| 1. |
- Akambih Tajam, Joseph, et al.
(author)
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SMALL SCALE IN-SITU BIOREMEDIATIONOF DIESEL CONTAMINATED SOIL –SCREENING LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE
- 2010
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In: ECO-TECH´10, 22-24 November 2010, Kalmar, Sweden. ; , s. 827-835
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Spillage of diesel oil and other petroleum products is a commonly creating need for siteremediation of contaminated soils. In Sweden the most common remediation action isexcavation of the contaminated soil and off site biological treatment by composting.However, a number of small sites spread out in rural areas end up low on priority lists, andwill not be attended to within foreseeable future if ever. For such areas a low cost, easy toapply remediation techniques would be of interest. Enhanced bioremediation of dieselcontaminants in soil by whey addition has been demonstrated in lab scale. Whey is a byproductfrom cheese production. A first pilot remediation trial on an actual site in Gäddede,County of Jämtland, was started the summer of 2010. Using this site as a case study ascreening life cycle assessment model has been set up. The goal of the study was toinvestigate the environmental performance of the whey method, to benchmark the wheymethod toward the excavation and composting practice and to identify environmental hotspots in the whey treatment life cycle. The study aims at establishing if further work shouldbe put into developing the method, or if the environmental performance is such that the wheymethod should be abandoned. It should be noted that even with a slightly worseenvironmental performance compared to other remediation alternatives whey treatment couldstill be of interest, since the small scale sites in rural areas we talk about here otherwise mostoften would not be attended to.Results from the screening life cycle assessment indicate a rather good environmentalperformance of the whey method, partly depending on impact category considered. For thewhey method, impacts from farming activities in the milk production chain allocated to thewhey give significant contributions. Transportation gives important impacts from both thewhey method and the excavation and off site composting, thus logistics should always beconsidered and optimized. The whey on-site treatment could be an interesting alternative forbioremediation especially at sites that would not otherwise be treated, due to small size orremote location.
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| 2. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(author)
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Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Palm Oil
- 2011
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In: Palm Oil: Nutrition, Uses and Impacts. - : Nova Science Publishers, Inc.. - 9781612099217 ; , s. 159-186
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Palm oil is used for cooking in Southeast Asia and Africa and as a food additive in a number of processed foods world-wide. The production of palm oil is increasing, and it is of special interest from a nutritional point of view due to its high energy content and its significant content of micronutrients. In addition, palm oil is increasingly used to produce various biofuels. Due to large production volumes and diverse applications of palm oil, it is highly interesting and important to study the environmental impacts of its production. This chapter discusses how the environmental impacts of palm oil can be assessed, focusing on the life cycle environmental impacts of palm oil in comparison to similar products. A brief overview of life cycle assessment as a method is given, and results are presented together with suggestions for environmental improvements of palm oil cultivation and production. It is shown that the magnitude of the environmental impacts connected to palm oil in relation to other products is heavily affected by the choice of environmental indicators, which in LCA studies consist of both an environmental impact category and a so-called functional unit. Regarding impact categories, the global warming and acidification potentials of palm oil are lower than those of rapeseed oil per kg oil. The water footprint of palm oil and rapeseed oil are about the same on a mass basis, but for the two land use indicators soil erosion and heavy metal accumulation, rapeseed oil has a lower impact than palm oil. Specific interest is given to the life cycle energy use of palm oil in response to the unclear and diverse definitions of this impact category in different studies. It is concluded that there is a need to carefully define the energy use impact category when reporting on palm oil or similar products, and also to differentiate between different kinds of energy sources. If instead of mass the micronutrient content is applied as functional unit, palm oil still has lower global warming potential and acidification than rapeseed oil when compared on the basis of vitamin E content. However, if β-carotene content is used as functional unit, rapeseed oil is not relevant for comparison due to its negligible content of β-carotene. For that case, palm oil is therefore instead compared to tomatoes on a β-carotene basis, since tomatoes are rich in β-carotene. The tomatoes were shown to perform better then palm oil regarding global warming potential on a β-carotene basis. The effects of time and scale on the environmental impacts of palm oil, which includes changes in technical performance and electricity sources, are also discussed in this chapter. It is shown that combustion of the methane formed from the palm oil mill effluent can significantly reduce the global warming potential.
