The aim and scope of this study is to describe the coordination of joint efforts concerning chemicals and hazardous substances in the Baltic Sea region, between the Swedish Chemicals Agency (KemI) and the land-based pollution group of the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM LAND). Based on the description of the coordination, the second aim is to discuss the consequences for the Swedish Chemicals Agency in its policy shaping work towards a nontoxic environment. A qualitative and descriptive case study method is used for this purpose. Theories of coordination and achievement-inducing criteria for environmental goals are applied to the case. Components and related processes of coordination are applied to the descriptive part of the study, whilst the achievement-inducing criteria are applied in the discussion.

The purpose of this thesis has been to determine experimentally how good a peltierelement is to convert waste heat from wood burning. Three different peltier elementswere used in a comparison study. The comparison was mainly done to know howmuch power could be obtained from each element. Even, a circuit with a step-upfunction has been created to give a higher output voltage than the peltier elementitself. The result of the experiments was a low output power, the highest valuereached 2.18W.

Each year, the coffee machines at Ericsson in Kista produce around 100 tons of ground coffee waste.The companies Coor Service Management, Löfbergs Lila and Selecta are all responsible for differentstages in the logistical chain in delivering coffee and, together with Ericsson, they want to increasetheir environmental benefit. The plan is to produce biogas through anaerobic digestion instead ofincinerating the coffee waste in a heating plant. The results are to be presented as different businesscases in which different biogas plants are compared with the reference case (heating plant),comparing costs and environmental impacts.There are two major environmental benefits from producing biogas; reduced carbon dioxideemissions from when fossile fule is replaced by carbon neutral biogas, and reduced emissions fromreturning digestate from the bio reactor to farmland instead of using industrial fertelizer.In order to determine the biogas potential in coffee waste, a couple of properties had to bedetermined in a laboratory. Properties such as the dry substance content, heating value, moisturecontent and ash content. The results show that 100 tons coffee waste could produce around 16 500Nm3 biogas which would contain 163 MWh.The biogas reactor and upgrade plant both need energy gas to function and uses around 14 MWh ofthe produced gas.

Perfluorinated substances (PF) are environmental pollutants that are used to coat fibres of so called ?all weather clothes? to make them water resistant. PF are effectively spread through water. Waste water treatment plants (WWTPs) are a pollutant source of these substances. PF are poisonous to different kinds of organisms, and supposedly also to human beings, if concentrations are sufficiently high.Perfluorinated substances have been investigated at three waste water treatment plants in Stockholm during the 2000?s.

Pharmaceuticals that are found in marine ecosystems are a threatening environmental concern, which is known to harm both animal and plant life. One of the reasons for this problem is that the waste water treatment techniques are not optimized to clear waste water from its pharmaceuticals contain. In this master thesis four Swedish treatment wetlands were studied, and their ability to reduce numerous pharmaceuticals in waste water. The four treatment wetlands that were studied were those in Oxelösund, Trosa, Nynäshamn and Eskilstuna. Two ecotoxicological tests and chemical analysis were used.

Vattenfall district Heating power plant in Uppsala produces district cooling with absorption heat pumps which leads to a large amount of waste heat that has to be cooled with evaporative cooling towers. The Environmental Court has ordered Vattenfall to survey the possibilities to recover the heat, which is the focus of this thesis.The study begins with an overview of the system, and conditions and limitations for waste heat recovery is examined. In the next step alternatives to recycle the heat is evaluated, either by direct recovering or by upgrading.First, the technical possibility of each alternative is discussed, and then the operation time and the amount of recovered heat is calculated. Those alternatives which are possible are brought further to an economic analysis.The cost of investment for each alternative constitutes the basis for a present value analysis. The results are put together in a table where the total amount of recovered heat is compared with the present value for the different alternatives.

In the last decades, lean production has proven to be one of the most important organizational paradigms in manufacturing. The lean concept has also spread into the service industry where it is applied within a range of different areas. The wide applicability of lean principles has spurred the authors of this study to apply the principles in the context of the operations of a Swedish remand prison. The thesis examines the process a client of the remand prison Häktet Kronoberg goes through from the time of arrest until he/she is released or convicted and transferred to jail. Based on lean tools and principles, the thesis maps and analyses this process.

In the coming years, organic food waste will be collected in the region of Gästrikland, Sweden. The collection is planned to cover the entire region by the end of year 2007. To start with, smaller amounts are being collected and transported to a central composting plant in Sala. However, a central composting plant in the region of Gästrikland is projected.The objective of this thesis is to evaluate a number of possible methods for composting of organic food wastes regarding their environmental impacts and localization.There are four scenarios for future composting of organic waste that have been evaluated. There are two that consist of membrane composting, either in Sala or in the region of Gästrikland.

