The main purpose with this study was to investigate whether the tree growth differs or not in prescribed burnt areas compared to mechanically scarified. Together with the result from the main purpose, answers of whether it's possible or not to combine nature conservation with tree production in prescribed burnt areas was presented. In these areas the regeneration were analyzed to see if there was enough tree plants to comply with the Swedish Forestry Act regulations terms for approved regeneration. A field survey was conducted at 6 objects, three objects for prescribed burning and three for mechanically scarification. All objects were planted within the same year.

Efficient energy use in restaurantsUmeå Municipality wishes to combine energy issues with food control, and thus help restaurants to become more energy efficient. During March and April 2010, I visited seven restaurants and interviewed restaurant personnel about current state and application of kitchen appliances, using a checklist to make sure that the same questions were asked at all restaurants. The restaurants were all different sizes and offered different kinds of food. The study mostly focuses on energy efficiency by behaviour and not on location or technology. Almost every restaurant that was visited had the potential to improve in one or more areas, such as kitchen appliances, lamps and lighting fixtures, heating, cooling and ventilation.

This thesis examines a possible control strategy to minimize flow fluctuations in Uppsala?s district heating system. High variations in flow rate may lead to complications caused by hydraulic constraints in the district heating system. These complications, such as inadequate pressure and temperature levels, increase the risk of heat delivery failures. It is therefore important to avoid such situations both for the producer and for the customers.Typically, the forward temperature is controlled by using a rough correlation with respect to the outdoor temperature.

Arvika Fjärrvärme AB, a district heating company from Arvika, today cover 74 % of their total energy production with biofuel wich runs a 16 MW bioler giving process water at saturated liquid state.In recent years Vaporel AB has introduced a new tecnique that gives an external generation of steam after boilers. The concept is built on an adiabatic pressure drop of the saturated liquid in a so called Flashbox which makes a small part of the liquid to evaporate. The generated steam is lead into a turbine where electricity is in a conventional manner.The purpose with this rapport was to do a basic study for the specific system at Arvika where it?s possible to see the potential production of electricity that follows an installation of a flasbox.The final goal was to introduce an economic analysis of a flashox installation at given conditions.To reach our goals we have created a model in Excel where we used the given conditions at Arvika Fjärrvärme to do our calculations. The model has been tested at three different states, of process water returning to potboiler, to be able to decide the optimal operation for the system at present.The studies have resulted in a pressure of the processwater at 14,5 bar (at) and a pressuredrop to 9,5 bar (at) in the flashbox.

This master?s degree project concerns the combination of a multi dwelling passive house with solar energy for the generation of electricity and domestic hot water (DHW). Different alternatives with either solar thermal systems or photovoltaic (PV) systems are compared with two reference alternatives producing DHW from electricity or district heating. The economical comparison uses a life cycle cost (LCC) perspective based on the present value of expenditures for investment, energy and annual operating and maintenance.The energy yields from the solar energy systems were calculated by hand and with simulation software. Calculation and dimensioning of PV systems were carried out with a software called PVSYST.

Glass has sophisticated front properties and are used as facades in high buildings. During cold periods, these glass facades could cause thermal discomfort, due to cold downdraught. Cold downdraught can be countered by placing heaters under glass surfaces. Nowadays technology offers highly insulating windows, which is why there is an interest to investigate the indoor climate with only underfloor heating. The research in this area is limited, and few empirical methods are available.

The Yangtze finless porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides asiaorientalis), is a small freshwater cetacean which has recently fallen dramatically in number. It is an endemic species for the Yangtze River and unless drastic action is taken, it risks the same fate as the now functionally extinct Yangtze river dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer). Threats to the porpoise are diverse but they have in common that they are caused by man. Development of the river has been made to supply a growing human population with food, hydropower, and to reduce the risk of flooding. These changes have resulted in a degraded habitat for the porpoise.

