Energy is an important issue in the current world which significantly affects sustainability and development. Energy generation and use are major sources of CO2 emissions which is one of the most important driving factors in global climate changes. The amount of energy used in house hold section can lead to estimation of the amount of CO2 emitted within this section which subsequently would be a ground to better management and maintaining a sustainable society. This study which is a bachelor?s project in sustainable energy, deals with estimation of CO2 emission from different types of residential houses in Sweden. An extensive literature review on energy use in Sweden by different residential sectors has been conducted.

Binära och ternära övergångsmetallnitrider har blivit väldigt populära för verktygsbeläggningsapplikationer. Hög effekt pulsad magnetronsputtering, HIPIMS, är en ny lovande joniserad PVD metod som använts för magnetron sputtering för att deponera stökiometrisk TiN på WC/Co-substrat. Resultatet har jämförts med konventionell DC-magnetronsputtering (DCms) och DCms och HIPIMS kombinerat. Syftet med den här studien är uppnå täta och jämna TiN-filmer. Beläggningssystemet som använts i detta projekt består av en högvakuumkammare utrustad med en standar plan magnetron med en 150 mm Ti-target.

I det svenska samhället tillför diffusa och direkta föroreningskällor metaller till avloppsreningsverk, metaller som sedan hamnar i avloppsslam och recipient. Avloppsslam innehåller höga halter av växtnäringsämnen som bör återföras till jordbruksmark, men om detta ska ske får inte metallhalterna i slammet vara för höga. REVAQ är ett certifieringssystem vars syfte är att utveckla och systematisera avloppsreningsverkens uppströmsarbete och därmed möjliggöra en återföring av det växtnäringsrika slammet till jordbruksmark. Flera REVAQ-certifierade avloppsreningsverk prioriterar antimon, guld, kadmium, silver och vismut i uppströmsarbete på grund av att ackumulationshastigheten för dessa spårelement är hög i jordbruksmark som gödslas med avloppsreningsverkens slam. Source Finder (SoFi) är ett verktyg som kan användas vid uppströmsarbete för att kvantifiera identifierade källor till utsläpp av kadmium, koppar, krom, kvicksilver och zink.Syftet med examensarbetet var att vidareutveckla och anpassa verktyget SoFi till att göra beräkningar på spårelementen antimon, guld, silver och vismut samt att utveckla källan hushåll så att emissioner inom hushåll kartläggs för spårelementen och kadmium.

The capacity to extract information from vehicles has the potential to be very beneficial. Performing analysis on information about fuel usage, emission values and other driving properties of a vehicle can lead to great economic and environmental benefits.This report contains descriptions of two prominent systems for retrieving information of this nature from a vehicle, On-Board Diagnostics and FMS-Standard, and of an implementation of FMS-Standard.The conclusion drawn after this investigation is that these systems do indeed offer access to the benefits mentioned earlier, although to varying degrees and with differing prioritisation..

För att minska utsläppen av koldioxid har länderna inom den europeiska unionen enats om att införa ett system för handel med utsläppsrätter. Handelssystemet infördes 2005 och skall i sin första period pågå fram till 2007. Genom att systemet är marknadsbaserat så bestäms priset på utsläppsrätter genom utbud och efterfrågan på marknaden. Företag som inte innehar tillräckligt med utsläppsrätter måste således köpa utsläppsrätter av andra företag som säljer utsläppsrätter på marknaden. I en tidigare studie anses miljökrav likt handel med utsläppsrätter vara av strategisk natur för företag.

GE Healthcare operates in Uppsala (Sweden) and develops systems, equipments and medium to purify medical substances. Discussions with the local authority concerning planed far-reaching changes and upgrades of the biological process techniques for sewage management, aroused the question about revising the terms of permit for the activity. Therefore it seemed necessary to evaluate a newly installed biological process technique, which is the background of this thesis. The evaluated biological treatment process was built in 2003 and consists of a biological reactor filled with moving bed carriers with a high surface area for biological growth. At the time of the project the biological wastewater treatment plant consisted of a flow equalization facility and two following parallel biological processes; a biological reactor with moving bed carriers and a tower trickling filter.The aim of this thesis was to survey the function of the biological reactor with respect to the reduction of organic matter.

Methane (CH4) is a greenhouse gas (GHG) that contributes to the global warming. One of the largest sources of methane is livestock, preferably ruminants which alone counted for 30% of the total agricultural anthropogenic methane emissions in the year of 2000. The reason to why ruminants are such large contributors of methane are that the gas is produced in the rumen by enteric formation and leaves the animals by belching, exhaling or by the excreta.Diets high in concentrates can result in a lower emission of methane. Also diets with a high content of starch, such as alfalfa-grass, have a methane-decreasing. It is profitable to reduce enteric methane formation since that form of methane is unavoidably lost.

