| 1. |
- Anselm, Jonas, et al.
(författare)
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Bannlys alla politiska beslut som ger mer klimatutsläpp
- 2014
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Ingår i: Dagens Nyheter.
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Torftig valdebatt. Dagspolitiken klarar inte att hantera ödesfrågan om klimatet, vilket oroar oss. Vi föreslår därför ett ”utsläppsmoratorium”: inga beslut får tas som ökar utsläppen av växthusgaser. Principen måste kopplas till mål om exempelvis förnybar energi och grön infrastruktur, skriver 23 forskare och debattörer.
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| 2. |
- Eckerberg, Katarina, et al.
(författare)
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Varför brister politikerna när det gäller miljömålen?
- 2012
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Ingår i: Dagens Nyheter. - 1101-2447.
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Vad ska vi svara? Politikernas ambitiösa miljömål uppfylls sällan eller aldrig. När våra elever frågar oss varför blir vi ofta svaret skyldiga. Om politikerna inte vill att väljarna ska dra slutsatsen att de har misslyckats, måste de ange en realistisk väg att nå de uppsatta målen. Det skulle väcka respekt, skriver ledande forskare och samhällsplanerare.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Wallin, Are, 1978, et al.
(författare)
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Influence of interventions and internal motivation on Swedish homeowners’ change of on-site sewage systems
- 2013
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Ingår i: Resources, Conservation and Recycling. - : Elsevier BV. - 0921-3449 .- 1879-0658. ; 76:July 2013, s. 27-40
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article reports results from a questionnaire administered to Swedish homeowners (N = 1481) investigating factors that influence them, as users and owners of on-site sewage systems (OSS), to environmentally improve their OSS. Social and psychological factors were based on previous research into pro-environmental and compliance behaviors and a previous interview study. The results suggest that the most important motives are to benefit, to act when outcomes are fair, and to avoid inconvenience. Less important motives are to act when outcomes are fair and to act of concern for the environment. Perceived efficacy in decreasing the environmental impacts of current OSS, when the OSS is changed, and perceived ability to change their OSS are also among the strongest predictors of readiness to change OSS. However, among homeowners who changed their OSS to do ones duty and achieve long-term safety were ranked highest. The results support the expectations of goal-framing theory that motives related to “gain” would be focal in situations of unfavorable cost–benefit ratios. Similarly, the importance of fair outcomes and efficacious rules is consistent with general findings in research on social dilemmas.
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| 5. |
- Abdul-Sattar, Nizami, 1982, et al.
(författare)
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Comparative analysis using EIA for developed and developing coutnries case studies of hydroelectric power plants in Pakistan, Norway and Sweden
- 2011
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Ingår i: International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1745-2627 .- 1350-4509. ; 18:2, s. 134-142
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is an important legislative and scientific tool that may assist and improve the quality assistance for the decision-making process in sustainable development. Here, a comparison of EIAs from three cases of hydropower projects in Pakistan, Norway and Sweden is reported. A huge difference concerning the incorporation of environmental considerations into the decisionmaking process between developed and developing countries is observed. The EIA system of Pakistan appears to be less efficient in the application and review process. In addition, the appraisal of issues, the decision-making process and evaluation through post-monitoring is not as well performed in Pakistan as in cases of hydroelectric power plants in Sweden and Norway. The key reason for this shortcoming is misconceptions about the EIA process, which initially receives intense attention but becomes weakened by the time of implementation. This implies that there is a need to adopt simplified and flexible EIA techniques suitable for the infrastructure and resources of a specific country, taking into account institutional, technical and financial constraints. Improvements are required in public participation, awareness, as well as in environmental control and data system sectors in Pakistan, besides simply enacting legislation to achieve the goals of the EIA system.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(författare)
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Assessing the Environmental Risks of Silver from Clothes in an Urban Area
