Until 2020, 49% of Sweden's use of energy must derive from renewable sources. Greenhouse gases must as well decline with 40% compared to 1990 as a part of Sweden's 16 environmental objectives. Biogas is part of the effort to achieve these objectives, but as the demand for biogas increases, more substrates are needed to meet the demand. The purpose is to investigate the conditions for pea residue as substrate by performing lab-scale mesophilic digestion with different fractions and notch lengths and then to summarize pea residue as a substrate for biogas production. During anaerobic digestion, 1000 ml bottles were used as reactors for digestion.

When grains of wheat and rye are conventionally milled, large quantities of bran classified as by-products are left and are mainly used for animal feed. Bran is a complex material composed of the aleurone layer, nucellar epidermis, a seed coat, a fruit coat and a small proportion of the germ and endosperm depending on extraction rate. The bran fraction consists of approximately 40-50 % dietary fibre which can contribute to increase the nutritional quality of human cereal food. It would also be valuable for the food industry to convert by-products as bran to products with higher commercial values. The aim of this thesis was to analyse the content and composition of dietary fibre of heat treated wheat and rye bran according to the Uppsala method with some modifications in order to analyse soluble and insoluble dietary fibre separately. Half of the bran samples were precooked, dried and roasted and the other half dried and roasted (uncooked).

Montagu´s harrier (Circus pygargus) is a diurnal, Eurasian raptor, which migrates from its northern breeding grounds to winter in sub-Saharan Africa. In Sweden, its core breeding area is centred on the island of Öland, with a stable breeding population of approximately 40 pairs. The province of Uppland is on the northern end the distribution range, where 4-8 pairs have regularly bred since the 1980s. In Sweden, the Montagu?s harrier is classified as an endangered (EN) species. This classification is partly due to a lack of preferred nesting habitat, such as shrub-lands or dense wetlands with Claudium spp.

The predominant forestry harvesting method is based on the harvester-forwarder method, theharvester folds, branches and cuts trees, and sorts the logs into piles, while a forwarder transportsthe logs to a landing area.This master thesis work is about realization of a dynamic forwarder simulation model, and itspurpose is to provide an integrated forwarder simulation model in MATLAB/SimMechanicswhere the forwarder is based on a concept using pendulum arms to connect wheels and chassis.Active suspension control is developed and implemented into the simulation model, and finallycompared in simulation with passive suspension.In a first step, an integrated forwarder simulation model is developed, containing a simplifiedforwarder model, a tire-to-ground interaction model and a test track model. The simplifiedforwarder model is based a rigid multi-body system with a spring-damper suspension of thependulum arms. The tire-to-ground interaction model calculates the reaction forces, friction fromthe ground and applies the propulsion force. The test track model is a simplified version of thereal test track in Skogforsk. The propulsion wheel torque control is used to regulate theforwarder speed.

Antioxidanter är kemiska ämnen som är kapabla till att förhindra oxidation av andra molekyler. Dessa ämnen återfinns i djur- och växtriket och tycks ha en skyddande effekt på cellvävnad genom att motverka skadliga oxidativa reaktioner. Antioxidanter används bland annat industriellt som tillsater i livsmedel och andra produkter i syfte att förhindra oxidativ degradering och bibehålla näringsvärdet i livsmedel. I vindruvor återfinns höga koncentrationer av naturliga antioxidanter, främst i form av fenoliska ämnen. På grund av att vinindustrin bidrar till stora mänger avfall, främst i form av druvrester, är det önskevärt att hitta en effektiv metod för att återvinna fenoliska antioxidanter från avfallet.I detta arbete användes lösningsmedel-extraktion för att extrahera fenoliska ämnen från pressrester av röda vindruvor av varianten Tempranillo.

Interference in an ecosystem means a disturbance. When harvesting, forest roads have to be build to cope with heavy duty vehicles. Crossing brooks can not always be avoided. In this case bridges or culverts have to be built. There are many different kinds of culverts and depending on what type you choose and how you place the culvert, the watercourse and the water organisms can be harmed in different ways.

The pathogenic fungus Rhizoctonia solani causes major economic losses for potato producers in Sweden. The producers, as well as advisors, have reported possible increases in severity of R. solani when free-living plant parasitic nematodes are present and active. There are several examples in the literature of interactions between pathogens where one, or both species, support or increase the damage made by the other organism. These complexes are important to investigate and to be able to forecast, since even low incidences of fungi or nematodes may result in an interaction of significance.

