| 1. |
- Esguerra, John Laurence, 1991-, et al.
(författare)
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Is enhanced landfill mining profitable?
- 2018
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Ingår i: ISWA 2018 Book of Proceedings. ; , s. 240-245
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The shift from linear to circular economy has steered the change in perception about landfills. From final to temporary waste storage, landfills are considered as technospheric stocks of resources that can be recovered through innovative technologies in the concept of enhanced landfill mining (ELFM). At present, most ELFM projects are in pilot-scale and it remains as a proof of concept. Economic feasibility is one of the primary considerations that must be satisfied prior to its full-scale realization. Several economic assessments were conducted in recent years but there is no systematic synthesis of these studies to date. The aim of this review is to compile various empirical insights of previous economic assessments of ELFM in relation to the employed methodological choices. With pre-defined exclusion criteria, 15 studies were selected in this review. For the empirical part, the identified main economic drivers for costs are separation and sorting, thermal treatment and transportation, while for benefits are material sales, recovered land and energy sales. In more than half of the studies, the costs exceeded the benefits concluding that ELFM is not profitable. The few potentially profitable cases mainly depend on varying the system conditions defined by market prices and regulations. These require changes that are more radical, if not impossible. For the method part, costs and benefits are accounted at different levels of aggregation, scope and scale—that is from process to sub-process level, from private to societal economics, and from laboratory to pilot scale, respectively. As most studies are based on pilot scale, if not purely conceptual, data estimation mainly depends on extrapolation from these pilot projects or on direct adoption of secondary data. In spite of the expected uncertainties in model, scenario and parameter, less than half of the studies employed sensitivity and uncertainty analyses. With it being neglected, their results can be considered to have a weak reliability for practical use in a full-scale ELFM project implementation. A need for systematic framework for early-stage assessment is highlighted to capture both stochastic and epistemic uncertainties. Process and system upscaling with exploratory scenario development, and participatory data collection in ranges rather than in absolute terms are some of the suggested approaches to generate results with a certain level of confidence. In this way, the future economic assessments of ELFM can veer away from simple profitability assessments. Instead, it focuses on knowledge development despite the limited information that is inherent to emerging concepts. Most importantly, it provides reliable information that can be used as a decision-support for various stakeholders such as project managers, technology developers, and policy makers towards the advancement of ELFM.
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| 2. |
- Esguerra, John Laurence, 1991-, et al.
(författare)
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The economic and environmental performance of a landfill mining project from the viewpoint of an industrial landfill owner
- 2018
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Enhanced Landfill Mining, 5-6 February, 2018, Mechelen, Belgium. - Leuven, Belgium : University of Leuven. - 9789082825909 ; , s. 389-396
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The EU Commission’s circular economy strategy pushes for a higher recycling rate and a more long-term waste management practice.1 Enhanced Landfill Mining (ELFM) can contribute to this agenda as a better landfill management option, by shifting the landfill paradigm from dumping or as end-storage of waste to resource recovery or as temporary storage of resources.2-4 Through ELFM, landfills becomes a secondary source of both material (Waste-to-Material, WtM) and energy (Waste-to-Energy, WtE) with the use of innovative technologies.3,4Several studies explored the environmental and/or economic aspects of ELFM having different scopes and objectives. Some cover the entire process value chain while others additionally focused on comparing technological choices for WtE,5–7 WtM,8,9 and even ELFM waste valorisation.10 Furthermore, for the economic assessment, regulation-related costs and benefits as landfill taxes, gate fees and green certificates5,11,12 are also accounted for. Regarding the identification of economic hotspots, many of these studies concluded similar processes to be important. However, most of these studies were based on either hypothetical cases, or real cases but with small-scale excavation and separation using non-sophisticated set-ups, which are not likely to be used for large-scale processing. Hence, more uncertainty is expected from the lack of actual ELFM demonstration projects.The aim of this study is to analyse the main contributing factors that influence environmental and economic performance of ELFM, considering the landfill owner’s viewpoint. The study is based on a real case of excavation and subsequent separation in an existing stationary facility. Specifically, the influence of the prevailing system conditions is investigated as defined by the current legislation and the market situation.
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| 3. |
- Gustafsson, Marcus, 1987-, et al.