- 2014
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Ingår i: Human and Ecological Risk Assessment (HERA). - : Informa UK Limited. - 1549-7860 .- 1080-7039. ; 20:4, s. 1008-1022
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The environmental risks from the use of silver-containing clothes (“silver clothes”)were assessed for an urban area. First, we evaluated whether the use of silver clothesmay cause contamination of wastewater treatment sludge that exceeds certain risk thresholds. Second, we assessed the risk of silver exposure to earthworms from applyingthe sludge as fertilizer to agricultural land. The most critical parameter was the concentration of silver in silver clothes, for which estimates in the literaturevary by more than five orders of magnitude. For concentrations at the high end of that parameter range, there is considerably increased concentration of silver in the sludge, and toxic effects on earthworms even at modest use rates of silver clothes suggest high risk. At the low end, no risks can be expected. The main recommendationfrom this study is that if silver is used in clothes, the silver concentration must be kept at the lower end of the range applied in this study if risks are to be avoided.This can be done either by design choices of companies, or by regulation. If the function of the applied silver is not maintained at these lower levels, the use of silver clothes should be minimized.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(författare)
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Challenges in Exposure Modeling of Nanoparticles in Aquatic Environments
- 2011
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Ingår i: Human and Ecological Risk Assessment. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1080-7039 .- 1549-7860. ; 17:1, s. 245-262
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Managing the potential environmental risks of nanoparticles requires methods to link nanoparticle properties with macro-scale risks. This study outlines challenges in exposure modeling of nanoparticles in aquatic environments, such as the role of natural organic matter, natural colloids, fractal dimensions of agglomerates, coatings and doping of particles, and uncertainties regarding nanoparticle emissions to aquatic environments. The pros and cons of the exposure indicators mass concentration, particle number concentration, and surface area are discussed. By applying colloid chemistry kinetic equations describing particle agglomeration and sedimentation for the case of titanium dioxide nanoparticles, a limited exposure assessment including some of the factors mentioned is conducted with particle number concentration as the exposure indicator. The results of the modeling indicate that sedimentation, shear flows, and settling are of less importance with regard to particle number based predicted environmental concentrations. The inflow of nanoparticles to the water compartment had a significant impact in the model, and the collision efficiency (which is affected by natural organic matter) was shown to greatly affect model output. Implications for exposure modeling, regulation and science are discussed. A broad spectrum of scientific disciplines must be engaged in the development of exposure models where nano-level properties are linked to macro-scale risk.
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| 10. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(författare)
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Energy use indicators in energy and life cycle assessments of biofuels: review and recommendations
- 2012
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Ingår i: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier BV. - 0959-6526 .- 1879-1786. ; 31, s. 54-61
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this study we investigate how indicators for energy use are applied in a set of life cycle assessment (LCA) and energy analysis case studies of biofuels. We found five inherently different types of indicators to describe energy use: (1) fossil energy, (2) secondary energy, (3) cumulative energy demand, (4) net energy balance, and (5) total extracted energy. It was also found that the examined reports and articles, the choice of energy use indicator was seldom motivated or discussed in relation to other energy use indicators. In order to investigate the differences between these indicators, they were applied to a case. The life cycle energy use of palm oil methyl ester was calculated and reported using these five different indicators for energy use, giving considerably different output results. This is in itself not unexpected, but indicates the importance of clearly identifying, describing and motivating the choice of energy use indicator. The indicators can all be useful in specific situations, depending on the goal and scope of the individual study, but the choice of indicators need to be better reported and motivated than what is generally done today.