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| 3. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(author)
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Energy use indicators in energy and life cycle assessments of biofuels: review and recommendations
- 2012
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In: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier BV. - 0959-6526 .- 1879-1786. ; 31, s. 54-61
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)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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| 4. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(author)
-
How do we know the energy use when producing biomaterials or biofuels?
- 2012
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In: Proceedings of ECO-TECH 2012.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)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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| 5. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(author)
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Life cycle assessment of Biodiesel - Hydrotreated oil from rape, oil palm or Jatropha
- 2008
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In: Annual Poster Exhibition at the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Mars 6th, 2008, Göteborg, Sweden.
-
Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- There is a need for fuels based on renewable resources that have acceptable emission profiles and that are functional for truck engines used in heavy vehicles. Volvo has participated in the CONCAWE/EUCAR/JRC WTW study, which analyzed a number of candidate fuels, several process routes to produce each fuel as well as different raw material choices. However, the CONCAWE study did not include any second generation hydrogenated vegetable oil type biodiesel. In the present study, Volvo and Chalmers investigate and benchmark hydrogenated vegetable oils. Different production routes from different proposed raw materials are investigated using life cycle assessment modeling. Raw materials considered are oil from rape seed (grown in Germany), palm oil (grown in Malaysia) and oil from the fruits of Jatropha curcas (grown in India). The raw material is converted into hydrogenated oil at a production site in northern Europe and used at the European market. Results regarding life cycle global warming potential and energy use are presented.
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| 6. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(author)
-
Life cycle assessment of hydrotreated vegetable oil from rape, oil palm and Jatropha
- 2011
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In: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier BV. - 0959-6526 .- 1879-1786. ; 19:2-3, s. 128-137
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A life cycle assessment of hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) biofuel was performed. The study wascommissioned by Volvo Technology Corporation and Volvo Penta Corporation as part of an effort to gaina better understanding of the environmental impact of potential future biobased liquid fuels for cars andtrucks. The life cycle includes production of vegetable oil from rape, oil palm or Jatropha, transport of theoil to the production site, production of the HVO from the oil, and combustion of the HVO. The functionalunit of the study is 1 kWh energy out from the engine of a heavy-duty truck and the environmentalimpact categories that are considered are global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP),eutrophication potential (EP) and embedded fossil production energy. System expansion was used totake into account byproducts from activities in the systems; this choice was made partly to make thisstudy comparable to results reported by other studies. The results show that HVO produced from palmoil combined with energy production from biogas produced from the palm oil mill effluent has thelowest environmental impact of the feedstocks investigated in this report. HVO has a significantly lowerlife cycle GWP than conventional diesel oil for all feedstocks investigated, and a GWP that is comparableto results for e.g. rape methyl ester reported in the literature. The results show that emissions from soilcaused by microbial activities and leakage are the largest contributors to most environmental impactcategories, which is supported also by other studies. Nitrous oxide emissions from soil account for morethan half of the GWP of HVO. Nitrogen oxides and ammonia emissions from soil cause almost all of thelife cycle EP of HVO and contribute significantly to the AP as well. The embedded fossil production energywas shown to be similar to results for e.g. rape methyl ester from other studies. A sensitivity analysisshows that variations in crop yield and in nitrous oxide emissions from microbial activities in soil cancause significant changes to the results.
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| 7. |
- Arvidsson, Rickard, 1984, et al.
(author)
-
Towards transparent and relevant use of energy use indicators in LCA studies of biofuels
- 2012
-
In: 6th SETAC World Congress / SETAC Europe 22nd Annual Meeting in Berlin.
-
Conference paper (other academic/artistic)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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| 8. |
- Björkqvist, Susan, 1967, et al.
(author)
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Hydrocarbons in biogas from household solid waste
- 1998
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In: Environmental Technology (United Kingdom). - 1479-487X .- 0959-3330. ; 19:6, s. 639-642
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The components of biogas from source-separated domestic waste were studied for the first major Swedish plant (Sobacken, Boras) in operation. Methane, carbon dioxide and C-6-C-11 hydrocarbons were determined by gas chromatographic methods. The content of methane was found to be just over 70% (v/v). The major polluting hydrocarbon in the biogas was p-cymene. It may be formed by rearrangement and dehydrogenation of limonene and other monoterpenes in food waste.
