a generic procedure for prospective inventory modeling of emerging chemicals and apply that to the cases of RBC and DPA by developing unit processes for these two chemicals. An industrial synthesis scenario was adopted as our main scenario, reflecting a possible future time when RBC and DPA are produced at an industrial scale. The modeling was conducted in six steps: (1) Identify likely chemical syntheses. (2) Calculate inputs stoichiometrically based on the chemical synthesis reactions. (3) Modify inputs based on available yields for reactants and solvents (e.g. obtained from patents or estimated). (4) Categorize outputs as by-products or waste depending on their likely subsequent fate. (5)Calculate process emissions. (6) Model energy flows. Unit processes for the two emerging chemicals are thusly developed. The procedure is considered particularly strong for estimating inputs and output materials related to the stoichiometric reaction, but weaker regarding the estimation of emissions and energy requrement. Further research into the modeling of energy flows for high-temperature processes is therefore recommended, as well as estimation procedures for emissions from emerging chemicals production.
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| 11. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(författare)
-
Prospective Life Cycle Assessment of Graphene Production by Ultrasonication and Chemical Reduction
- 2014
-
Ingår i: Environmental Science & Technology. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0013-936X .- 1520-5851. ; 48:8, s. 4529−4536-4536
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- One promising future bulk application of graphene is ascomposite additive. Therefore, we compare two production routes for insolutiongraphene using a cradle-to-gate lifecycle assessment focusing onpotential differences in energy use, blue water footprint, human toxicity,and ecotoxicity. The data used for the assessment is based on informationin scientific papers and patents. Considering the prospective nature of thisstudy, environmental impacts from background systems such as energyproduction were not included. The production routes are either based onultrasonication or chemical reduction. The results show that theultrasonication route has lower energy and water use, but higher humanand ecotoxicity impacts, compared to the chemical reduction route.However, a sensitivity analysis showed that solvent recovery in the ultrasonication process gives lower impacts for all includedimpact categories. The sensitivity analysis also showed that solvent recovery is important to lower the blue water footprint of thechemical reduction route as well. The results demonstrate the possibility to conduct a life cycle assessment study based mainly oninformation from patents and scientific articles, enabling prospective life cycle assessment studies of products at early stages oftechnological development.
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| 12. |
- Downes, Sarah, et al.
(författare)
-
Prospecting Secondary Raw Materials in the Urban Mine and mining wastes (ProSUM) Recommendations Report
- 2017
-
Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This Report presents the recommendations arising from the ProSUM Project. It contains recommendations designed to continue to improve the knowledge base for secondary raw materials with the overarching objective of increasing recycling and supply of such materials. It specifically addresses data availability, data quality, data harmonisation, data structure and data presentation. The report contains a complete list of recommendations arising from the work undertaken in the project covering the ‘urban mine’ of electrical and electronic equipment, batteries and vehicles, their wastes, and mining wastes. It is the culmination of three years’ work which has resulted in: • The characterisation of products in terms of CRM content; • A comprehensive review and screening of all available data to characterise products; • An assessment of the factors affecting CRM content in products and the future trends for products; • A comprehensive review of existing and development of new methodologies for sampling and analysis of products; • An assessment of the current stocks of products held in households and business; • The quantification of flows of waste products not captured by national reporting on producer compliance; • A new model to quantify stocks and flows of products, their waste and material flows; • A comprehensive review and screening of all available data to characterise waste flows; • A comprehensive review of existing and development of new methodologies for sampling and analysis of wastes; • An evaluation of relevant product waste flows and mining wastes deposits; • Creation of the Urban Mine Platform (UMP) including a unified data model and code lists and meta data system; • Expansion of the Minerals Knowledge Data Platform (MKDP) for mining wastes; • And a new harmonised classification system to describe data in the urban mine.
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| 13. |
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| 14. |
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| 15. |
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| 16. |
- Husiman, Jaco, et al.