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| 11. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(författare)
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Exposure assessments of nanoparticles in aquatic environments – considerations, review and recommendations
- 2013
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Synthetic nanoparticles are new forms of chemical substances. They can be found in several different forms, such as free particles, surface bound and dissolved in liquid. Nanoparticles can also exist as free, individual particles or agglomerate consisting of multiple particles. This report discusses the assessment of possible risks of nanoparticles. Chemical risk is usually considered to consist of two elements: (1) Exposure to the substance, and (2) the substance's toxicity. So far, the risk-related research on nanoparticles has had a strong focus on the particles ' toxic effects. In this report, we would instead focus on how exposure to nanoparticles can be calculated and assessed, with focus on nanoparticles in water. In the report, we provide an initial background and definitions of nanomaterials and nanoparticles, and describe briefly a standard method of risk assessment of chemicals in the environment. Then we go through important considerations that should be made in the exposure assessment of nanoparticles. First we discuss three considerations related to the emissions of nanoparticles, namely the lack of data for annual production of nanoparticles, the importance of applying a substance flow perspective, and lack of data for so-called emission factors for nanoparticles of various products and materials. Furthermore, we discuss considerations for modeling of nanoparticles behavior in water, mainly by listing a number of key processes with large influence. These are agglomeration, sedimentation, and dissolution. Related to that, we discuss how natural organic materials, coatings and aging of particles can affect these processes. We note here three particle properties that are important in order to describe nanoparticles dispersion in water, in a similar way that the octanol-water partition coefficient and half-life is important to describe the fate of organic chemicals in the environment. For nanoparticles these are the particle size (a) and the density (ρ). We also identify a number of more complex parameters affecting particle behavior in the environment, but not only because of the different particle characteristics, but also depending on characteristics related to the environment. These are the collision efficiency (α), point of zero charge (pHpzc), Hamaker constant (A) and a so-called form factor (β) that affect the sedimentation. In addition to the general difficulty to measure or calculate these parameters they also co-vary. Furthermore, we make a review of 11 currently available exposure models for nanoparticles in aquatic environment. We note that the studies differ regarding modeling method, which sources of emissions that are included, the nanoparticles taken into account, estimated concentrations in the environment, and whether the results are presented as mass or particle concentration. Only two studies trying to model the nanoparticle exposure based on particle properties in a manner similar to standard methods for chemical risk assessment. The other modeling studies are instead based on data on flows of specific nanomaterials, and not on generic algorithms. Next, we describe a number of challenges that occur when measuring nanoparticles in the environment. Finally, we provide the following recommendations to ensure good exposure assessment of nanoparticles in the future: 1. Information of flows and stocks of nanoparticles in society need to be collected. 2. Emission factors would need to be developed for each product that makes use of nanoparticles. 3. Emissions should be reported both as mass and particle number until it becomes clearer which one is most relevant. 4. More research is needed in order to determine which particle properties need to be known in order to calculate the concentration of nanoparticles in the environment. 5. At least the particle size and particle size distribution, as well as the specific particle density should be reported. 6. More research is required to improve the experimental measurements of nanoparticles to be able to validate exposure models.
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| 12. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(författare)
-
How do we know the energy use when producing biomaterials or biofuels?
- 2012
-
Ingår i: Proceedings of ECO-TECH 2012.
-
Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- How much fossil energy that is used in the production of biomaterials or biofuels (e.g. fuel used in harvesting) is a parameter of obvious interest when optimizing the production systems. To use more fossil fuels in the production of a biofuel than what will be available as the biofuel product is obviously a bad idea. With increasing interest in biomaterials and biofuels, a shift from a sole focus on fossil energy will be necessary. Optimized use of energy over the whole life cycle is one important parameter to ensure sustainability. However, to report and interpret values on life cycle energy use is not as straight forward as what might immediately be perceived. The impact category ‘energy use’ is frequently used but is generally not applied in a transparent and consistent way between different studies. Considering the increased focus on biofuels, it is important to inform companies and policy-makers about the energy use of biofuels in relevant and transparent ways with well-defined indicators. The present situation in how energy use indicators are applied was studied in a set of LCA studies of biofuels. It was found that the choice of indicator was seldom motivated or discussed in the examined reports and articles, and five inherently different energy use indicators were observed: (1) fossil energy, (2) secondary energy, (3) cumulative energy demand (primary energy), (4) net energy balance, and (5) total extracted energy. As a test, we applied these five energy use indicators to the same cradle-to-gate production system and they give considerably different output numbers of energy use. This in itself is not unexpected, but indicates the importance of clearly identifying, describing and motivating the choice of energy use indicator. Direct comparisons between different energy use results could lead to misinformed policy decisions.
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| 13. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(författare)
-
How much energy is used when producing biofuels?
