Cyanobacteria belong to the oldest organisms of our planet. They use photosynthesis to produce ATP and gain biomass from Carbon dioxide. The cyanobacteria Nostoc punctiforme is a filamentous bacterium that consists of two different types of cells, vegetative cells and heterocysts. The type of cell it differentiates into depends on the media they grow in. In an ammonium-rich medium, the N.punctiforme consists of vegetative cells that differentiate into heterocysts when in the medium is changed to a low-concentration ammonium medium.

The objective of this study is to examine the sustainability of recovering industrial wasteheat from several heat sources in a foundry constructed in a plant belonging to ITT Waterand Wastewater in Emmaboda, Sweden. A triple bottom line perspective will be appliedto achieve this objective. The triple bottom line approach takes into account ecologicaland social performance in addition to financial performance. The technology forrecovering the waste heat is a Borehole Thermal Energy Storage (BTES) which is aconstruction consisting of 140 vertical boreholes, 150 meters deep with an internal spaceof four meters.The calculated amount of energy for storage is approximately 3800 MWh annually. Ofthis amount 2500 MWh are expected to be utilized, while storage losses accounts for theremaining part.

Akademiska hus is a real estate company that specializes in providing Swedish universities with housing facilities for educational and research purposes. The company strives to reduce its use of energy by 40% between the years 2000 and 2025. The aim of this thesis is to determine which measures can be taken to reduce the need of purchased energy in a building that is used by theSwedishUniversityof Agricultural Sciences inUppsala.In order to determine the results of various changes to the building envelope and ventilation system, the building was modelled in the computer simulation program VIP-Energy. Other proposed changes to make the use of energy more efficient concerned water use and lighting. The need of purchased energy can also be reduced by producing electricity or heat on site, using solar energy.Results show that economically viable measures include upgrading windows and faucets, adjusting control systems for ventilation and lighting, and installing roof mounted solar panels for power production.

To be able to hinder the global warming the emissions of greenhouse gases, Carbon dioxide foremost, must decrease. By switching to green electricity, it is possible to reduce the emissions from electricity producing sources.In 1999, Swedenergy conducted a study about whether or not Swedish households would consider buying green electricity. According to the study, about 75 percent were willing to buy green electricity. 40 percent of these were prepared to pay a premium for green electricity. However, according to the results from the study, only one percent actually bought green electricity, and since 1999, this proportion has merely increased slightly.

Finnhamn is a small group of islands in the Stockholm archipelago. At Stora Jolpan, the biggest island, there is a hostel. The main building was built in 1915 and is called Utsikten. The purpose of this project is to on behalf of the Archipelago Foundation (Skärgårdsstiftelsen) find alternative systems that can replace the existing heating system of Utsikten (an oil-fired boiler and electricity heaters) to a system with renewable energy. The alternative system that this project focuses on is a system of solar collectors combined with a wood chip boiler.

The industrial sector accounts for a large share of greenhouse gas emissions. To reduce its negative impact on the environment is crucial in the quest for a sustainable future. In discussions of the industrial sector's impact on the environment guidelines have been highlighted as a tool to assist the industries in their efforts to change the relationship between the consumption of energy and production. This by improving energy efficiency and a shift to the best available technology. During the past 30 years the steel industry has reduced its energy consumption per ton of steel produced by 50 percent.

In conventional viscose manufacturing, a large amount of carbondisulfide is consumed. This amount has to be decreased to keep the production cost down and to reduce the environmental impact. The purpose with this work was to show if an enzyme treatment of a dissolving pulp could increase the degree of substitution in the viscose so that the amount of carbon disulfide consumed in the process could be decreased. Previous investigations by Kvarnlöf (2007), Engström et.al. (2006) and Henriksson et.al.

Rapid economic development and urbanization has led to an improved standard of living for the Chinese people. Meanwhile, a series of environmental problems have also appeared and smog, in particular, has caused the Chinese people to realize how serious the situation is. Smog has seriously affected normal economic activities and people's everyday lives, resulting in financial losses, increased mortality and disease. How to handle the smog becomes particularly important. The purpose of this study is to describe and discuss the underlying causes of two sources of pollution, particulate matter and sulfur dioxide, as well as what drives individuals' and firms' environmentally destructive behavior.

