Transformation of inorganic mercury (Hg) to methyl mercury (MeHg) is a biotic process that is proposed to be conducted primarily by sulphate reducing bacteria (SRB). The formation of MeHg is of great interest because it is the mercury species that biomagnifies to the greatest extent in the aquatic food webs; about 90 % of all Hg in fish is MeHg. Our understanding of factors involved in the production of MeHg is very important for making a reliable risk assessment. The purposes of this study were to investigate the different factors that control the solubility of Hg and the production of MeHg in a contaminated lake sediment. The lake Ala-Lombolo, Kiruna municipality, is well-known to be contaminated by mercury from different sources. Sediment cores were sampled at three different locations (N, SW and SE) in the lake and divided in three different layers; 0-5, 5-10 and 10-15 cm.

Aquaponics is a food production system consisting of a consecutive cultivation of plants and aquatic animals, fish or shellfish, in recirculating water. The plants feed on the nutritious effluents from the fish tank and bacteria converts ammonia from the fish tank into nitrate that is absorbed by the plants. The plants receive nutrition and the fish gain purified water. The environmental impact of the production of fish meal and fish oil used in conventional fish feed includes a large consumption of fossil fuels with subsequent carbon dioxide emission. The aquaponic system can be made environmentally sustainable and self-supporting if supplemented with a vermicompost/vermiculture for the production of worm protein as a fish feed. Vegetable waste from the hydroponic part of the system can be reused as worm feed in the compost and the protein rich worms can be harvested, dried and grinded and brought back to the aquaculture as fish feed. As a first step in this direction, I have investigated the effect of recycling of vegetable waste in vermicomposts on the growth and number of earthworms (this was evaluated after harvesting). The hypotheses were that earthworms can be cultivated in the vegetable waste and that by adding manure to the vermicompost it is possible to obtain a nutrient content adequate to support a continuous worm harvest, in other words create a vermiculture. Eisenia fetida and Dendrobaena veneta were grown in 20 L bins containing peat mixed with either poultry or cattle manure. The proportions were 70% peat and 30 % manure. Discarded plant parts from lettuce cultivation was added to the vermicomposts (35 g per week) and water was supplied with 0.8 L per week.

The purpose of this study is to facilitate sustainable building by the use of BIM. The goal is to determine which aspects of sustainable building, which can be analyzed mainly with BIM tools, but also other aids.The study is based on literature studies and interviews. The literature review examines aspects important for sustainable building by studying environmental certification systems applicable in Sweden, as well as the BIM tools available on the market to analyze these aspects. The literature also includes the concepts of BIM and sustainability in order to provide a clearer view of its meaning. The interviews have brought the study's overall understanding of the industry and guidance on the subject.The results are presented in a table, where the aspects relevant to sustainable building are listed.

AbstractThis degree project is about having meetings in The Swedish Social Insurance Agency, which is awide organisation. This work will concentrate on one of the projects going on within theorganisation which is travel-free meetings, where they are building a video meeting system thatallows the employees in the organisation to be able to meet with each other through the use ofvideoconferencing instead of physical meetings.In this work we will show how Kaikaku (radical system changes) along with Kaizen (continuouschange) can support an organisation to become more efficient and reduce wastage. We have donethis work in an organisation that is present in over one hundred locations in Sweden.The Social Insurance Agency has over 13 000 employees at over one hundred locations inSweden.The organisation has to be close to their customers and provide the best service aspossible. To be able to work in a uniform way, the employees get together and have meetings.Some meetings are just progress meetings and takes perhaps no more than two hours to complete.However, if seven employees from seven different locations need to have meetings, in the worstcase, they all have to meet in a common place.This is expensive for the organisation in travel costs, time and absence from work, but thetravelling also contributes to environmental pollution if the employees are travelling by a fuelpoweredvehicle.A whole day could go lost for having a meeting in about two hours if all sevenemployees went from their own cities to e.g. Stockholm for the meeting.Muda (wastage) of travel created several different types of Muda, namely:? Wastage with anticipation when the employees had to wait for e.g.

Vatten är en av jordens livsviktiga resurser, en resurs som hela tiden minskar. I delar av världen råder akut vattenbrist och ofta återfinns industrier med hög vattenanvändning i områden med begränsad vattentillgång. En av dessa industrier är textilindustrin. Vid textil beredning är vattenförbrukningen mycket hög och avloppsvattnet är ofta mycket förorenat. Vattenfrågorna inom textil produktion har fram till idag inte uppmärksammats i lika stor grad som arbetsrätts- och kemikaliefrågorna.

In this thesis, the flows of reactive nitrogen (Nr) in Scania were investigated and quantified. The thesis was also intended to form a basis for comparison between the urban nitrogen flow and other flows of nitrogen within Scania. The management of nitrogen in society has disturbed the natural nitrogen cycle. This is linked to a series of environmental problems such as eutrophication, acidification, global warming and smog. The method used was Substance Flow Analysis (SFA) for Nr. For calculation and flow charts Scania was divided into three subsystems; air, water and society.