- 2012
-
Ingår i: World Bioenergy 2012, Jönköping, Sweden.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Considering the increased focus on biofuels, it is important to inform companies and policy-makers about the energy use for production of biofuels in relevant and transparent ways, using well-defined indicators. The amount of fossil energy used in the production of a biofuel (e.g. diesel fuel used in harvesting) is a parameter of obvious interest when comparing different biofuels or when optimizing the production systems. With increasing worldwide production of different biofuels, a shift in focus from fossil energy to the entire energy use will also be necessary. In that context, not only reducing the use of fossil fuels in biofuel production, but also optimizing the use of all energy sources over the whole life cycle becomes an important to ensure the sustainability of biofuels. However, to report and interpret values on life cycle energy use is not straight forward due to methodological difficulties. The impact category ‘energy use’ is frequently used in life cycle assessment (LCA). But the term ‘energy use’ is generally not applied in a transparent and consistent way between different LCA studies of biofuels. It is often unclear whether the total energy use, or only fossil energy, has been considered, and whether primary or secondary energy has been considered. In addition, it is often difficult to tell if and how the energy content of the fuel or the biomass source was included in the energy use. This study presents and discusses the current situation in terms of energy use indicators are applied in LCA studies on biofuels. It was found that the choice of indicator was seldom motivated or discussed in the examined reports and articles, and five inherently different energy use indicators were observed: (1) fossil energy, (2) secondary energy, (3) cumulative energy demand (primary energy), (4) net energy balance, and (5) total extracted energy. As an illustration, we applied these five energy use indicators to the same cradle-to-gate production system (production of palm oil methyl ester), resulting in considerably different output numbers of energy use. This in itself is not unexpected, but indicates the importance of clearly identifying, describing and motivating the choice of energy use indicator. All five indicators can be useful in specific situations, depending on the goal and scope of the individual study, but the choice of indicator needs to be better reported and motivated than what is generally done today. Above all, it is important to avoid direct comparisons between different energy use results calculated using different indicators, since this could lead to misinformed policy decisions.
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| 14. |
- 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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| 15. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(författare)
-
Impacts of a Silver-Coated Future - Particle Flow Analysis of Silver Nanoparticles
- 2011
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Ingår i: Journal of Industrial Ecology. - 1530-9290 .- 1088-1980. ; 15:6, s. 844-854
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Silver is a compound that is well known for its adverse environmental effects. More recently, silver in the form of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) have begun to be produced in increasingly larger amounts for antibacterial purposes in for instance textiles, wound dressings and cosmetics. Several authors have highlighted the potential environmental impact of these NPs. In order to contribute to a risk assessment of Ag NPs, a suggested method named particle flow analysis is applied to estimate current emissions from society to the environment. In addition, explorative scenarios are set up to account for potential technology diffusion of selected Ag NP applications. The results are uncertain and need to be refined, but they indicate that emissions from all applications included may increase significantly in the future. Ag NPs in textiles and electronic circuitry may increase more than in wound dressings due to the limited consumption of wound dressings. Due to the dissipative nature of Ag NPs in textiles, the results indicate that they may cause the highest emissions in the future, thus partly confirming the woes of both scientists and environmental organizations. Gaps in current knowledge have been identified. Especially the fate of Ag NPs during different waste handling processes is outlined as an area that requires more research.
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| 16. |
- 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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| 17. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(författare)
-
Is there a "crystal ball"? Assessing environmental life cycle impacts of new nanomaterials
- 2013
-
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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| 18. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(författare)
-
Particle flow analysis. Exploring Potential Use Phase Emissions of Titanium Dioxide nanoparticles from Sunscreen, Paint and Cement
- 2012
-
Ingår i: Journal of Industrial Ecology. - : Wiley. - 1530-9290 .- 1088-1980. ; 16:3, s. 343-351
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Several authors have highlighted the potential risks of nanoparticles (NPs). Still, little is knownabout the magnitude of emissions of NPs from society. Here, the method of explorativeparticle flow analysis (PFA), a modification of the more well-known substance flow analysis(SFA), is suggested. In explorative PFA, particle number instead of mass is used as flowand stock metric and explorative scenarios are used to account for potential technologydiffusion and, consequently, potentially higher emissions. The method has been applied ina case study of the use phase of titanium dioxide (TiO2) NPs in paint, sunscreen andself-cleaning cement. The results indicate that the current largest emissions of TiO2 NPsoriginate from the use of sunscreen. One scenario implies that, in the future, the largestflows and stocks of TiO2 NPs could be related to self-cleaning cement. Gaps in currentknowledge are identified and suggestions for future research are given.