?Halmstads Fastighets AB? is a local real estate company investing in sustainable development. One problem though is that the domestic waste, particularly the source separation, at the three resident blocks for students? isn´t working very well. This creates inconveniences for people and environment as well as decreasing the impression on the estates.This project has had the ambition to improve the domestic waste and increase the amount of source separation at HFAB´s student hostels.

Livscykelanalys används som metod för att undersöka produkter eller tjänster från ?vaggan tillgraven?. Med hjälp av mjukvaruprogrammet SimaPro utförs en livscykelanalys på förbränning av avfall med energiutvinning. Resultatet jämförs med en livscykelanalys som utförs på biogasproduktion från matavfall, för att visa vilken av processerna som har mer positiv påverkan på miljön. Resultatet visar att förbränning av avfall bidrar till minskad miljöpåverkan med 63,9 kg CO2-ekvivalenter per ton avfall.

The population growth and urbanisation in low-income countries bring issues of poor living standards and miserable sanitation conditions onto the agenda. If well-functioning waste management systems were developed, this could master some of the problems. The already existing local informal waste handling system that is common in many low-income countries, needs to be developed with proper sorting and composting solutions to decrease the environmental burden and improve the overall situation in the dense cities. This master?s thesis project is performed with the intention of developing functional decentralised waste management units in the city of Pune, India.

Pulp- and papermills expend vast amounts of water in order to produce pulp, paper and cardboard. Hence, they alsocreate vast amounts of waste water which has to be cleaned before it can be released into the receiving body of water. Insuch a wastewater treatment plant, tremendous amounts of energy are expended by the aeration in the biologicalcleaning process. This aeration is necessary to supply the microorganisms that shall decompose organic material withoxygen, which they need for their metabolism. The transfer of oxygen from the gas phase to the liquid phase isprimarily inhibited by surface-active substances in the waste water like resin acids or fatty acids.

In the production of pulp, paper and cardboard, a large amount of water is used daily. The water has to be purified in the internal purifying plant before it reaches the receiving body of water. In the biological purifying stage at the Stora Enso Skoghall mill, an aerated basin is used where the microorganisms, using oxygen, oxidize the organic material to carbon dioxide. The air is pumped from the bottom of the basin and the oxygen can then be transported from the air bubbles to the water through diffusion. The problem with aeration of waste water from the forest industry is that wood residues, such as fatty acids, are making the transport of oxygen in water more difficult.

Syftet med förelagda undersökning var att karlägga de krav som ställs vid återvinning av han-delsfartyg i de nya regelverk som antagits av IMO och EU med målet att åstadkomma en miljövänlig fartygsåtervinningsindustri. Fokus har legat på de krav som de aktuella regel-verken ställer på fartygsägare och fartygsåtervinningsanläggningar, främst beträffande hantering och bortskaffning av de miljöfarliga material som finns ombord på fartyg. Med dessa krav som utgångspunkt har det redogjorts för hur ett återvinningsförfarande organiseras för att uppfylla de miljökrav som regelverken ställer.Resultatet av undersökningen pekar på att det med dagens teknik och kunskap i allra högsta grad är möjligt att åstadkomma miljövänlig återvinning av handelsfartyg. De problem och utmaningar som resultatet pekar på ligger på ett annat plan än det rent praktiska, bland annat lyfts den långsamma process som implementering av regelverk är fram som en utmaning för fartygsåtervinningsindustrin.Slutdiskussionen handlar till största delen om implementering av lagstiftningen, men också om hanteringen av fartyget och de material som finns ombord, samt om definitionsfrågor rörande ägendeskap. Vidare diskuteras rollen för andra aktörer inom sjöfartsnäringen och de åtgärder som dessa skulle kunna vidta för att åstadkomma en miljövänlig fartygsåtervinning innan de aktuella regelverken träder i kraft och blir bindande.

The report comprises two separate parts:part 1:  Temperature needs for district heating in the paint shop for axles in building 210part 2:  Energy and low temperature waste heat solutions in heating and cooling systems for   building 64 with surroundingsThe paint shop for axles in part 1 has air quality requirements in places for coating of axles. Toachieve desired air properties there are different process ventilation systems, which consist ofventilation coils for heating and cooling, plus air humidifier. The ventilations coils for heating usedistrict heating. Today the ventilation coils use water of 100°C to achieve necessary air demands inthe coating boxes. This part of the report investigates whether the existing system would achievethe air requirements with a water temperature of 75°C instead of 100°C in the ventilation coilsduring the coldest parts of the year.