(författare)
-
Prospecting Secondary Raw Materials in the Urban Mine and mining wastes (ProSUM) - Final Report
- 2017
-
Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Batteries, electrical and electronic equipment, vehicles and mining waste contain both significant amounts and a large variety of raw materials, ranging from base metals to plastics, as well as precious metals and critical raw materials (CRMs). The EU is reliant on imports for many of these raw materials and aims to a Circular Economy. Securing responsible sourcing of those materials as well as increasing recycling rates is a complex societal challenge, partly because of the lack of structured data on the quantities, concentrations, trends and final whereabouts in different waste flows of these secondary raw materials in the Urban Mine in Europe. Currently, data on primary and secondary raw materials are available in Europe, but scattered amongst a variety of institutions including government agencies, universities, NGOs and industry. The aim of the ProSUM project was to provide a state of the art knowledge base, using best available data in a harmonised and updateable format, which allows the recycling industry and policymakers to make more informed investment and policy decisions to increase the supply and recycling of secondary raw materials.
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| 17. |
- Ivanova, I., et al.
(författare)
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Economic and technological complexity: A model study of indicators of knowledge-based innovation systems
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Technological Forecasting and Social Change. - : Elsevier BV. - 0040-1625. ; 120, s. 77-89
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Economic Complexity Index (ECI; Hidalgo and Hausmann, 2009) measures the complexity of national economies in terms of product groups. Analogously to Ea, the Patent Complexity Index (PatCI) can be developed on the basis of a matrix of nations versus patent classes. Using linear algebra, the three dimensions-countries, product groups, and patent classes-can be combined into a measure of "Triple Helix" complexity (THCI) including the trilateral interaction terms between knowledge production, wealth generation, and (national) control. THCI can be expected to capture the extent of systems integration between the global dynamics of markets (ECI) and technologies (PatCI) in each national system of innovation. We measure ECI, PatCI, and THCI during the period 2000-2014 for the 34 OECD member states, the BRICS countries, and a group of emerging and affiliated economies (Argentina, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Romania, and Singapore). The three complexity indicators are correlated between themselves; but the correlations with GDP per capita are virtually absent. Of the world's major economies, Japan scores highest on all three indicators, while China has been increasingly successful in combining economic and technological complexity. We could not reproduce the correlation between ECI and average income that has been central to the argument about the fruitfulness of the economic complexity approach.
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| 18. |
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| 19. |
- Kushnir, Duncan, 1979, et al.
(författare)
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Energy Requirements for production of carbon nanoparticles
- 2008
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Ingår i: Journal of Industrial Ecology. - : Wiley. - 1530-9290 .- 1088-1980. ; 12:3, s. 360-375
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Energy requirements for fullerene and nanotube synthesis are calculated from literature data and presented for a number of important production processes, including fluidized bedand floating catalyst chemical vapor deposition (CVD), carbon monoxide disproportionation, pyrolysis, laser ablation,and electric arc and solar furnace synthesis. To produce data for strategic forward-looking assessments of the environmental implications of carbon nanoparticles, an attempt is made to balance generality with sufficient detail for individual processes, a trade-off that will likely be inherent in the analysis of many nanotechnologies. Critical energy and production issues are identified, and potential improvements in industrial-scale processes are discussed. Possible interactions with industrial ecosystems are discussed with a view toward integrating synthesis to mitigate the impacts of large-scale carbon nanoparticle manufacture. Carbon nanoparticles are found to be highly energy-intensive materials, on the order of 2 to 100 times more energy-intensive than aluminum, even with idealizedproduction models.
