The purpose of this study has been to evaluate whether a Low temperature bio-mass dryer could be integrated with the local district heating system in Malå. The aim is to increase the thermal efficiency of the cogeneration plant in Malå, by lowering the temperature of the cooling medium. Another benefit that comes from this is improved combustion efficiency at the power plant, since drying the fuel causes an Increase of the heating value.Simulations has been made in Excel, and with use of linear regression, to find out if it is profitable. Data for this purpose has been supplied by the power company Skellefteåkraft and furthermore SMHI.The result of the Calculations shows that a very efficient bio-mass dryer is needed, if yield of investments should be made possible. An Investment of 4,27 Mkr, in a dryer, could at a such criterium return 60000 kr/year, if the price of the biomass is 190kr/MWh.

Recently there have been a lot of talk a about the financial crisis and recession. This is understandable since the crisis, which initially was limited to the U.S. now has spread its concern globally in form of bankruptcies, less investment and lots of people have lost here jobs. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how the financial crisis have affected the construction industry relating to market and personnel, but also examine what measures the construction companies have taken. The examination was carried out by information received from the majority of construction-related websites which then was followed up with interviews in the various construction sectors.

Biogas mainly consists of methane and carbon dioxide, where methane is theenergy-rich gas, and is naturally created when organic matter breaks down in absenceof oxygen, also known as anaerobic digestion. A biogas plant re-creates the anaerobicconditions inside a digester where the organic substrate is fed into and digests toproduce biogas. The gas is then used to produce energy by combustion and can beseen as a completely renewable fuel.Today, energy from biogas is used primarily by major stakeholders such asmunicipalities and thus the plants become very large with high investment- andconstruction costs. There are currently few small plants in Sweden, even though thepotential for agriculture and medium-sized to smaller farms to become self-sufficientin terms of electricity and heat is great. Farms have a natural stock of digestibleorganic material in form of manure or crops for example, which are constantlyavailable.

The Swedish cooperative Lantmännen Ekonomiska Förening has initiated a project labelled "Operation Blåljus" that includes an extensive program for closing down elevators. The number of elevators will be reduced from 92 to approximately 15 after harvest of 2007. The objective of Blåljus is to increase the price of grain with 10 öre/kg. A project has been initiated at the Lantmännen Grain division where the purpose is to provide the farmers with support in their decisions and practical advice how they can load a 35 ton grain truck on 30 minutes. The result from the project will serve as a support system to the farmer in his ambition to achieve cost efficient systems to load a truck with grain on the farm.

In Uppsala CHP Plant, there are six pressure reducing valves to reduce the pressure from 15 to 3 bars, before six absorption heat pumps. During the process the energy is conserved but losses occur in form of exergy. The aim of this thesis is to reduce the losses of exergy. This can be done by letting turbines replace the pressure reducing valves.In this thesis an investigation has been done of the conditions today, the conditions after the change from pressure reducing valves to turbines and a comparison of three different types of turbine solutions. The three examined solutions are one turbine, several helical screw expanders and several small turbines in parallel with asynchronous generators.The six absorption heat pumps have been divided into two groups; one group of four and one group of two absorption heat pumps.

2013 a decision was made that all projects at the Swedish Transport Administration shoulduse BIM (Building Information Modeling) to some extent from 2015. BIM is an approachthat allows for streamlining of projects by the use of a 3D-model created in an early stage ofthe project. The 3D-model can carry information about the facility throughout its life cyclefrom planning to management. The use of a 3D-model can help the project to detect errors inearly stages of the project when it is easy and cheap to fix the error instead of finding theerror in the construction phase when it is costly and time consuming to fix it. 3D-models alsolead to improved communication both within the project groups and with the public.

Many enterprises have shortcomings in the transfer of information between different departments. Furthermore, routines for maintaining knowledge in order to be able to use this experience in the future are often lacking. Time and resources spent on improving these systems and procedures can provide significant benefits in terms of saved time and reduced costs in the later stages of a project. The benefit of this is not only a greater clarity and a reduced risk of misunderstandings, but also the preservation of knowledge that would otherwise be lost.The aim of this study has been to examine the process of information transfer and the transfer of knowledge between the calculus department and production manager in projects at Erlandsson Bygg i Öst AB. An additional aim was suggestions for improvements in the calculation handover and at the end of a project, where it was possible.The study was primarily conducted through literature studies and interviews.

This study is intended to identify which factors that influence the success of initiatives in Customer Relationship Management, usually abbreviated as CRM. In the course of this study we have been in contact with forty-two companies operating in Sweden within eleven different sectors in order to find out how they operate regarding CRM initiatives, particularly initiatives within marketing and promotions. Against the data collected during the study it was concluded that the companies working with CRM believed that the CRM initiatives resulted in higher profitability and created more loyal customers. At the same time it was evident that the companies had different views on CRM as a method and its benefits. The majority of the companies could not present any tangible results from CRM-initiatives. It was also revealed that decisions regarding CRM initiatives were based on subjective assessments and without theoretical foundation.