AbstractSurface-water includes different kinds of pollutants from traffic and roads. To prevent these pollutants to reach nearby lakes one can construct surface-water ponds on locations with heavy traffic. At Bergviks shopping centre in Karlstad, two ponds, one smaller and one bigger has been constructed in order to decrease the pollutant pressure from the receiving waters of Kattfjorden. Several heavy metals are essential for plants and animals in low concentration but when they occur in higher concentrations, they become toxic to the organism. The larger pond at Bergviks shopping centre has a sedimentation function so the heavy metals sink to the bottom thereby not releasing directly in to Kattfjorden.

This report is focused on marketing opportunities for small-scale mango farmers in the Nyanza Province in Kenya. Kenya is a large horticultural producer in the world. Horticulture is an important income for a large share of the rural population in Kenya but profitability is low due to inefficiencies in marketing systems and poor infrastructure. The conditions for growing mango in the Nyanza Province are very beneficial and there are two harvesting seasons. Mango offers good income opportunities for small-scale farmers in the Nyanza Province.The aim of this study is to identify marketing conditions that will enable prospering business for small-scale mango farmers in the Nyanza Province, Kenya.

Scandinavian Biogas is involved in the planning of a combined ethanol and biogas factory in Karlskoga, Sweden. Besides biogas and ethanol large amounts of digester residues will be produced, about 450 000 liquid tonnes residue (~7,3 % Dry Substance( DS)). The objective of this thesis was to investigate possible uses of the residue from the biogas production process ScandgasEthanol developed by Scandinavian Biogas, and to derive a methodological approach how to evaluate and compare handling systems. Three systems where proposed and compared in this thesis; spreading of the untreated residue as fertilizer (system 1), dewatering to a higher DS content to reduce transportation before spreading as fertilizer (system 2) and production of a solid fuel by dewatering and drying the residue (system 3). The general conditions for the proposed systems were investigated in terms of practical viability, economical aspects, environmental impact and energy inputs/outputs.

Evaluation of machinery costs is necessary for selecting appropriate farm machinery. Timeliness cost due to untimely operations is an important component of machinery costs. Timeliness costs can be high for crop sprayers, since pesticide application must be carried out within a short time interval. This Master thesis investigated the timeliness cost and the probability of a suitable workday for spraying. Timeliness factors were estimated for four different crops (oats, spring wheat, winter wheat and barley) using historical weed trial data.

Forestry supply chains are a significant part of the Swedish economy. These supply chains are highly susceptible to storms damage. In late 2013 Sweden was hit by multiple storms. This leads to the possibility to research how supply chains react to the shocks that storms cause. The aim of this thesis is to research the costs that storms increase, the actions that are taken within the forestry supply chain, as well as possible benefactors from storms. This thesis bases on previous work on supply chain mapping and cost theories.

Field balances based on supply and removal of trace elements from the topsoil have been calculatedfor farms specialized in crop, dairy and pig production in Sweden. Today's field balances have beencompared with the field balances of 1990 in order to examine if, and then how, the situation haschanged. Studied trace elements are arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu),mercury (Hg), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn).The balance calculations show that the stores of Cu and Zn are depleted with an average rate of -15% and -6 % over a 100-years period on crop farms when only commercial fertilizers are being used.The concentrations of Hg and Pb tend to increase in the topsoil on crop farms with more than 3 % forHg and with 2 % for Pb in 100 years. There is today balance between supply and removal of the traceelements As, Cd, Cr, Mn and Ni. In the south of Sweden, on crop farms with sugar beets in the croprotation, one can see a decrease in the concentration of Cd in the top soil by -6 % over a period of100 years.

The aim of this study was to in laboratory experiments investigate how addition of urea, ECOX and structural materials can optimize sanitization during composting of sewage sludge. Today we strive for a sustainable society and the importance of closing the nutrient loop increases. It has therefore become even more important to safely reuse plant nutrients from human excreta to agricultural land. Partly because it increases the sustainability of society as the world's supply of many nutrients are finite, partly because it promotes human health, both by reducing disease transmission and by increasing Agricultural production. An untapped resource such as sewage sludge that is rich in nutrients and humus-forming materials could replace parts of the commercial fertilizers used in Sweden today. owever, sewage sludge contains undesirable substances such as heavy metals and drug residues, and pathogenic microorganisms.

Fruit flies (Tephritidae) are serious pests that cause enormous losses for farmers in many countries. The frequent use of insecticides in controlling fruit flies in fruits and vegetable has not resulted in sustainable management of the pest. Problems associated with this complete reliance on chemical control are many residues of insecticides in crops, health problems for farmers, contamination of water and soil, insecticide resistance development and decrease in natural enemy populations. The implementation of control measures that do not imply an added burden to the environment and/or the farmers is urgent. More knowledge about the ecology of fruit flies is the basis for finding new and better ways to control this pest.