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| 20. |
- Kushnir, Duncan, 1979
(författare)
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Environmental Assessment of Emerging Technologies: The Case of Nanomaterials for Energy Systems
- 2010
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis contributes to the development of methodologies for assessing the potential environmental performance of emerging or future technologies. The chosen empirical field is the study of nanotechnologies for energy systems. To evaluate the potential impact of such technologies requires considering the future state of a technology and its surrounding systems as well as the attainability of such a state. LCA is the chosen tool for quantitative evaluation of the energy and material flows required for producing and using nanomaterials and artefacts containing them. Methodology modifications are made to account for the possible future shape and scale of production systems, and suggestions are presented which could increase the utility of LCA in this respect. Through using multiple system boundaries, it is shown possible to change the focus from material production to artefacts containing nanomaterials to the implications for larger surrounding systems. Such considerations may be of critical importance in capturing the most relevant aspects of future systems. The production of carbon nanomaterials and the production and use of lithium ion batteries are explored in this context.If the material and energy components of a technology are predictable, then possible constraints or risks along the trajectory can be included as part of an overall assessment. The empirical issue at hand was the modeling and evaluation of the lithium resource supply. Regardless of the merits of a technology, the large scale of energy systems means that the availability of many materials can not necessarily be assumed.Together, the papers suggest methodology adjustments to lifecycle analysis that may enable it to function as a tool for early assessment of the possible future state of a technology, as well as demonstrate how such results can be used to evaluate other questions such as resource availability. As such they form one of a set of tools that could be of use for policy makers, analysts, industrial producers, orultimately for any stakeholder with an interest in understanding the complexities of the challenges we face, and how nanotechnology may or may not help.
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| 21. |
- Kushnir, Duncan, 1979
(författare)
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Foresight and Feedback: Monitoring and assessing the environmental implications of emerging technologies
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The magnitude of the change required to approach sustainability indicates an effort that will have to be sustained over decades, during which vast new technology systems will have to be developed and deployed. Yet technological development is a double edged sword, and these efforts will inevitably incur unintended consequences. The timescale required for change is long compared to what may be required to meet environmental challenges and natural systems are already stressed. Reflexive guidance processes for technology will be required to minimize the chance of dead end development or unintended consequences. Scientific assessment must support this process but cannot determine it; the complexity of the issues and diversity of legitimate views on technology means that inclusion and learning in technology governance are necessary for a legitimate and robust societal response to grand environmental challenges. This thesis aims to support the need to have earlier and more relevant discussions surrounding the environmental implications and long term prospects of new technologies. The capacity to achieve this will be affected by how well technological developments can be monitored and by how well early assessments can reduce the unknowns facing new technologies and influence the dynamics of technology development. Methods for improved monitoring of technological trajectories through patent data and for early assessment of technologies are developed and offered as contributions in this dissertation.A new technique is explored to support monitoring of new technical applications through linguistic analysis of patent data called topic modeling. The dissertation includes a theoretical development and practical implementation of topic models to patent data as well as a case study applying it to carbon nanomaterials. The approach can produce instant analogs of many traditional patent indicators and provides the capability to follow broad technological trajectories and correlate them to external literature. In the case of nanotechnology, there are clear trends in patenting towards integrating carbon nanomaterials into complex artefacts, with many implications for how to assess their future potential. Implementation is demonstrated with publicly available tools and data, providing an avenue to widen participation in technological oversight. The method is general and could potentially be used and syndicated with any available data source to build links between diverse material such as risk literature, blogs and specific patents containing relevant techniques. Methods to include the dynamic aspects of time and scale into early environmental assessments of new materials are developed and illustrated through studies of carbon nanomaterials and new battery materials for electric vehicles. Production of the materials is found to be energy intensive, but they also may enable artefacts with higher life cycle efficiencies as well as radically more efficient future energy systems. An assessment of the prospective resource availability of lithium indicates that the rate at which lithium can be extracted may limit the scope and rate of electric vehicle diffusion however. Further, the materials development that may enable viable batteries is also degrading the economic rationale for recycling them, yet recycling is critical to realizing a vision of large scale electric mobility.It is very important to achieve better understanding of the trade-offs that future technological development will entail. Assessments that lead to an improved quality or timeliness of debates surrounding technology will mean that decisions regarding it will be better considered at a time when the scope for action is larger and the costs of action are less. Earlier and wider access to relevant information and increased participation means that more voices can be heard and ultimately that better and more legitimate decisions can be made.