(författare)
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Energy performance indicators as policy support for public bus transport : The case of Sweden
- 2018
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Ingår i: Transportation Research Part D. - : Elsevier. - 1361-9209 .- 1879-2340. ; 65, s. 697-709
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The share of renewable fuels in Swedish public transport is steadily increasing, in line with European energy and climate goals as well as a national goal of a fossil-free vehicle fleet by 2030. However, the progression towards this goal is quite different among the Swedish regions, and efforts have been made on a national level to compare the public bus transport systems and provide a foundation for policymaking. This paper investigates different ways of assessing and presenting the energy performance of public bus transport systems. The analysis includes use of renewable and fossil fuels as well as energy efficiency and its underlying factors. Various energy performance indicators are presented and discussed with regards to practical implications and applicability for policy support.A life cycle perspective on fuels (“well-to-wheel”) is found to have clear advantages when it comes to global reductions of fossil energy use and emissions. This requires detailed information about the fuel use, which is not always the case with the existing reporting system. Setting the energy use in relation to number of passengers transported rather than just the distance covered would better reflect the function of the transport system, but is also more uncertain with the current data available.
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| 4. |
- Gustafsson, Marcus, 1987-, et al.
(författare)
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Technologies for production of liquefied biogas for heavy transports : Energy, environmental, and economic analysis
- 2019
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The heavy transport sector is facing a growth within technology and infrastructure for use of natural gas. This opens an opportunity for the biogas market to grow as well, especially in the form of liquefied biogas (LBG). This study presents an investigation of the energy balance, environmental impact and economic aspects of current technologies for production of LBG: mixed refrigerant cycle, nitrogen cycle, pressure reduction and cryogenic liquefaction. Calculations are based on a review of recent literature and data from the biogas industry. The results show that mixed refrigerant cycle is the most economic and energy efficient technology for liquefaction of upgraded biogas, followed by nitrogen cycle. The lowest electricity use and environmental impact is achieved if the liquefaction process is preceded by amine scrubber upgrading. Pressure reduction liquefaction is inexpensive and can be an alternative in areas connected to a high-pressure gas grid, but as a method for liquefaction it is not very efficient as only about 10% of the incoming gas is liquefied and the rest remains in its gaseous form. Moreover, addition of propane for distribution in the natural gas grid increases the environmental impact compared to other distribution pathways. The cryogenic technology has a higher energy use than other liquefaction technologies but compensates by also including CO₂ separation, which could make it suitable if there is no existing upgrading facility in place. However, there are technical difficulties to overcome and it is not widely implemented.
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| 5. |
- Hagman, Linda, 1991-
(författare)
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How do biogas solutions influence the sustainability of bio-based industrial systems?
- 2018
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Biomass is a valuable and limited resource that should be used efficiently. The potential of replacing fossil-based products with bio-based ones produced in biobased industrial systems is huge. One important aim of increasing the share of biobased products is to improve the sustainability of systems for production and consumption. Therefore, it is important to evaluate what solutions are available to improve the sustainability performance of bio-based industrial systems, and if they also bring negative impacts. The thesis focuses on assessing the role of biogas solutions in developing sustainable bio-based systems. Such assessments are often quite narrow in their scope and focus on quantitative environmental or economic aspects. This thesis aims at also including feasibility related aspects involving the contextual conditions that are assessed more qualitatively. Biogas solutions are identified as a versatile approach to treat organic materials which are generated in large volumes in bio-based industrial systems. The results show that biogas solutions in bio-based industrial systems (i) improve circular flows of energy and nutrients, (ii) are especially viable alternatives when the quality of the by-product streams become poorer, and (iii) may improve the profitability of the bio-based industrial system. To perform better assessments of these systems, it seems valuable to broaden the set of indicators assessed and include feasibility-related indicators, preferably through the involvement of relevant stakeholders as they contribute with different perspectives and can identify aspects that influence the sustainability in different areas. Future studies could benefit from applying those broader assessments on more cases to build on a more generalisable knowledge base.
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| 6. |
- Hagman, Linda, et al.