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| 9. |
- Clancy, Gunilla, 1968, et al.
(author)
-
Actionable knowledge to develop more sustainable products
- 2013
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In: 6th International Conference on Life Cycle Management, Göteborg, 25-28 August.
-
Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Companies need to develop more sustainable products to fit into more sustainable future markets, and there is need for ways to guide towards and compare sustainability already early in material or product development. How this can be handled has been studied through action research in a material development project aiming to develop wood-based materials to replace petroleum-based materials while ensuring a more sustainable product. A specific focus was put on creating actionable knowledge to facilitate innovation towards more sustainable products by translating and integrating significant product sustainability characteristics into each team member’s specific area of expertise and everyday work. The insights are now used in different other on-going projects in a textile industry setting and in relation to companies’ management systems.
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| 10. |
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| 11. |
- Clancy, Gunilla, 1968, et al.
(author)
-
Approach to establish relevant sustainability assessment parameters in product development
- 2011
-
In: Poster presentation at the Second Symposium on Industrial Ecology for Young Professionals, 11 June 2011, Berkeley, California.
-
Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Since companies need to develop more sustainable products to stay in business in the long term, there is a demand for ways to assess and compare product sustainability already in product development. This is studied through action research performed within the “wood based diaper” material development project (WooDi) aiming to develop a wood based material to replace a petroleum based while ensuring a more sustainable product. Methods used so far evaluating environmental product development to a large extend is based on optimization of the present system (improving or replacing parts giving large impacts) or to some extent taking the future into account e.g. by consequential LCA studies. Such approaches will result in marginal improvements of the present situation, but don’t fully take advantage of truly innovative processes or the fact that a more sustainable future society might put very different demands on products compared to the strictest requirements of today. Based on what was found in relevant literature, most often lists of predetermined parameters are being used without critical reflection on their importance in light of the specific situation. There is a specific lack of parameters describing the sustainability impacts of a shift from fossil to biomass resources in a life cycle perspective, e.g. related to competition for resources. As a result, an approach for establishing relevant product sustainability parameters is presented, emphasising the need to bringing in the diverse knowledge and experiences of the product development team members as vital for a successful result. The parameters are intended to guide product development as well as to be a base for a sustainability comparison of a new product with a current product.
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| 12. |
- Clancy, Gunilla, 1968, et al.
(author)
-
Approach to establish relevant sustainability assessment parameters in product development
- 2011
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In: Poster presentation at the 6th International Conference on Industrial Ecology 'Science, Systems and Sustainablity' 7-10 June 2011, Berkeley, California.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Since companies need to develop more sustainable products to stay in business in the long term, there is a demand for ways to assess and compare product sustainability already in product development. This is attended to in the WooDi research project which aims at developing a wood based material to replace a petroleum based one in an incontinence diaper while ensuring a more sustainable product. Acknowledging the vast number of choices made in product development and their potentially large effect on the sustainability impact of the resulting product leads to the conclusion that assessment of product sustainability should be made throughout the process and be used to guide development. To gain a deeper understanding of the requirements and barriers in assessing product sustainability and guiding product development towards a more sustainable product, several workshops and seminars were carried out in the WooDi project, in parallel to literature surveys. Based on what was found in relevant literature, most often lists of predetermined parameters are being used without critical reflection on their importance in light of the specific situation. Additionally there is a lack of parameters describing the sustainability impacts of a shift from fossil to biomass resources in a life cycle perspective, e.g. related to competition for resources. As a result, an approach was developed for establishing relevant product sustainability parameters, where the parameters are intended to guide product development as well as to be a base for a sustainability comparison of a new product with a current product. It starts with defining what ‘sustainable product’ is in the specific case.This approach emphasises the need of bringing in the product development team members’ diverse knowledge and experiences as vital for a successful result. Practical experience of using the proposed framework throughout a project is still needed for evaluating it and identifying its limits.The presentation reports on the developed approach and on efforts to define what should be meant by ‘sustainable product’ in the specific case.