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| 19. |
- 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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| 20. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(författare)
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Review of Potential Environmental and Health Risks of the Nanomaterial Graphene
- 2013
-
Ingår i: Human and Ecological Risk Assessment (HERA). - : Informa UK Limited. - 1549-7860 .- 1080-7039. ; 19:4, s. 873-887
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Several future applications have been suggested for the nanomaterial graphene, and its production is increasing dramatically. This study is a review of risk-related information on graphene with the purpose of outlining potential environmental and health risks and guide future risk-related research. Available information is presented regarding emissions, environmental fate, and toxicity of graphene. The results from this study indicate that graphene could exert a considerable toxicity and that considerable emission of graphene from electronic devices and composites are possible in the future. It is also suggested that graphene is both persistent and hydrophobic. Although these results indicate that graphene may cause adverse environmental and health effects, the results foremost show that there are many risk-related knowledge gaps to be filled and that the emissions of graphene, the fate of graphene in the environment, and the toxicity of graphene should be further studied.
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| 21. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(författare)
-
Screening Environmental Risk Assessment of Grease and Oil Emissions from Off-Shore Wind Power Plants
- 2012
-
Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This report constitutes a generic environmental risk assessment of emissions of grease and oil from off-shore wind power plants. In this context, risk is defined as an exposure of a stressor high enough to cause adverse effects on a certain endpoint. The stressors considered are alkanes, phosphate isodecyl/phenyl compounds and zinc alkyl dithiophosphate. The endpoints considered are the aquatic organisms fish, Daphnia magna, algae and aquatic bacteria. A screening risk assessment method is applied, assuming one-time releases of lubricant and gear oil. Although this should be seen as an early screening study, it indicates that the stressors included constitute risks to aquatic organisms given the setup of this study. A one-by-one parameter sensitivity analysis is performed to investigate the impact of different emissions, evaporation and biodegradation on the results. Even with low emissions, high evaporation and high biodegradation, the results show that the organisms living close to the wind power plant are subject to risk. The implications of these results if taken into account that some off-shore wind power plants may not occur one-by-one but rather be part of parks containing tens of plants together are discussed. Recommendations to reduce the risk are given. A technical risk reduction measure is to use less toxic, biodegradable lubricants. An organizational risk reduction measure is to increase maintenance and thereby reducing the likelihood of emissions occurring.
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| 22. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(författare)
-
Substance Flow Analysis of Novel Compounds: The Case of Graphene
- 2011
-
Ingår i: 6th International Conference on Industrial Ecology, Berkley, California, June 7-10, 2011..
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Many new nanomaterials are being developed, and it provides a great challenge to estimate emissions of nanomaterials to the environment. One such nanomaterial is graphene, which has been hailed for its many potential useful applications. In accordance, researchers studying graphene received the 2010 Nobel Prize in physics. The current emissions of graphene are low due to the limited production, but may become significant in the future considering the rapid increase in graphene production. The method of substance flow analysis (SFA) has previously been used for estimating emissions of chemicals in an accounting manner. However, when using SFA in a prospective way for assessing emissions of a novel substance such as graphene, three prime challenges emerge: (1) estimating future magnitudes of flows and stocks of applications in which graphene is a constituent, (2) estimating concentration of graphene in the applications and (3) estimating emission coefficients specific for graphene and the application. Even if future flows and stocks of applications containing graphene cannot be rigorously estimated, potential risk can be probed by investigations of stylized states that account for different levels of technology diffusion. Concentration data is sometimes available since it is an important technical performance parameter, for instance for graphene in various composites. In more complex applications such as electronics, it may be more difficult to obtain. No emission coefficients of graphene are available, which constitutes that perhaps largest gap in an SFA of graphene. The conclusions drawn for the case of graphene is probably of interest for assessments of emissions of other novel substances as well.
