| 1. |
- Lindahl, Niklas, 1981, et al.
(författare)
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Early stage techno-economic and environmental analysis of aluminium batteries
- 2023
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Ingår i: Energy Advances. - : Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). - 2753-1457. ; 2:3, s. 420-429
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- For any proper evaluation of next generation energy storage systems technological, economic, and environmental performance metrics should be considered. Here conceptual cells and systems are designed for different aluminium battery (AlB) concepts, including both active and passive materials. Despite the fact that all AlBs use high-capacity metal anodes and materials with low cost and environmental impact, their energy densities differ vastly and only a few concepts become competitive taking all aspects into account. Notably, AlBs with high-performance inorganic cathodes have the potential to exhibit superior technological and environmental performance, should they be more reversible and energy efficient, while at the system level costs become comparable or slightly higher than for both AlBs with organic cathodes and lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Overall, with continued development, AlBs should be able to complement LIBs, especially in light of their significantly lower demand for scarce materials. Several aluminium battery concepts are evaluated at material, cell and system levels for technical, economic and environmental performance, which enables them to complement lithium-ion batteries in the future.
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| 2. |
- Akram, Asif, 1978, et al.
(författare)
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AEOLIX Living Labs Operational ImpactsAssessment
- 2019
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This document provides the AEOLIX impact assessment of living labs at the operational level. It is based on three main impacts namely business, environment, and socio-economic impacts. The three impacts are sub-divided further into sub-categories. The report collects data from twelve living labs involved in with AEOLIX. One of the main goals of AEOLIX was to reduce the costs for various logistics activities as implemented in twelve living labs. The expected benefits in the business area are from reducing the consumption of different resources, reducing the time used for various activities, and from increasing the productivity in certain areas. The economic or business benefits came along two dimensions: (i) in terms of time and (ii) in terms of money. In terms of time, AEOLIX facilitated reducing the time spent on various activities at the companies. In terms of money, AEOLIX helped to save the costs of specific logistics activities within the living lab. For the environmental aspect an overall value of 20% was set as target value for reduction in CO2 emission using AEOLIX. Only one of all living labs reached this target value, but there was anyhow a reduction found in all living labs. AEOLIX and its functions have also helped in reducing noise pollution at some of the living labs. In some cases, there was quite a considerable reduction. For the socio-economic aspects the job creation, SME empowerment, and the improved quality of life are addressed. This study has explored the impact of AEOLIX on job creation in terms of drivers’ and operators’ jobs. Since the AEOLIX implementation is still in its initial phases, respondents were unable to estimate how many jobs (drivers and/or operators) were created in the long run. SME Empowerment was measured as the increase in SMEs’ market share and the increase in direct collaboration between SMEs and large organizations. The results were meager both with regard to the market share and the extent of collaboration. The improved quality of life is measured in the way AEOLIX puts more focus on work, the less stress at work and a positive attitude towards people using it. The results reflect that AEOLIX has greatly helped employees to put more focus on work and to reduce stress levels. Managers consider this as a positive side of the return on investment (ROI) as the business processes are improved. AEOLIX impact on various socio-economic aspects is in principle positive but as this process is very slow to emerge it takes time to observe any changes in social aspects. Acceptance and trust on AEOLIX can be captured as a majority of the evaluation managers of the living labs found the AEOLIX functions (dashboard, connectivity engine and toolkit) useful to a great extent. The willingness to continue using AEOLIX functions and their usefulness are directly related to each other. This means that the more useful a function is, the more users are willing to continue using it. The AEOLIX platform, through various services and functions, has a positive impact on society in general and on workers in particular. Although this impact cannot be evaluated financially for the first year of the AEOLIX implementation, numerous studies show that a more satisfying and less stressful job, together with a more welcoming and stimulating environment, have an important economic impact in the long-term period. Therefore, the fact that AEOLIX has a positive impact on society will also prove to be an economic benefit for the different companies.