AbstractThe research project Liberation, supported by the European Commission under the Environment and Sustainable Development Programme (Fifth RTD Framework Programme) aimed at developing a decision support system for ecological risk assessment of contaminated sites has proposed a tiered system including the triad method. This method integrates contaminant chemistry and bioavailability analyses with observed ecotoxicological effects in soil and groundwater. In this study the triad method was used to perform a risk characterization of a former surface treatment and metal industry, now used for the student union buildings of the Mälardalen University in Eskilstuna, Sweden. On the site, high concentrations of copper, zinc and nickel have been detected in the soil in a preliminary investigation of contaminant levels with XRF. For performing the risk assessment of the site according to the triad method, contaminant bioavailability, soil metal concentrations and soil toxicity were determined and an ecological assessment was carried out on four selected soil samples (one reference soil and three samples with low (B), medium (C) and high (D) contaminant levels). Contaminant bioavailability was measured through leaching (ISO TC 190/S7) and biouptake tests (DGT).

Starting point to this Paper is the idea and wish to adapt the society and its different activities to a recycle society. A building area in Göteborg is planned and investigated for such adaptation. In the district named Skogaberg, about 130 households totally are planned from what 20 are blocks of flats. The idea with this project is to constitute an alternative sewage system, a Blackwater system, were the fractions of most nutrients and least pollution are separated, taken care of and utilised. The aim is to get a market and use the nutrients of the organic waste from the household in agriculture use.

People who live in northern part of the world spend much more time indoors than those who live in warmer countries. In addition that home should be safe, it should also protect one against heat, cold, sunlight and pollution. The indoor environment is affected by installations, material and how the building is formed. Those anomalies that are visible, felt or smelled can be noticed and be rectified. But it?s much more difficult if these abilities are missing.

A large part of Sweden?s green, urban landscape is covered by lawns. Approximately 80 000 ha of maintained grass lawns are part of public courtyards, schoolyards, parks, golf courses, sport fields and traffic environments. Beyond this figure, the lawn is also an essential element in most private villa-gardens. Lawns have become a universal phenomenon through the dispersion of landscape aesthetics from the Western world.

The nitrogen cycle in freshwater bodies is complex and consists of many separate processes affected by a number of important factors for example oxygen concentration in the water, temperature and circulation. Knowledge of the different components of the nitrogen cycle exists; however, a complete and comprehensive picture is difficult conceptually as well as theoretically. The available literature illustrates that the research on nitrogen and the related freshwater processes is still associated with high uncertainty of how much of the supplied nitrogen from the catchment is transported with the water versus and how much is lost due to denitrification, sedimentation or uptake by plants. This report is an interdisciplinary survey of Nitrogen discharge permitting. The research focuses in particular on the decision-making process, the levels of scientific standard and the administrative framework.Application for Nitrogen discharge permits are decided by the Environmental Court with council from their own experts as well as relevant government authorities and organisations.

The increased interest in a sustainable environment puts pressure on companies in the manufacturing industry. Rexcell Tissue & Airlaid AB (Rexcell) in Skåpafors produces paper to be converted into tabletop and hygiene products. Rexcell is certified according to the environmental management system ISO 14001, gaining competitive advantages by showing that the company works toward a sustainable environment and that they follow current legislation. The activities at the company are classified as hazardous to the environment according to the Environmental code. Every year, the activities are inspected by an independent inspector.

The current demanding business environment requires corporations to act fast in finding effective solutions to problems given the myriad of challenges they face (Dyllick & Hockerts, 2001). The challenges include the impact of climate change on business practices, natural resource consumption, chemical pollution, technological change etc. Moreover, the forces of globalization, heightened concerns about the deteriorating quality of the physical environment and increased stakeholder power are also increasingly having a real influence on business practices (Rainey, 2008). Since 1992, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) has encouraged the adoption of the concept of ecological efficiency (eco-efficiency) to support business efforts aimed at addressing some of these challenges. The aim of eco-efficiency is to reduce the amount of energy and materials used in production processes to achieve economic and environmental benefits (WBCSD, 2000).

A Swedish electronics company wants to make the cooling of one of their electronic components more efficient. They propose that a retrofit liquid cooler is the way to achieve this goal. The current air cooling has high energy cost due to the high amount of power needed to power fans and heat exchangers. Using high volumes of air for cooling also leads to noise pollution. The conversion from air to liquid cooling would possibly make the operation of the electronics more cost efficient and less noisy.The purpose of this project is to theoretically evaluate different concepts of drawing the heat generated by the electronic component in to a fluid, using numerical calculations in Matlab and FEM simulations in ANSYS.

This Master Thesis covers the concept of Green Cars. The background to the research area is the high and rapidly growing number of cars, which together with other factors ad to the pollution of the environment. Under the Kyoto agreement the signing members agreed to lower the emissions of green house gases, further on the EU has a 3-pillar strategy on carbon dioxide and cars. Included in the EU strategy is a voluntary commitment from the car industry to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from new cars. The easiest way of lowering the emissions is by using alternative fuels and engines.