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| 22. |
- Kushnir, Duncan, 1979
(författare)
-
Globalization and growth of US university patenting (2009–2014)
- 2016
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Ingår i: Industry & higher education. - : SAGE Publications. - 0950-4222 .- 2043-6858. ; 30:4
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We disaggregate the recent growth in university patenting in the US in terms of nations and patent classes. Foreign patenting in the USPTO has almost doubled during the period 2009-2014. This is mainly due to patenting by universities in Taiwan, Korea, China, and Japan. These nations compete with the US in terms of patent portfolios, whereas most European countries—with the exception of the UK—have more specific portfolios, mainly in the bio-medical fields. In the case of China, Tsinghua University holds 63% of the university patents in USPTO, followed by the King Fahd University with 55.2% of the national portfolio. This competition in terms of US patents has become increasingly globalized.
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| 23. |
- Kushnir, Duncan, 1979
(författare)
-
Lithium Ion Battery Recycling Technology 2015
- 2015
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This document assembles key results from work during the Realize project, and references to state-of-the-art literature and data on lithium battery recycling processes. The intent is to function as a quick reference suitable for use by researchers and engineers. An overview of many topics relevant to lithium battery recycling is presented, along with links to primary sources.
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| 24. |
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| 25. |
- Kushnir, Duncan, 1979, et al.
(författare)
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Multi-level energy analysis of emerging technologies: a case study in new materials for lithium ion batteries
- 2011
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Ingår i: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier BV. - 0959-6526. ; 19:13, s. 1405-1416
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A range of new nanomaterials to replace the active materials in lithium ion batteries are currently being studied and employed in an attempt to overcome various performance limitations of previous technologies. Nanomaterial production and manufacturing techniques appear to fit into a general trend towards more energy intensive production methods for high-tech goods. This does not necessarily imply an increase in lifecycle energy use; artefacts that consume or transform energy during use could possibly regain this increased initial input via increased efficiency in use. In particular, this paper highlights that larger gains could be possible if the artefact in question allows a given service to be provided via an alternative and more efficient system entirely. The lifecycle energy efficiencies of lithium ion batteries constructed from several new advanced materials are analysed with several different system boundaries. Although nanomaterials require more energy input to produce, the implications of nanomaterials for energy flows in the use phase (i.e. driving), and higher levels such as the architecture of future transport fuel production systems are much larger in magnitude than the initial lifecycle inputs for producing the materials in question.
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| 26. |
- Kushnir, Duncan, 1979, et al.
(författare)
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The time dimension and lithium resource constraints for electric vehicles
- 2012
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Ingår i: Resources Policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0301-4207. ; 37:1, s. 93-103
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The availability of lithium resources for a transition to electric vehicles is a vital topic for transport technology strategy. Recent debate seems to have concluded that there is ‘sufficient’ lithium available, but for the purposes of a technological transition, time matters. It is not simply the quantity of resource that is relevant - the flow rate into society may be a much more difficult constraint and transient events have disrupted heavily concentrated material supply chains in the past. Furthermore, critical assumptions such as the presence of recycling systems may not be justified without policy support. Complacency is therefore not an appropriate stance for a robust evaluation of material risks in the case of lithium.
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| 27. |
- Leydesdorff, Loet, et al.