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| 3. |
- André, Hampus, 1989
(författare)
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Resource and Environmental Impacts of Resource-Efficiency Measures Applied to Electronic Products
- 2018
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Natural resources such as ecosystems, land, water and metals underpin the functioning of economies and human well-being, and are becoming increasingly scarce due to growth in population and affluence. Metals are increasingly demanded for their specific properties as modern technology develops. The dependence on metals is of growing concern due to the environmental impacts related, for example, to energy use and local impacts from mining, as well as the scarcity risks posed by socio-economic, geological and geopolitical constraints. Thus, there is a clear need to use metals and other natural resources more efficiently. The vision of a circular economy has been proposed as a way to do this, for example by improving durability, reusing, repairing and recycling. Such so-called resource-efficiency (RE) measures are commonly assumed to be environmentally beneficial, although the evidence is not plentiful. It is plausible that focusing on recirculating products and materials could shift burdens to other environmental impacts or life cycle stages. It has therefore been argued that a life cycle-based approach, such as in life cycle assessment (LCA), is useful to critically assess the environmental implications of RE measures. LCA aims to quantify the environmental impacts of products over their entire life cycles - from cradle to grave - assessing a wide range of impacts such as toxicity, climate change and metal resource use. For metal resource use, however, there are a number of perspectives as to what constitutes the actual environmental problem. These perspectives are represented in a variety of life cycle impact assessment methods (LCIA) which have previously been shown to give diverging results. Electronic products are emblematic of metal resource use challenges since they deploy a broad spectrum of scarce metals. This thesis aims to provide knowledge on the potential for RE measures to reduce the environmental impacts of electronic products, by addressing the following research questions: (1) What resource-efficiency measures result in reduced potential environmental impacts and resource use – for what types of products and under what conditions? (2) How does extended use of electronic products through design for increased technical lifetime, reuse and repair affect environmental impacts, particularly metal resource use? (3) How does the application of different LCIA methods for metal resource use influence interpretations of resource-efficiency measures applied to electronic products? This thesis builds on three appended papers which are all based on comparative assessments of resource efficiency, studied as resource use and environmental impacts per function delivered, using LCA and material flow analysis. The results indicate that extended use of electronic products through increasing technical lifetimes, reusing and repairing, is generally resource-efficient. Exceptions may occur, however, if extended use is insufficient to motivate impacts from producing more durable products or spare parts. Use extension of electronic products leads to resource efficiency in two distinct ways: through the intended use extension and by increasingly steering material flows into recycling. Further resource efficiency could be realised by combining RE measures over the entire life cycles of products. With regards to metal resource use, the choice of LCIA method can influence the interpretation of the results of RE measures for electronic products. Therefore, it is advisable to use several complementary LCIA methods to minimise the risks of overlooking potentially important resources issues. Furthermore, better understanding and transparency of such issues is valuable in order to provide more comprehensive information to decision-makers.
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| 4. |
- Böckin, Daniel, 1989
(författare)
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Towards empirically grounded guidance for resource efficiency: Applying, developing and synthesising environmental assessments
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Numerous solutions have been proposed to mitigate environmental damage, including resource efficiency and the vision of circular economy. Suggested solutions are often formulated as guidelines and heuristics like in the EU waste hierarchy, so-called R-hierarchies for resource efficiency and various guidelines for circular business models. However, these are often formulated on a conceptual basis without empirical support. Hence, it is often unclear in what contexts they are valid and how they can be interpreted for different types of products and applications. Systemic environmental assessments are necessary, and have been widely employed, to provide more solid empirical support for guidelines and for investigating the efficacy of suggested solutions. There is also a need for the results and learnings of those assessments to be easily understandable and usable for guiding decision-making towards reducing environmental impact within, say, product design and business management. The purpose of this dissertation is to 1) formulate empirically grounded guidelines for resource efficiency and 2) test existing guidelines and heuristics in specific cases. The first aim is addressed by synthesising assessments of resource efficiency measures in literature. This revealed in what circumstances each measure can yield environmental benefits, depending on product characteristics, as well as when there are possible trade-offs and limitations. Several product characteristics were identified as of key importance for the efficacy of measures, including whether products are durable or consumable, active or passive, used for their full technical lifetime, used frequently or not and finally the product’s complexity and pace of development. The second aim is addressed by carrying out a prospective life cycle assessment (LCA) scrutinising the expectations of metal 3D printing for reducing automotive environmental impacts. The results showed that 3D printing can potentially reduce future life cycle impacts, by allowing redesign of components for lower weight and thus lower fuel consumption. However, this is only valid with low-fossil electricity for the printing process and developments towards printing with low-impact materials like low-alloy steel. The second aim is further addressed by testing the potential environmental benefits of alternative business models. The method business model LCA method (BM-LCA) was developed for this purpose, taking the business itself as the object of analysis. The method uses economic performance as the basis of comparison, thus allowing a business to calculate the environmental consequences of business decisions. BM-LCA was applied to an apparel company, comparing selling and renting jackets. The results show that renting enabled sustained economic performance while reducing environmental impacts. This depended, however, on the sustainability of the transport and energy systems, as well as on business model parameters like price and rental efficiency, and on customer habits. This dissertation shows that environmental assessments can be used to provide an empirical foundation for improved resource efficiency guidelines and to test the validity of heuristics Two key contributions and innovations are emphasised. The first is the formulation of empirically grounded guidelines based on key product characteristics. The second is the formulation and testing of BM-LCA, a method for assessing decoupling business from environmental impact.