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| 13. |
- Clancy, Gunilla, 1968, et al.
(author)
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Changing from petroleum to wood-based materials: critical review of how product sustainability characteristics can be assessed and compared
- 2013
-
In: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier BV. - 0959-6526 .- 1879-1786. ; 39, s. 372-385
-
Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper reports on a literature survey on available approaches for the assessment of product sustainability, with a specific focus on assessing the replacement of non-renewable petroleum-based materials with renewable wood-based materials in absorbent hygiene products. The results are contrasted to needs in a specific material development project. A diverse number of methods exist that can help in assessing different product sustainability characteristics for parts of or whole product lifecycles. None of the assessment methods found include guidelines for how to make a case-specific interpretation of sustainability and there is a general lack of assessment parameters that can describe considerations in the comparison between the use of wood or petroleum as main raw material. One reason for this is lack of knowledge and/or consensus on how to describe and assess impacts of land and water use, e.g. on ecosystem services, different types of resource depletion and social impacts.
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| 14. |
- Clancy, Gunilla, 1968, et al.
(author)
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Comparing the sustainability of using a non-renewable oil based material in an absorbent hygiene product with that of using a renewable wood based material
- 2009
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In: Poster presentation at the Eforwood conference 'Shape your sustainability tools - and let your tools shape you', 23-24 September 2009, Uppsala, Sweden. ; , s. 2-3
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The WooDi project – the Wood based Diaper, is a research collaboration between industry and university. The goal of the project is to make a new diaper that is more sustainable than today’s product, by replacing non-renewable North Sea oil based materials in the diaper with a renewable material based on wood from the Nordic countries. This calls for a way to compare the sustainability associated with using the different raw materials.Comparisons of the implications of using crude oil and biomass resources have so far mainly been made for fuels used in transportation. The available literature assessing the use of fossil fuels versus bio-fuels focuses primarily on greenhouse gas emissions, often referred to as the carbon footprint [1]. It does not include, e.g., effects on ecosystem quality, employment, economy, etc. The increased use of bio-fuels for transportation is discussed in relation to food and feed grain prices, as well as negative environmental impacts arising from deforestation and land conversion, as food and fuel compete for scarce land resources [2, 3].Some life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) weighting methods include resource use, but are generally based on only one or a few parameters. One example is the monetary values used by the environmental priority strategies (EPS) method [4], which involves a weighting for renewable and non-renewable resources based on the cost of producing an equivalent from renewable resources.For forestry there are several voluntary sustainable forest management (SFM) systems, e.g., Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) scheme. Requirements within such systems include a broader set of aspects than greenhouse gas emissions or available LCIA weighting methods. The SFM laboratory [5] suggests eight different sustainability criteria such as the maintenance of ecosystem health and vitality; cultural, social and spiritual needs and values and maintenance of the forests’ contribution to global carbon cycles. No comparable sustainable management criteria have been found for fossil oil extraction and use, other than an initiative with recommendations on how to include biodiversity into strategies for oil and gas development [6].Consequently, there exists no readily available method for comparing the sustainability of using North Sea oil and Nordic wood as raw materials. The methods mentioned above can be a starting point but need to be developed further. The method development work carried out in the WooDi project should also be useful for other sustainability assessments comparing forest and fossil resources.References1. Johnson, E. Biofuel vs petrofuel carbon footprints: it’s about the land, in SETAC Europe 14th LCA Case Study Symposium. 2007. Göteborg.2. Early, J. and A. McKeown, Smart Choices for Biofuels. 2009, Sierra Club, Worldwatch Institute, Washington.3. Banse, M., P. Nowicki, and H.v. Meijl, Why are current world food prices so high? 2008, LEI Wageningen UR, Wageningen, The Netherlands.4. Steen, B., A systematic approach to environmental priority strategies in product development (EPS). Version 2000 - General System Characteristics, 1999.5. Sustainable forest management - indicator knowledge base. [cited 6th April 2009]. Available from: www.sfmindicators.org.6. Integrating Biodiversity Conservation into Oil & Gas Development, 2003.Acknowledgements Financial support from Vinnova, SCA Hygiene Products AB and Södra Cell AB is greatly appreciated.
