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- Shahbazi, Sasha, et al.
(author)
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Material efficiency in manufacturing: swedish evidence on potential, barriers and strategies
- 2016
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In: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier BV. - 0959-6526 .- 1879-1786. ; 127, s. 438-450
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Improved material efficiency is a key to improve the circular economy and capturing value in industry. Material efficiency reduces the generation of industrial waste, the extraction and consumption of resources, and energy demands and carbon emissions. However, material efficiency in the manufacturing sector, as a means of improving the recyclability, reusability, reduction and prevention of industrial waste, is little understood. This study aims to investigate, on a micro-level, further material efficiency improvement opportunities, barriers and strategies in selected manufacturing companies in Sweden, focusing on increasing waste segregation into high quality circulated raw material. Improvement opportunities at large global manufacturing companies are investigated; barriers hindering material efficiency improvement are identified and categorized at two levels; and strategies that have been deployed at manufacturing companies are reviewed. Empirical findings reveal (1) further potential for improving material efficiency through higher segregation of residual material from mixed and low quality fractions (on average, 26% of the content of combustible waste, in weight, was plastics; 8% and 6% were paper and cardboard, respectively); (2) the most influential barriers are within budgetary, information, management, employee, engineering, and communication clusters; (3) a lack of actual material efficiency strategy implementation in the manufacturing companies. According to our analysis, the majority of barriers are internal and originate within the manufacturing companies, therefore they can be managed (and eradicated if possible) with sufficient resources in terms of man hours, education and investment, better operational and environmental (waste) management, better internal communication and information sharing, and deployment of material efficiency strategies.
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| 2. |
- Yu, X., et al.
(author)
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CO2 capture using a superhydrophobic ceramic membrane contactor
- 2015
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In: Journal of Membrane Science. - : Elsevier BV. - 0376-7388 .- 1873-3123. ; 496, s. 1-12
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The wetting and fouling of a membrane contactor deteriorated performance of the membrane gas absorption system for CO2 post-combustion capture in coal-fired power plants. To solve these problems, in this study, a superhydrophobic ceramic (SC) membrane contactor was fabricated from an alumina tube with a ZrO2 layer by means of grafting with fluoroalkylsilane (FAS) in a triethoxy-1H,1H,2H,2H-tridecafluoro-n-octylsilane solution. The performances of the SC membrane contactor and polypropylene (PP) hollow fiber membrane contactor were compared through experiments conducted in a CO2 absorption experimental system using a monoethanolamine (MEA) aqueous solution. Although the membrane fabrication cost per effective membrane area (CPA) of the SC membrane is 12.5 times that of the PP hollow fiber membrane, the SC membrane fabrication cost per absorbed CO2 flux (CPC) was lower than that of the PP membrane. For the SC membrane, the detrimental effect of wetting can be alleviated by periodic drying to ensure a high CO2 removal efficiency (>90%). Drying does not work for the PP membrane because the swelling of the PP fibers is irreversible. The SC membrane contactor exhibited a better anti-fouling ability than the PP membrane contactor because the superhydrophobic surface can self-clean. To ensure a continuous, high-efficiency CO2 removal, a method was proposed in which two-hollow fiber SC membrane contactors operate alternately with the addition of periodic drying. The SC hollow fiber membrane contactor shows great potential in real industrial CO2 post-combustion capture because of its good anti-wetting and anti-fouling features.
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