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| 5. |
- Mani, Mahesh, et al.
(författare)
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Simulation and analysis for sustainable product development
- 2013
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Ingår i: International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1614-7502 .- 0948-3349. ; 18:5, s. 1129-1136
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Simulation plays a critical role in the design of products, materials, and manufacturing processes. However, there are gaps in the simulation tools used by industry to provide reliable results from which effective decisions can be made about environmental impacts at different stages of product life cycle. A holistic and systems approach to predicting impacts via sustainable manufacturing planning and simulation (SMPS) is presented in an effort to incorporate sustainability aspects across a product life cycle. Methods Increasingly, simulation is replacing physical tests to ensure product reliability and quality, thereby facilitating steady reductions in design and manufacturing cycles. For SMPS, we propose to extend an earlier framework developed in the Systems Integration for Manufacturing Applications (SIMA) program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. SMPS framework has four phases, viz. design product, engineer manufacturing, engineer production system, and produce products. Each phase has its inputs, outputs, phase level activities, and sustainability-related data, metrics and tools.Results and discussion An automotive manufacturing scenario that highlights the potential of utilizing SMPS framework to facilitate decision making across different phases of product life cycle is presented. Various research opportunities are discussed for the SMPS framework and corresponding information models. The SMPS framework built on the SIMA model has potential in aiding sustainable product development.
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| 6. |
- Santén, Vendela, 1978
(författare)
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Exploring logistics actions enabling environmentally sustainable freight transport
- 2013
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- To curb unsustainable freight transport trends; such as transport growth, larger dependency on road transport and generally an increased share of greenhouse gas emissions from the sector, actions needs to be taken among actors in the logistics system. The purpose of this thesis is to explore logistics actions that enable environmentally sustainable freight transport. This explorative research, based primarily on empirical data from interviews, focus groups, and a case study, adopts the perspectives of different actors in the logistics system: transport buyers, freight forwarders, transport operators, and authorities. The thesis identifies a wide range of actions in the logistics system to potentially enable environmentally sustainable freight transport. The perception from actors regarding what actions are important to adopt indicate that more knowledge among actors regarding how transport and traffic work can be reduced and how different actions affect each other are needed; especially how transport buyers acting affect the transport operations performed by freight forwarders and transport operators. By exploring what hinders environmentally sustainable freight transport in the interface between transport buyers and providers, it can be concluded that closer co-operation can provide better internal conditions for actors and new business solutions. Open dialogue, information sharing, and proactivity among both transport buyers and transport providers are essential. Furthermore, in order to increase load factor in practice, actions can be taken by transport buyers in the area of packaging, loading, and booking efficiency. More flexible time requirements will potentially increase the load factor. Gaining positive environmental effects from these changes is dependent on the freight forwarder’s actions in terms of consolidating with other transport buyers’ goods, route planning, and the positioning of vehicles. Since improvements in one actor’s system may not necessarily yield positive effects at a higher system level, it is important to also have a holistic view when aiming for environmentally sustainable freight transport. This thesis contributes with knowledge about how logistics actors can work toward environmentally sustainable freight transportation by providing insight for managers of transport buying and transport providing companies by exemplifying the interactions between actors and actions and their potential effects.
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| 7. |
- Adl-Zarrabi, Bijan, 1959, et al.
(författare)
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Sustainability Assessment of Infrastructure Elements with Integrated Energy Harvesting Technologies
- 2016
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Ingår i: Energy and Environment. - : Wiley. - 9781119307761 ; , s. 221-234
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The possibility of integrating energy harvesting devices into the bridge/tunnel structures along Coastal Highway Route E39 has been investigated in a feasibility study by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA). The main advantage of integrating energy conversion devices in a structural element is the reduction of costs compared to stand-alone devices. The construction could be used as a foundation, a mooring point and provide a dry environment for electrical devices. Easy access to the production site could also reduce the cost for installation, operation and maintenance. Two important challenges related to harvesting renewable energy by infrastructure elements, without concerning about the energy source, are to store it or feed the energy to the grid. In the second case, tailoring generation to demand is of critical importance. Tasks such as supply and demand management, for instance, peak hour management, what kind of storage should be used - electrical or thermal - need be solved. Furthermore, integrating energy production devices in a structure might cause negative environmental impacts and affect the life expectancy and maintenance costs of such structures. The potential environmental impacts associated with renewable technologies are the consequences for bird life or marine fauna at the fjord crossing locations, as well as noise and visual impact. Thus, a sustainability assessment should be performed in order to quantify the ecological, economical and societal impacts of the suggested alternatives.