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| 15. |
- Clancy, Gunilla, 1968, et al.
(author)
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Consequences for wood resource use for incontinence diapers in Europe 2010 to 2050
- 2011
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In: Annual Poster Exhibition at the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, April 12th 2011, Göteborg, Sweden, A7.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Increasing life expectancy results in an ageing society in parts of the world. The old of tomorrow are also expected to have higher comfort demands. One likely consequence is an increase in the need of such products as disposable incontinence diapers, which are today partly based on cellulose from forestry. A calculation of the potential increase for heavy incontinence care (assuming the use of disposable incontinence diapers) was made based on the demographic trends for Europe and on the yield from forestry performed under Nordic conditions. The calculation is using a parameterisation known from literature: I = i * m * u * P. It expresses the impact (I, in our case, forest area in ha) as a product of four factors that humans have the ability to change, in our case, i = ha Nordic forest area / kg material, m = kg material / service, u = service / population in Europe, and P = population in Europe. The 'service' is to keep a customer with heavy incontinence dry for a year, assuming that the same fraction of the population above 50 years as today will need heavy incontinence protection. Under these assumptions, the forest area needed for heavy incontinence care in Europe will increase with about 75% until 2050. According to the current work in the WooDi research project, aiming at producing a wood-based diaper, if the petroleum-based material in the absorbent core in the diapers were to be replaced by wood-based, this would increase the needed forest area to about 136%, assuming a 1:1 replacement ratio by weight which seems to be a low estimate. This is still a small share of the total European forest area (0.2%). However, such an increase in wood demand for only one product is not without problems, since forests to a large extent are already utilised, e.g. for timber and pulp and paper production, and since there is an expected increase in demand for bio-based fuels and materials for replacement of fossil-based products, thus competing for either the yield from the forests or for the land area. At the same time, there are rising concerns regarding biodiversity and other ecosystem services in connection to forestry.
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| 16. |
- Clancy, Gunilla, 1968-, et al.
(author)
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Environmental challenges when developing renewable materials to replace non-renewable materials - receiving guidance from LCA studies
- 2010
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In: 9th International Conference on EcoBalance 2010 'Towards & Beyond 2020' 9-12 November,Tokyo, Japan. - Tokyo.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Since the demand for more sustainable products is growing, the pressure on material developers to improve the sustainability performance of the products that they are developing is increasing. As a consequence, the need to move away from a narrow understanding of “product” and “environment” is becoming more apparent. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach has been used to find rough estimates of how much process energy, raw materials etc. are used in the process of transforming a biomass feedstock into a new material. A reference product with a fossil based material intended to be replaced is used as a benchmark for the new product. The new product must perform at least as well as this benchmark and preferably better. We illustrate this LCA based methodology using the example of replacing petroleum-based polymeric material with wood-based material in a disposable consumer product.
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| 17. |
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| 18. |
- Clancy, Gunilla, 1968, et al.
(author)
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Insights from guiding material development towards more sustainable products
- 2013
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In: International Journal of Sustainable Design. - 1743-8284. ; 2:2, s. 149-166
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Faced with current challenges in society, many companies will needto develop more sustainable products in order to continue operations in the longterm. Therefore, ways of identifying important sustainability considerationsalready in the early stages of material or product development are ofimportance. The article is based on action research in a material developmentproject. The article provides a description of activities that were performed inthe project in order to guide the material development process to enable moresustainable final products, reflections on the lessons learned from this project,and suggestions to similar projects in the form of an overall process based onteam learning with the aim of guiding material development towards moresustainable products. The suggested process emphasises the material orproduct development team’s need to understand which surrounding world andfuture-oriented considerations will have significant impacts on the specificproduct’s sustainability performance.
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| 19. |
- Clancy, Gunilla, 1968, et al.