The aim: was to describe and compare a group of experts and critical care nurses' agreement in detecting delirium in intubated, ventilator treated patients with sedation / analgesia, before and after an in house training intervention with the instrument Confusion Assessment Method for the Intensive Care Unit (CAM-ICU).Method: A quasi-experimental study, one group pretest - posttest design. A convenience sample of 17 critical care nurses in a general intensive care unit included. To detect delirium the instrument CAM-ICU was used, 21 paired tests before and 22 after an educational intervention.Main Results: The results showed that after an in house training intervention sensitivity and kappa coefficient improved of the characteristic 1 "acute onset and fluctuating course," an improvement that was significant. In other features, and overall values were signs of numerical improvement and deterioration in sensitivity, specificity and kappa coefficient but no significant change.Conclusion: Implementing a new instrument for detecting delirium in clinical practice requires education and follow-up. A small sample of critical care nurses with varying ability to use the new instrument and the fact that patients' status may change rapidly making it difficult to draw any conclusions from this study.

Hammarby Sjöstad is a new district in Stockholm with high environmental standard. Stockholm Water Company evaluates a local wastewater treatment plant with cutting edge technology. The first step is an experimental treatment plant (Sjöstadsverket) with four parallel lines of treatment, each with a capacity to treat wastewater from 150 persons. Within the membrane technology subproject the possibility of using reverse osmosis (usually called RO) to regain nutrients is examined.Reverse osmosis separates the incoming water in a clean permeate and a concentrate that, as the name indicates, is a more concentrated version of the incoming water. Using this method in wastewater treatment, a solution high in nutrients can be obtained without the use of chemical precipitation agent and with no production of sludge.

Havsmiljöer är idag den slutliga anhalten för den nedskräpning av plast som kommer ifrån avloppsvatten och allmän nedskräpning. Stora mängder plastpartiklar i olika storlekar har upptäckts i haven och även inuti djur som misstagit plasten som föda. Forskning visar att en stor del av plasten är av mikroskopisk storlek, så kallade mikroplaster. Inom denna grupp förekommer textilfibrer som likt andra plaster är svårnedbrytbara i naturen. Det har genom studier påvisats att små textila fiber rinner ut med avloppsvattnet och hamnar i haven.PET är en av de vanligaste plasterna och utifrån denna tillverkas polyesterfiber som är det i särklass mest använda materialet inom textiltillverkning.

This study aimed to evaluate the levels of formaldehyde and organic acids that can build up within enclosed spaces. Another goal was to compare two types of paints that can be used as coating barriers within showcases and in turn compare them to the modern, and by many highly recommended, material of Marveseal®. A low volatile waterborne alkyd/acrylate paint and a two component polyurethane paint was compared to Marveseal® in two series of experiments. One series measured the level of formaldehyde, and thus the effectiveness of the three chosen barriers, and the other series measured the level of volatile organic acids, both the acids emitted from the paint itself, and that of the wood. One box in each series were not treated at all and was used as a reference.The fact that different types of materials emit volatile organic compounds have long been known.

This study concerns the energy future of the county of Stockholm up until 2050 and describes how the energy consumption can be compared to today with the use of scenario methodology. Within energy future studies the backcasting approach is well known and has been put to use in this study. Due to the characteristics of backcasting the study is self-fulfilling, i.e. the future energy scenarios presented in this study satisfy the targets set up in this study. In the light of what may be the largest challenge of our time ? the climate change - the aim of this study is to describe how the energy consumption in a fossil fuel free Stockholm county in the year of 2050 may be.

In this study a multiple linear regression was carried out in the interest of analysing a number of variables effect on the final prices of apartments in Stockholm?s inner districts. The result may be employed to predict and observe percentage changes on the final price of apartments in Stockholm in the future. Five models were constructed after which they were analysed and compared. The construction of these models were supported by data from the real estate agency Erik Olsson.

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.

Magnesium is an essential mineral that is important for several physiologic and biochemical processes in the body. Deficiency of magnesium is mainly associated with grass tetany, but can also appear in cows during the indoor period. Since long it is known that potassium has a negative effect on the absorption of magnesium. Due to the fact that potassium fertilisation leads to a higher potassium content in forage, it is of interest to study interactions of potassium on the magnesium balance in dairy cows. There are few studies about magnesium feeding to dairy cows in Sweden and the purpose of this study was to investigate how much magnesium and from which feed-sources dairy cows in Sweden get their magnesium. Data was collected from seven farms in the northern part of Uppland and from seven farms in Skaraborg in Sweden.