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| 8. |
- Agrawal, Munmun, et al.
(författare)
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Global market trends of tantalum and recycling methods from Waste Tantalum Capacitors: A review
- 2021
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Ingår i: Sustainable Materials and Technologies. - : Elsevier BV. - 2214-9937. ; 29
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- The rapid digitalization of the world, technological up-gradation, and shorten life cycle of electronic gadgets leading to the generation of an enormous amount of waste tantalum capacitors (WTCs) rich in tantalum every year. The need of the hour is to develop an effective way to recycle tantalum from these waste scraps considering the scarcity of tantalum, environmental impacts, resource and energy utilization, and lower recycling rates. In this paper, various existing methods of recovery of metallic tantalum from WTCs have been extensively reviewed. Processes have been examined in light of recovery efficiency, purity of the resultant product, process complexity, and limitations. The bottleneck in the recovery of tantalum from WTCs is the presence of tightly covered mold resin over the surface of the tantalum anode. Various researchers have recovered Ta with varying degrees of success. Pyrolysis, followed by chloride metallurgy, has been proven to be an effective technology on account of its high removal rate, resource and energy utilization, and lesser environmental impacts. This article also explores the global scenario of tantalum. Overall this review provides a foundation to understand the potential barrier and various opportunities associated with the recovery of tantalum from WTCs.
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| 9. |
- Ahlgren, Serina, et al.
(författare)
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Review of methodological choices in LCA of biorefinery systems - key issues and recommendations
- 2015
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Ingår i: Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining. - : Wiley. - 1932-1031 .- 1932-104X. ; 9:5, s. 606-619
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- The current trend in biomass conversion technologies is toward more efficient utilization of biomass feedstock in multiproduct biorefineries. Many life-cycle assessment (LCA) studies of biorefinery systems have been performed but differ in how they use the LCA methodology. Based on a review of existing LCA standards and guidelines, this paper provides recommendations on how to handle key methodological issues when performing LCA studies of biorefinery systems. Six key issues were identified: (i) goal definition, (ii) functional unit, (iii) allocation of biorefinery outputs, (iv) allocation of biomass feedstock, (v) land use, and (vi) biogenic carbon and timing of emissions. Many of the standards and guidelines reviewed here provide only general methodological recommendations. Some make more specific methodological recommendations, but these often differ between standards. In this paper we present some clarifications (e.g. examples of research questions and suitable functional units) and methodological recommendations (e.g. on allocation).
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| 10. |
- Andreasi Bassi, Susanna, et al.
(författare)
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A life cycle assessment framework for large-scale changes in material circularity
- 2021
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Ingår i: Waste Management. - : Elsevier BV. - 0956-053X .- 1879-2456. ; 135, s. 360-371
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Increasing material circularity is high on the agenda of the European Union in order to decouple environmental impacts and economic growth. While life cycle assessment (LCA) is useful for quantifying the associated environmental impacts, consistent LCA modeling of the large-scale changes arising from policy targets addressing material circularity (i.e., recycled content and recycling rate) is challenging. In response to this, we propose an assessment framework addressing key steps in LCA, namely, goal definition, functional unit, baseline versus alternative scenario definition, and modeling of system responses. Regulatory and economic aspects (e.g., trends in consumption patterns, market responses, market saturation, and legislative side-policies affecting waste management) are emphasized as critical for the identification of potential system responses and for supporting regulatory interventions required to reach the intended environmental benefits. The framework is recommended for LCA studies focusing on system-wide consequences where allocation between product life cycles is not relevant; however, the framework can be adapted to include allocation. The application of the framework was illustrated by an example of implementing a policy target for 2025 of 70% recycled content in PET trays in EU27+1. It was demonstrated that neglecting large-scale market responses and saturation lead to an overestimation of the environmental benefits from the policy target and that supplementary initiatives are required to achieve the full benefits at system level.
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