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.

Beans are a global source of plant-based protein, and in some countries, they constitute a primary source of protein intake. With ongoing climate change, including rising temperatures, it is necessary to adapt beans to ensure a reliable food supply. An important mechanism that many plants have, to cope with high temperatures, is cooling through transpiration. During transpiration, stomata open and release water vapor. Water molecules use heat energy from the leaf to convert into gas, thereby cooling the leaf.

The use of energy is an important question in today´s society, and a substantial part of the energy that is used today is used in our homes. To lower this usage is vital, and there are regulations in place both on the national and the local level, that say that new apartment blocks must be built to consume less energy, which in the end will lower the impact on the climate.One way to make the housing sector more environmentally sustainable, is to produce energy issions that are bad for the environment, for example to build wind turbines close to or even on the buildings, so called urban wind power. The scope for this report is to see if urban wind power could be a sustainable alternative for the residential area that Svenska Bostäder plans to build in Albano in Stockholm.There are extensive scientific theories regarding wind and wind power, and a literature study is made to investigate past knowledge in the area. Efforts have been made to find earlier trials with urban wind power and, both scientific research and trials where urban wind power actually has been installed. The theory chapter deals both with the wind itself and how electricity can be generated from wind.

In East Africa live two species of Griffon Vultures; Rüppel?s Griffon Vulture (Gyps rueppellii) and African White-backed Griffon Vulture (G. africanus). One of the apparently most important factors limiting the population of these birds is food supply. Griffon vultures nest for eight months of the year, and are during this period geographically tied down to the nesting place.

Ethanol for automotive purposes is an issue much debated and researchers disagree about the benefits of bioethanol. Converting energy-rich crops into ethanol suitable as motor fuel is a complex process and continuous development and improvements of processes and material used are important steps in the work of developing environmental friendly fuels. Grain is usually preserved by drying which consumes a lot of energy. Alternative storage of high-moisture grain in airtight storage systems reduce the energy required to produce bioethanol and studies have also shown that ethanol yields are increased more than 10% in ethanol fermentations of moist grain compared to dry. Airtight storage is often not perfectly airtight so biocontrol agents are necessary in order to preserve the grain.

In recent years it has become more and more evident that man has contributed to much of the climate changes that have taken place during the last century. A major challenge today is to reduce emissions and energy usage at the same time as the global population is growing. To contribute to a better environment, Stockholms Stad has set at target of becoming fossil fuel free by the year of 2050. The construction of new districts is done with this goal in mind; energy efficiency and renewable energy sources are examples of methods to achieve this.Solar energy is considered to be a sustainable energy source and the most common techniques to harvest solar energy in Sweden are solar cells and solar collectors which produce electricity and heat respectively. This report aims to investigate whether an investment in any of these systems would prove to be economically beneficial at Kvarnholmen, a district under construction in eastern Nacka, Stockholm.Since the finished blueprints only cover a small portion of Kvarnholmen, the report examines the possibilities for a house where construction has already begun, Nya Kvarnen.

Mechanical ventilation is the most common type ofventilation in newly constructed office buildings. Therehas been an interest to utilize natural ventilationinstead of mechanical ventilation among architects andHVAC consultants in recent years. This is due to thesize of mechanical ventilation systems, which arespace consuming. The mechanical ventilation system isalso complex and requires maintenance. Furthermore,the fan uses a considerable amount of energy.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how much of the estimated annual electric energy production from Swedish wind power that actually was produced, as well as the history of this agreement over time. The aim is to also examine if there are properties that have caused some group of wind power plants to produce more or less, compared to their estimated production. Operational data on wind turbines collected by the Swedish Energy Agency was analyzed. A survey was made among owners of wind power plants with a nominal power of at least 2 MW. Two different methods for normal year correction of production data were used and compared.

The use of fossil fuels such as coal and gas are a contributor to the global warming. The climate change is a worldwide problem with far reaching consequences that is believed to be very expensive. The United Nations has been introducing a framework convention on climate change. One component of the convention is the Kyoto protocol. The protocol is obligating the developed countries to decrease their emissions of greenhouse gases by 5.2 percent during the time period 2008-2012.