With this paper we intend to investigate what kind of benefits there are by adding commodity futures to a well-diversified portfolio. Since the last fifteen years the commodity speculation has grown tremendously, which partially can be explained by that commodities exposes the investor to certain factors other than an investment in equities. According to our calculations the commodity futures have outperformed stocks during our research period, which partially could be explained by the increasing demand of physical commodities in developing countries e.g. India & China (Akey, 2005). By constructing different portfolios consisting of equities and corporate bonds we could investigate whether our portfolios will benefit from commodity futures and how this will vary over different levels of risk.

In the light of the criticism from the Swedish Consumers? Association towards the actions of modern fund managers on the Swedish Sustainable and Responsible Investment (SRI) market, discussions of change has increased. The reasons underlying a change and communication process are scarcely focused on. Thus, grounded on theories in the fields of Critical Management Studies (CSR), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), change and communication, this study analyses how a change of implementing revised SRI communication is carried out at Handelsbanken Asset Management, existing motives for the change in communication, and how key actors can affect the process. A participant observation and in-depth interviews were carried out enfolding a discussion that contributed with a critical analysis and discussion, concluding external motives to be dominant and that key actors of the change process are influential to a various extent.

The governing set of regulations for structural engineering in Sweden used to be Boverket, BKR. However in the beginning of the 21st century a changeover to new regulations, the Eurocodes, started.The transition was completed in year 2011 when the Eurocodes became the mandatory design work policy for all countries within the European Union. The Eurocodes were implemented to simplify and remove potential barriers to trade that may exist when countries have different design rules.  Since the changeover it has been important for all construction companies to update their knowledge base and their design software.When comparing the two calculation processes they seem similar, but there are a couple of differences worth noting.  With the new regulations, engineers will find that the process when designing joints in timber structures has changed.  What used to be a fairly easy and straight forward calculation procedure has now become tedious and time consuming.The objective of this degree project is to present a product, a dimensioning tool that will help structural engineers when computing lateral load carrying joints in timber structures.The degree project is made up of two parts where the first part is the written report describing the background and theory behind load carrying computations. The second part of the project is the actual dimensioning tool which includes several worksheets in Microsoft Excel. The program treats single and double shear connections of the following:Nail jointsScrew jointsSteel plates (thick and thin types) The user can edit the following parameters:Type of plate/ number of shearsStrength class of timber membersMember and plate sizeType of fastenerDiameter of fastenerLength of fastenerYield moment of fastenerkmod and partial factors for design load carrying capacityThe dimensioning tool was created and developed in collaboration with structural engineers at the company Byggteknik AB.

Biogas is increasingly used for fuel in for example vehicles and it´s produced in a biogas processconsisting of the steps of pretreatment, digestion and gas cleaning. The pretreatment is a method usedto increase the gas production and / or destroy pathogens. The digestion is the stage when anaerobicmicroorganisms convert bio-mass of a substrate to a raw gas containing about 65% of methane. Thegas cleaning is used to increase the methane content to about 97% so the gas can be used for motors invehicles. The biogas part of the Ekeby sewage plant in Eskilstuna is using multiple substrates.

This thesis seeks to explain the effect of private equity ownership on the amount of invest- ments made in a company. We use three capital expenditure based key ratios to determine if there is a tendency for private equity owned firms to invest more or less than comparable companies. Our dataset involve 27 Swedish buyout companies that were sold by a private equity fund between 2001 and 2009. Each buyout is assigned a peer group of two firms in similar size and in the same industry. Firstly, we compare the key ratios to determine potential differences in the level of investment.

Land consolidation is a major problem in many countries in Europe. In Sweden, mainly the state of Dalarna, there is a strong consolidation of forestland, probably the strongest in all of Europe. The consolidation is a big obstacle for forest management and ownership questions due to the often long and narrow strips of land. One of the main reasons for land consolidation in Dalarna results from the heritage procedure, were land is divided between all of the inheritors. To improve the consolidation large surveys in the consolidated villages in Dalarna are carried out. Many laws have to be followed due to the survey.

Background and research problem: The former highly inflationary property market is currently undergoing a stagnation process. Investors have been used to annual growth figures in double digits,but now this is no longer considered to be a realistic outlook for future years. According to a report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Urban Land Institute, published by Avanza Wealth Management,the three most attractive markets for property investment in Europe are London, Paris and Stockholm. Because of this the authors have focused their investigation on two companies in the London andStockholm. The authors will additionally use an international bank, an estate agent and a consultancy firm for further information, with regards to the property market and risks associated with these typesof investment in particular.