(författare)
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The role of biogas solutions in sustainable biorefineries
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier. - 0959-6526 .- 1879-1786. ; 172, s. 3982-3989
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Biorefineries strive to maximise product mix and value while contributing to the bioeconomy. Circularityand waste valorisation are some important but often neglected concepts in this context. As such, biogassolutions in biorefineries could be a key technology to improve sustainability. This study has, through aliterature review and investigation into three Swedish case studies, analysed this relationship betweenbiogas solutions and biorefineries by assessing the added value and development potential to whichbiogas solutions may contribute. This analysis across agricultural, forest, and marine sectors indicatesthat biogas solutions contribute with several added values, including through making the biorefinerymore sustainable and competitive. The study also shows that biogas solutions can be an enabler ofbiorefinery development through making the system more resilient and versatile, as well as throughimproving the value of the product portfolio.
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| 7. |
- Hernández Parrodi, Juan Carlos, et al.
(författare)
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Integration of resource recovery into current waste management through (enhanced) landfill mining
- 2019
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Ingår i: Detritus. - : Eurowaste SRL. - 2611-4135 .- 2611-4127. ; 08, s. 141-156
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Europe has somewhere between 150,000 and 500,000 landfill sites, with an estimated 90% of them being “non-sanitary” landfills, predating the EU Landfill Directive of1999/31/EC. These older landfills tend to be filled with municipal solid waste andoften lack any environmental protection technology. “Doing nothing”, state-of-theart aftercare or remediating them depends largely on technical, societal and economic conditions which vary between countries. Beside “doing nothing” and landfill aftercare, there are different scenarios in landfill mining, from re-landfilling thewaste into “sanitary landfills” to seizing the opportunity for a combined resource-recovery and remediation strategy. This review article addresses present and futureissues and potential opportunities for landfill mining as an embedded strategy incurrent waste management systems through a multi-disciplinary approach. In particular, three general landfill mining strategies are addressed with varying extentsof resource recovery. These are discussed in relation to the main targets of landfill mining: (i) reduction of the landfill volume (technical), (ii) reduction of risks andimpacts (environmental) and (iii) increase in resource recovery and overall profitability (economic). Geophysical methods could be used to determine the characteristics of the landfilled waste and subsurface structures without the need of aninvasive exploration, which could greatly reduce exploration costs and time, aswell as be useful to develop a procedure to either discard or select the most appropriate sites for (E)LFM. Material and energy recovery from landfilled waste canbe achieved through mechanical processing coupled with thermochemical valorization technologies and residues upcycling techniques. Gasification could enablethe upcycling of residues after thermal treatment into a new range of eco-friendlyconstruction materials based on inorganic polymers and glass-ceramics. The multi-criteria assessment is directly influenced by waste- and technology related factors, which together with site-specific conditions, market and regulatory aspects,influence the environmental, economic and societal impacts of (E)LFM projects.
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| 8. |
- Krook, Joakim, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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How to evaluate (enhanced) landfill mining : A critical review of recent environmental and economic assessments
- 2018
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Enhanced Landfill Mining, 2018. - Leuven : KU Leuven. - 9789082825909 ; , s. 317-332
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Landfill mining has been proclaimed as an alternative strategy to address unwanted impacts of waste deposits. In real-life projects, such excavation and processing of deposited waste has mainly been used to facilitate traditional objectives such as remediation, land reclamation or creation of landfill airspace. A key target of recent landfill mining research is, however, to go beyond this type of local motives and enhance the recovery of materials and energy resources by developing advanced processing technologies. Although such an ambitiousapproach clearly displays a wider societal potential, it also adds complexity to the implementation and assessment of pros and cons of landfill mining.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Lindström, Stefan B, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
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Computer-Aided Evaluation of Blood Vessel Geometry From Acoustic Images
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of ultrasound in medicine. - : Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Inc.. - 0278-4297 .- 1550-9613. ; 37:4, s. 1025-1031
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A method for computer-aided assessment of blood vessel geometries based on shape-fitting algorithms from metric vision was evaluated. Acoustic images of cross sections of the radial artery and cephalic vein were acquired, and medical practitioners used a computer application to measure the wall thickness and nominal diameter of these blood vessels with a caliper method and the shape-fitting method. The methods performed equally well for wall thickness measurements. The shape-fitting method was preferable for measuring the diameter, since it reduced systematic errors by up to 63% in the case of the cephalic vein because of its eccentricity.
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