(author)
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Replacement of non-renewable materials by renewable materials in a diaper - how to assess the change in sustainability performance
- 2010
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In: Annual Poster Exhibition at the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Mars 18th 2010, Göteborg, Sweden. ; :32, s. 44-
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The WooDi project – the Wood based Diaper, is a research collaboration between industry and university. The goal of the project is to make a new diaper that is more sustainable than today’s product, by replacing non-renewable oil based materials in the diaper with a renewable material based on wood. This calls for a way to compare the sustainability associated with using the different raw materials. A literature survey showed that comparisons of the implications of using crude oil and biomass resources have so far mainly been made for fuels used in transportation. The available literature assessing the use of fossil fuels versus bio-fuels focuses primarily on greenhouse gas emissions, often referred to as the carbon footprint. It does not include, e.g., effects on ecosystem quality, employment, economy, etc. The increased use of bio-fuels for transportation is discussed in relation to food and feed grain prices, as well as negative environmental impacts arising from deforestation and land conversion, as food and fuel compete for scarce land resources.A diverse number of tools exist that can assess different product sustainability attributes for parts of or whole product life cycles, but none that can directly assess the sustainability of product with renewable versus non-renewable material resource. A reason for that no such method exists is a lack of indicators that describe the competition of resources and how they interact with biodiversity, human health, soil protection, and energy, food, and material production. In addition, this is due to the complexity to define and value social interactions and impacts on ecosystem services. Consequently, there exists no readily available method for comparing the sustainability of using non-renewable oil and renewable wood as raw materials. Acknowledgements – Financial support from Vinnova, SCA Hygiene Products AB and Södra Cell AB is greatly appreciated.
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| 20. |
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| 21. |
- Clancy, Gunilla, 1968, et al.
(author)
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Sustainability considerations in the development of materials intended for an absorbent hygiene product
- 2009
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In: Annual Poster Exhibition at the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Mars 12th 2009, Göteborg, Sweden.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- WooDi, the Wood based Diaper, is a research collaboration between industry and university. The research has a specific focus on replacing non-renewable materials in the absorbent structure of an incontinence diaper, while ensuring that the new product is also more sustainable than a reference diaper. The work packages in the project focus on forming networks of fibres with tailored properties, characterisation of the networks, designing the production process, and assessing sustainability of the life-cycle of the diapers and guiding the material and product development process through important sustainability considerations.For the new wood fibre based material that is being developed, the properties are yet unknown and production, use and disposal of the product can thus not yet be defined, which is normal in a material development project. Important sustainability considerations will be visualised at the start of the project and thereafter continuously assessed and refined in an iterative process. This calls for the development of an iterative methodology for sustainability assessment that can guide the project through this process with an increasing level of accuracy and detail over time. A few generic frameworks for sustainability assessment in product development have been suggested in literature [1, 2], but actual case studies that show successful implementation are not yet available. In the WooDi project, a well functioning communication between different stakeholders in the project and a project group with knowledge from different areas will ensure that innovative ideas based on best available knowledge can be created and developed in consideration of relevant sustainability aspects.1. Holmberg, J., U. Lundqvist, and K.-H. Robert, An approach to sustainable product development relevant to small and medium-sized enterprises. Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and the Environment, ed. R. Hillary. 2000: Greenleaf Publishing, Sheffield, UK.2. Byggeth, S., G. Broman, and K.-H. Robèrt, A method for sustainable product development based on a modular system of guiding questions. Journal of Cleaner Production, 2007. 15(1): p. 1-11.Acknowledgement – Financial support from Vinnova, SCA Hygiene Products AB and Södra Cell AB is greatly appreciated
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| 22. |
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| 23. |
- Clancy, Gunilla, 1968, et al.