The aim of this report was to quantify the accumulation of Carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) in ice-covered lakes in winter (October-March) during three consecutive years, and to assess whether the concentrations of DIC and CH4, as well as the ratio DIC:CH4 differs between years and between lakes affected by clearcutting and untreated reference lakes. Water- and gas samples were collected from four boreal lakes (two affected by clearcutting and two untreated reference lakes) located in Västerbottens inland in spring. The lakes were found to accumulate on average 91, 55, and 84 mgCm-2d-1 during winters 2012-2013, 2013-2014, and 2014-2015, mostly originating from CO2. The concentrations of DIC (autumn and spring) were higher in the affected clear-cut lakes compared to reference lakes for all years, including the reference year (2012-2013) before clear-cutting. No such difference was found for CH4 or the ratio DIC:CH4.

Deposited waste material degrades within a short period in anaerobic environments. The methane gas that is formed provides a harmful contribute to the greenhouse effect, 23 times larger impact than Carbon dioxide. It is therefore desirable to minimize the emissions of methane gas from landfills. This may be achieved by drain the landfill of gas. In this thesis the amount of produced methane gas at the landfill at Örebro has been calculated. Estimations have also been made of the amount of methane gas that might be produced in the landfill in the future.

Umeå Energi are working towards a goal, that in the year of 2018, they will be completely climate neutral. As a part of this, one target is to reduce their grid losses by 4 % of the 2012 level, which corresponds to an overall reduction of the grid losses of just over 1.7 GWh. In many residential areas, the distribution grid is designed and rated for electric heating as the heating in the houses. As many of the houses later has been converted to other types of heating, their electricity use has decreased and the total power output from many of the secondary substations has decreased significantly. Because of this, many of these stations today are well oversized, which in turn means that the energy losses in these stations are unnecessarily high.In this degree project, 25 secondary substations have been studied, all located in residential areas in and around central Umeå.

New high strength steels require improved cold rolling techniques. The aim of this degree project was to develop a new and money saving cold rolling technique to manufacture steel strip for saw blades. The work is based on earlier rolling experiments made with a high carbon steel grade at LuCoil Steel AB. The work also focused on the mill requirements to cold roll high strength steels. The results show that LuCoil?s existing cold rolling mill was actually designed for rolling low carbon steel.

This thesis has the overall objective to develop the optimum sealing system between the retarder and transmission. Today, there is a pressure-relief and two radial seals separation between the retarder and transmission. It has been found that carbon residue formation may occur between retarder axle and seal lips with, in some cases, leakage as a result.We have in this thesis tried to explain the phenomenon of carbon residue, how it is formed and why it can be seen just on the seals? A rig test was conducted where we show how friction, speed, transmission temperature and mitigation phases of the retarder affects temperatures in the sealing environment. Factors affecting the coke structure are reported, together with proposals for measures that provide a mitigating seal environment.

Climate change is an increasingly widely known concept. In the EU the construction sector is responsible for more than a third of the Carbon dioxide emissions and 40 % of the total energy use. In Sweden, measures have been taken to prevent this climate change. By 16 targets, three of which can be linked to the construction sector, Sweden will reduce the negative trend. None of the three goals with relation to the construction sector will however be achieved before 2020.

The idea for this project was initiated together with one of the leaders in the forest, paper and packaging industry. To get through an A/R CDM process the company is exposed to the risk of failing the process or that the overall costs will exceed the benefits of the project. This would delete the incentives to invest in GHG removals compared to purchasing emission allowances on the carbon market. The questions that have been raised and needs clarification in the thesis are the following:? From a company perspective, what are the incentives for implementing Forest Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects?? What is a likely financial outcome of a reforestation CDM project on degraded land in the Guangxi province of the Peoples Republic of China?? When does an investment like this break even with the cost of buying market based carbon emission allowances? The objective of this master thesis is to carry out a research about the incentives for forest, paper and packaging companies to invest in reforestation through the clean development mechanism.