Today all buildings contain some form of home automation. It might be heating controlled by athermostat or motion detectors controlling outdoor lighting.This paper,The Intelligent House, deals with the planning of a house in Kiruna, in the north ofSweden and further immerses itself in home automation or intelligent control in single-familyhomes. The house has been entirely planned, from layout to structural design and plumbing.The purpose of the paper has been to investigate the possibilities in home automation in singlefamilyhomes and to choose a suitable home automation system for the house being planned.The system has been designed and the costs and energy savings have been calculated.The system chosen for the house is called KNX and is the largest system for home automation inSweden. It is used to control heating, ventilation, lighting and alarm systems in the house. Is hasbeen found that KNX is very expensive and that the amount of energy, possible to save in thehouse, using the system, is relatively small.

Biogas is a renewable fuel that can be extracted from anaerobic digestion of many differentsubstrates, for example biological household waste. An alternative handling of the waste is tomix it with other wastes and incinerate it in a combined heat and power (CHP) plant. Thisstudy uses life cycle assessment to investigate which type of waste handling that is betterfrom an environmental point of view, anaerobic digestion with biogas production orincineration. The results are based on a case study of a biogas production plant owned by thecompany Ragn-Sells in Vänersborg. The alternative is incineration at a CHP plant inGothenburg.

A large proportion of the energy consumption is in the building industry and a large part goes to heating our homes and premises. In the developing countries' development now threatens the large consumption of energy in our earth's climate. It is in the West world that we must be good role models in terms of energy efficiency. One solution to reduce energy consumption for heating of buildings may be to continue to build low energy houses and passive houses, but it is also about rebuilding the buildings that currently have high energy consumption such as the old Million program Houses. These buildings will be standing many years and their energy consumption will not diminish over time by itself and energy prices will certainly not diminish in the future.

We have the tradition in Sweden to build villas and houses with a wooden framework. It has become natural for us because we have so much forest in our country. Building with wood has advantages, it is easy to process, but also disadvantages, as it is sensitive to moisture.Finland has long made use of the thermal blocks to build villas. It is a type of bricks that are a bit like a sandwich element, with a core of EPS and concrete on both sides of the core material. The concrete is hollow, so that after the walls has been bricked up you pour concrete into the hollow bricks.The issue of this report is to find out if concrete can be an alternative to wood as framework material in villas.

During the summer of 2007 I was employed by Högestad Christinehofs Förvaltning AB. My main task was to make an inventory of giant trees at the estate. Högestad and Christinehof,which with their total possession of 13 000 ha of land is the biggest estate in Scania. A giant tree is a tree with a diameter in breast height more then 1 meter. Trees of these dimensions are registered by Swedish authorities. Landowners with a giant tree on their property can receive a subsidy for cutting trees that are in competition with the giant tree.(Levenskog, 2007) Giant trees are important for biodiversity in the landscape and there are important habitats for different insects, birds, bats, lichens and funguses.

The guest harbor on Utö, Utö Gästhamn, is currently using electricity for heating all of the water used in the showers and taps. Because of the large amount of visitors, especially during the summer months, the hot water usage gets very high and that is also the case for the electrical bills. During the year of 2011 the cost of electricity for Utö Gästhamn reached a total of 257 500 kr. Out of these 257 500 kr approximately 142 000 kr, 55 % of the total cost, were because of the water heating.The report is the result of a cooperation with Skärgårdsstiftelsen, the Green Islands-project and Utö Gästhamn where the mutual goal is to dimension a solar energy system, to promote the sustainable development.Initially the different techniques for the solar energy system are researched. The techniques are plane solar collectors, evacuated tube collectors, pool collectors and photovoltaic cells.

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.

The Natura 2000 Network is one of the European Unions many tools concerning nature conservation, and is without comparison the premier contribution when it comes to halting the loss of biodiversity. This essay is a case study on how the regional work with the Natura 2000-network has been carried out in four different counties. These counties are Södermanland, Västernorrland, Jämtland and Örebro. They have been compared based on the theoretical concept of sustainable development. This essay describes how the officials in the County Administrations view the regional implementation of Natura 2000 when it comes to the selection of Natura 2000-sites with forest habitats and the creation of an additional protective measure.