(author)
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The ageing society – an example of consequences for biomass use for incontinence diapers in Europe
- 2011
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In: Poster presentation at the AGS annual meeting 'Sustainability and change', 23-25 January 2011, Göteborg, Sweden.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Increasing life expectancy results in an ageing society in parts of the world. The old of tomorrow are also expected to have higher comfort demands. One likely consequence is an increase in the need of such products as disposable incontinence diapers, which are today partly based on cellulose from forestry. A calculation of the potential increase for heavy incontinence care (assuming the use of disposable incontinence diapers) was made based on the demographic trends for Europe and on the yield from forestry performed under Nordic conditions. The calculation is using a parameterisation known from literature: I = i * m * u * P. It expresses the impact (I, in our case, forest area in ha) as a product of four factors that humans have the ability to change, in our case, i = ha Nordic forest area / kg material, m = kg material / service, u = service / population in Europe, and P = population in Europe. The 'service' is to keep a customer with heavy incontinence dry for a year, assuming that the same fraction of the population above 50 years as today will need heavy incontinence protection. Under these assumptions, the forest area needed for heavy incontinence care in Europe will increase with about 75% until 2050. According to the current work in the WooDi research project, aiming at producing a wood-based diaper, if the petroleum-based material in the absorbent core in the diapers were to be replaced by wood-based, this would increase the needed forest area to about 136%, assuming a 1:1 replacement ratio by weight which seems to be a low estimate. This is still a small share of the total European forest area (0.2%). However, such an increase in wood demand for only one product is not without problems, since forests to a large extent are already utilised, e.g. for timber and pulp and paper production, and since there is an expected increase in demand for bio-based fuels and materials for replacement of fossil-based products, thus competing for either the yield from the forests or for the land area. At the same time, there are rising concerns regarding biodiversity and other ecosystem services in connection to forestry.
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| 24. |
- Clancy, Gunilla, 1968, et al.
(author)
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To develop material for more sustainable products: Learning for action
- 2012
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In: Science and Technology Day 2012, Poster Exhibition at the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology and the Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Gothenburg, Göteborg, Sweden, March 27th 2012.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Since companies have to develop more sustainable products to continue operation in the long term, there is a demand for ways to guide and compare the sustainability already in material or product development. This has been studied through action research in a material development project that aims to develop wood-based materials to replace petroleum-based materials while ensuring a more sustainable product. More sustainable future societies might put very different demands on products compared to the strictest requirements of today. To develop more sustainable products therefore requires future oriented assessment parameters already in early stages of material or product development - where choices determining many of the sustainability burdens of a product are made. Furthermore, the whole life cycle of products needs to be envisaged in order for sustainability to be defined. There is thus, for example, little point in talking about 'sustainable materials' since the sustainability of their use may be strongly affected by the rest of the life cycle, after material manufacturing, thus, the materials need to be seen in a context. A description of important sustainability considerations must be made in relation to the challenges that become visible when looking at a whole product system and in relation to its surrounding world which to complicate this further, are also changing over time, and therefore an appropriate time perspective must be applied. Relevant product sustainability aspects and parameters must be identified and described. Approaches for handling this complex situation has not been found in literature and therefore a team learning approach that deal with these issues has been developed. The proposed approach is aimed for material or product development. It has a specific focus on facilitating innovation towards more sustainable products by translating and integrating significant product sustainability characteristics into each team member’s specific area of expertise and everyday work. The material and product development team members are largely affecting the sustainability performance of the finished product. The approach is an iterative process which should continue until the material or product is available for sale and thus the product sustainability parameters will be modified during the process to include new knowledge. Hence, the assessments will be more exact with time.
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| 25. |
- Danielski, Itai, et al.
(author)
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Heated atrium in multi-storey apartment buildings, a design with potential to enhance energy efficiency and to facilitate social interactions
- 2016
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In: Building and Environment. - : Elsevier. - 0360-1323 .- 1873-684X. ; 106, s. 352-364
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The design concept of conditioned atria gains increasing popularity in commercial and service buildings all over the world, but is still not a common building design in the residential sector. This study investigates the potential of such design in residential buildings in Nordic climates as means to enhance both energy efficiency as well as social interaction among residents. Energy modelling was used to compare energy efficiency among designs of residential buildings with and without atrium and to identify important design parameters. Social interaction was analysed, based on a survey evaluating the perception of residents living in an existing multi-storey apartment building designed with a heated atrium in the north of Sweden.The results show that heated atrium in Nordic climates have a potential to reduce the total final energy demand while at the same time increase the conditioned space of the building. To positively impact energy efficiency, the atrium should fulfil three requirements: (i) it should be designed to reduce the shape factor for the whole building; (ii) it should have the minimum glazed area that comply with the building requirements concerning natural light and visual comfort; and (iii) adjustable solar shading should be installed in the atrium’s façades to avoid unwanted overheating. The survey results indicate that the additional space created by the atrium has a potential to facilitate and promote social interaction among residents and to increases a sense of neighbourliness and belongingness, which are often discussed as important parameters in relation to social sustainability.
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