Grubbe Ventilation AB is a sheet metal and ventilation company who provides design, installation, service, and repair of ventilation. The company is expanding their business by building a new facility in Umeå, Västerbotten. The property is designed to be used for both office and industrial work.Grubbe Ventelation AB has not yet decided upon wish system which is to be established to provide the building with heating and cooling. The consulting firm Umeå Projekt Team has therefore been asked to investigate the possibilities to invest in geothermal- heating and cooling.If the investigation of a geothermal heating- and cooling system would provide favorable results it would be a very appropriate alternative that provides energy at low costs and are an environmentally friendly option as the energy comes from stored solar energy in the ground is provided by stored solar energy in the ground.The facility ´s heating and cooling consumptions are calculated in the program BV2 and the result indicate a heating demand of 185 000 kWh per year due to thermal transmittance, transmission losses, heating of warm water and a cooling requirement of 5500 kWh.Three different systems of geothermal heating and cooling were tested in the computer program Energy Earth Design. The results show no difference in the dimensioning of the drill hole if merely heating were to be used or both heating and cooling were to be established.

The thermal response of a borehole field is often described by non?dimensional response factors called gfunctions.The g?function was firstly generated as a numerical solution based on SBM (Superposition BoreholeModel). An analytical approach, the FLS (Finite Line Source), is also accepted for generating the g?function. In thiswork the potential to numerically produce g?functions is studied for circular borehole fields using the commercialsoftware COMSOL.

The project was performed at SiemensIndustry Drive Technologies with theobjective to provide actual values forthe energy savings potential withinSiemens scope of practice.In Sweden the electrical drives standfor about 30 % of the total electricityconsumption and about 60 % of theelectricity consumption within theindustry. During the pre-study phaseelectrical drives with pump applicationswere identified as large energy users.Because of this a case study at one ofSiemens customers, Stora Enso Fors wasperformed. The system that was evaluatedduring the case study was a throttledsystem with a centrifugal pump forpumping pulp.The results yielded that a saving ofover 50 % could be achieved by replacingthe throttle valve with a variable speeddrive, a frequency converter. Thepayback period was two years and twomonths and the present value for thetotal life cycle cost of the variablespeed system was 662.566 SEK lower thanfor the throttled system. As aconsequence, Stora Enso Fors is advisedto invest in a frequency converter forregulation of the system.The general conclusion is that a focuson system efficiency is the mostimportant factor in energy efficiencyprojects and that the system regulationmethod has a large impact on the overallsystem losses and hence its efficiency.Energy efficiency potential forthrottled systems with centrifugal pumpsis large and significant economicalsavings can be made through investmentswith short payback time..

AbstractThe real estate sector is today responsible for 40 per cent of the total amount of energy consumption within the members of the EU. All over the world there are collaborations within research and projects to find ways of reducing the amount of energy consumed by the real estate sector. In Sweden, a directive from the European Union has posed demands on authorities as well as on the private sector to reduce the amount of energy consumed by new building constructions. Together with the directive from the EU there are also new requirements and demands from Boverket for the real estate sector.  These requirements mostly concern the energy consumption of kilowatt-hour per square metre and that the consumed energy also should be renewable.  The aim of this study is to explain what kind of value municipalities experience in using certifications and environmental investments for new and existing buildings. Within the chapter theory, essential areas are described such as; environmental certification systems, economical viability, proceeds connected to building green, difficulties with building green, the performance of green buildings when affected by the behaviour of tenants and customer value.  The following chapter describes the methodology with which we have conducted this study.

BIOGAS POTENTIAL IN GRASSES FROM WETLANDSMarvin MartinsThe purpose of this study has been to survey wetlands that are suitable for mowing and to analyze the biogas potential in the harvested grasses. A preformed investigation showed that there are suitable wetlands, which can be harvestable, namely those mowed formerly in traditional haymaking. The practice of traditional haymaking is dying out in Sweden today but there are several good reasons why it should to be reconsidered. Nature- and cultural values are obvious, also the unutilized energy in the grass.The suitable types of wetland that were specifically studied were the productive wetlands; meadow marshes and wet meadows. These wetlands are represented in the Swedish meadow- and pasture inventory database; (TUVA) and the Swedish national wetland inventory (VMI).

In Sweden, harvesting pre-commercial thinning (PCT) stems for energy purposes is a interesting way of financing the high cost of preparing dense stands for a profitable first conventional thinning. This concept can be labelled bioenergy thinning. The aim of this study was to quantify the productivity of a Vimek 404R light harvester with an accumulating Naarva-Grip cutting head during the bioenergy thinning of a self-regenerated stand west of Sunnansjö in Dalarna. The stand was birch-dominated, contained 15 371 stems/ha, and measured on average 4,6 cm Dbh and 7 m tall. Even though the driver was well experienced with the machine, the stand in question was the first one that he ever thinned in this manner. Nevertheless, the driver strived to accumulate as many stems as possible during each crane cycle and chose to cut taller stems in half so as to make the handling and forwarding of the harvested stems easier.