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| 23. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(författare)
-
The Environmental Risks of Silver in Clothes
- 2011
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Ingår i: Creating Successful and Sustainable Societies - Capabilities, resources and trust. The Adlerbert Research Foundation Jubilee Conference.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Water treatment companies and other actors in Sweden are concerned over the potential contamination of the waste water sludge due to silver emissions originating from antibacterial applications, such as clothes treated with silver in order to reduce odour. Silver is a compound which is known for its toxicity to several organisms. Hence, increased silver concentration in sludge may therefore prevent the sludge from being used as fertilizer on agricultural land, hence preventing the recycling of nutrients. Therefore, an environmental risk assessment of silver in clothes was conducted for the case of the waste water treatment plant Ryaverket in Gothenburg. Emissions of silver from washing as function of consumption of silver-containing clothes was estimated, the fate of silver in waste water treatment plants and soil was studied, and finally a review was made regarding silver toxicity to soil organisms. The potential concentration of silver in sludge and soil was estimated and benchmarked against different guideline values. The risk assessment reveals a very large variation in silver concentration in clothes, ranging from 0.003 mg/kg up to 1400 mg/kg. This wide range of about six orders of magnitude of course affects the potential concentration of silver in sludge and soil. If silver concentrations close to 1400 mg/kg are to be used in clothes, the current silver concentration in the sludge from Ryaverket could easily become doubled, and if that sludge was to be applied on soil, the silver may accumulate and cause long-term damage to soil ecosystems. However, if silver concentrations close to 0.003 mg/kg are to be used in clothes, it would not constitute a risk to sludge or soil considering the low amounts of silver. Also, the future consumption of silver-containing clothes may vary and will have a significant effect on the results. The recommendation based on this study is either to limit silver concentration in clothes or the consumption of silver-containing clothes if environmental impacts are to be avoided.
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| 24. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(författare)
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Towards transparent and relevant use of energy use indicators in LCA studies of biofuels
- 2012
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Ingår i: 6th SETAC World Congress / SETAC Europe 22nd Annual Meeting in Berlin.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The use of energy has led to resource crises during the history of mankind, such as the deforestation of the Mediterranean during antiquity, and of Great Britain before the 19th century, and the oil crisis in the 20th century and continuing. Considering this, the frequent use of the impact category ‘energy use’ in the environmental assessment tool life cycle assessment (LCA) is not surprising. However, in a previous study, some of the authors noted that the term ‘energy use’ was not applied in a transparent and consistent way in LCA studies of biofuels. In this work we investigate how energy use indicators are applied in a set of life cycle assessment (LCA) studies of biofuels. In the examined reports and articles, the choice of indicator was seldom motivated or discussed and we observed five inherently different energy use indicators: (1) fossil energy, (2) secondary energy, (3) cumulative energy demand, (4) net energy balance, and (5) total extracted energy. These five energy use indicators were applied to the same cradle-to-gate production system of palm oil methyl ester (PME), giving considerably different output results. This is in itself not unexpected, but indicates the importance of clearly identifying, describing and motivating the choice of energy use indicator. All five indicators can all be useful in specific situations, depending on the goal and scope of the individual study, but the choice of indicators need to be better reported and motivated than what is generally done today. Authors of LCA studies should first define the purpose of their energy use indicator (fossil scarcity, energy scarcity, energy efficiency, cost/benefit comparison) and may then make a motivated choice of the energy use indicator.
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| 25. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(författare)
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Tracing nanomaterial hotspots in a changing world
- 2010
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Ingår i: 20th SETAC Europe Annual Meeting, Seville, Spain, 23-27 May 2010.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The potential risks of nanotechnology and nanoparticles have been outlined along with the importance of assessing these risks before commercial products are out on the market. We here propose a method to detect future hotspots of nanoparticle emissions by estimating the production rate and societal stock of technologies containing nanomaterials at a future stage when the technology can be viewed as mature and fully developed and diffused. This estimate is combined with a characterisation of the nanomaterial. The method is applied to some technologies containing titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanomaterials. The applications of TiO2 nanomaterials investigated in this study are UV absorbers (in sunscreen), pigment (in paint), electron carrier (in Grätzel solar cells) and photocatalyst (in self-cleaning windows and cement). Estimations of the current production and stocks of TiO2 nanomaterials for the technologies are also included for comparison. The TiO2 nanomaterials are characterized in seven steps, which gives valuable information regarding the potential emissions. Results indicate that two TiO2 nanomaterial containing technologies, paint and sunscreen, are already close to their mature stages. Paint is the current hotspot since it has the currently highest production rate and largest stock of TiO2 nanomaterial. In the future, however, in terms of TiO2 nanomaterial turnover, it may be passed by self-cleaning cement, which has the potential to become by far the largest use even if only a minor part of all cement will contain TiO2 nanomaterial. The diversity of types of different TiO2 nanomaterials and their potential emissions makes it problematic to discuss TiO2 nanomaterials as if it was one single nanomaterial in an exposure assessment context.
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