(författare)
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Interactive overlay maps for US patent (USPTO) data based on International Patent Classification (IPC)
- 2014
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Ingår i: Scientometrics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0138-9130 .- 1588-2861. ; 98:3, s. 1583-1599
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We report on the development of an interface to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that allows for the mapping of patent portfolios as overlays to basemaps constructed from citation relations among all patents contained in this database during the period 1976–2011. Both the interface and the data are in the public domain; the freeware programs VOSViewer and/or Pajek can be used for the visualization. These basemaps and overlays can be generated at both the 3-digit and 4-digit levels of the International Patent Classification (IPC) of the world intellectual Property organization (WIPO). The basemaps can provide a stable mental framework for analysts to follow developments over searches for different years, which can be animated. The full flexibility of the advanced search engines of USPTO are available for generating sets of patents and/or patent applications which can thus be visualized and compared. This instrument allows for addressing questions about technological distance, diversity in portfolios, and animating the developments of both technologies and technological capacities of organizations over time.
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| 28. |
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| 29. |
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| 30. |
- Lövik, Amund N, et al.
(författare)
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Material composition trends in vehicles: critical raw materials and other relevant metals. Preparing a dataset on secondary raw materials for the Raw Materials Information System
- 2021
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Previous research efforts have focused on the development of comprehensive and robust datasets on Secondary Raw Materials, as requested in particular in the EU Circular Economy Action Plan (2015). For example, the Horizon 2020 project ProSUM (Prospecting Secondary raw materials in the Urban mine and Mining wastes, 2015-2017) resulted in the creation of the Urban Mine Platform (UMP)1. The UMP displays comprehensive data from the RMIS on the European stocks and flows of batteries, electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and vehicles, as well as the materials, components and chemical elements contained in these stocks and flows. The battery dataset has been updated in 2019 in the Raw Materials Information System (RMIS). This report presents the approach, the background data and the key results of the update of the UMP data concerning vehicle composition. It discusses in particular the improvement of existing data using recent information and knowledge that has become available since the realisation of ProSUM, and the extension of time series until the year 2023 through extrapolation. New components were also added to the existing dataset. The considered materials in the dataset are: cast and wrought aluminium, mild and high strength steel, cast iron and magnesium alloys. The considered components are: catalytic converter, electrics and electronics, power electronics, battery management systems, induction and permanent magnets electric drive motors. The average mass of each of those materials and components is estimated in vehicles, categorized by vehicle type, fuel type, engine size and mass class, for each year between until 2023. Moreover, the average mass fractions of 16 elements (Ag, Al, Au, Cu, Dy, Fe, La, Mg, Mn, Mo, Nb, Nd, Pd, Pt, Rh, Si) in the materials and components are estimated. This composition data, when combined with data on the fleet of vehicles in the EU, is the basis for datasets on secondary raw materials in vehicles, to be soon featured in an interactive data viewer in the RMIS. The vehicle dataset will not address battery active materials and will have therefore to be looked at in combination with the battery datasets already available on the RMIS. Such updated dataset can be extremely useful to support EU policies, since vehicles and mobility are key products and sectors in the transition towards a low carbon and circular economy.
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| 31. |
- Pihl, Erik, 1981, et al.
(författare)
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Material Constraints for Concentrating Solar Thermal Power
- 2012
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Ingår i: Energy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0360-5442. ; 44:1, s. 944-954
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Scaling up alternative energy systems to replace fossil fuels is a critical imperative. Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) is a promising solar energy technology that is growing steadily in a so-far small, but commercial scale. Previous Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) have resulted in confirmation of low environmental impact and high lifetime energy return. This work contributes an assessment of potential material restrictions for a large scale application of CSP technology using data from an existing parabolic trough plant and one prospective state-of-the-art central tower plant. The material needs for these two CSP designs are calculated, along with the resulting demand for a high adoption (up to about 8 000 TWh/yr by 2050) scenario. In general, most of the materials needed for CSP are commonplace. Some CSP material needs could however become significant compared to global production. The need for nitrate salts (NaNO3 and KNO3), silver and steel alloys (Nb, Ni and Mo) in particular would be significant if CSP grows to be a major global electricity supply. The possibilities for increased extraction of these materials or substituting them in CSP design, although at a marginal cost, mean that fears of material restriction are likely unfounded.
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| 32. |
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| 33. |
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