Sewage sludge contains plant nutrients and has earlier been utilised as fertilizer to cropland. Unfortunately not only plant nutrients but also heavy Metals, pathogens and organic contaminants tend to accumulate in sludge. The suitability to use sewage sludge in agriculture has therefore been subject to several discussions over the years. The Swedish food industry does no longer accept sludge as fertiliser for Swedish producers. In 1999 the Swedish parliament accepted several objectives for environmental protection. In order to prevent environmental pollution and further exploitation of the earth crust, one of these objectives confirm that phosphorous from sewage shall be recirculated to arable land.

The metal mining history goes thousands of years back. The downside of the mining industry is the large amount of tailings created during the mining operations. Drainage and leaching of heavy Metals from these tailings may cause major environmental problems including acid mine drainage and leaching of heavy Metals. This study examines a pond located near an old mining site, where part of the old mining facility has been recently (1990) restored. The objective was to assess eventual metal contamination from historical mining and the recently performed restoration using a sediment core as a natural archive of historical metal inputs to the pond.

When stormwater occurs near human activity the water gets polluted. The purity and composition vary widely depending on the types of activities in the area, the type of surface the water comes in contact with, precipitation and many more parameters. It has long been known that stormwater quality can affect both human health and the environment as stormwater is a major contributor to pollution of receiving waters.A human activity that has an impact on the environment in several different ways is traffic and stormwater is no exception. Airborne gases that react with precipitation, oil leaks and fuel systems that drops down on the ground, Metals from brake linings and rubber particles from tire wear are some of the aspects you have to take into account when categorizing the relationship between traffic and polluted stormwater.In this project, stormwater samples from a parking lot in Halmstad, Sweden were collected and analyzed with an atomic spectrophotometer. The presence and relationship between copper, cadmium and zinc with different rainfall parameters have been studied.

To the sewer systems households, industries and other activities are connected. The wastewater is collected at treatment plants where a nutritious sludge is produced. The sludge does not only contain nutrients, but also hazardous substances originating from different activities in society. To reduce the flow of hazardous substances to treatment plants and to create a sustainable recycling of plant nutrients the Swedish Water & Wastewater Association has developed the certificate system REVAQ. This certificate requires a good quality of the sludge but also that the treatment plants maps the origin of the unwanted substances.

The purpose of this work was to provide a better understanding of urea?s decomposition and byproduct formation in an SCR system on heavy trucks. In my experimental setup with TGA-DSC-FTIR (a combination of two thermal analysis methods and a method for gas phase detection), an FTIR method for urea in the gas phase was developed for the qualitative and quantitative determination of urea and its decomposition products. Chemicals such as urea, biuret, cyanuric acid and melamine of p.a. quality were used in this method development. Beforehand, there was no FTIR method available to detect these substances; hence, the aim of this work was to develop an FTIR method to understand the degradation chain of urea. The combination of TGA and DSC was used for analysis of different samples, where urea, biuret, cyanuric acid and melamine in varying amounts have been weighted in for various experiments in order to study the temperature at which a phase transition or reaction occurs, i.e.

The county administration asked LKAB to make an inventory of possibly contaminated sites caused by their mining activity. The inventory should be performed according to the MIFO model, a method from SEPA which is used to assess a contaminated site. The first phase involves collection of information through interviews and site inspections and in phase 2 a general survey with field sampling is conducted. LKAB started the work with the first phase of the survey during 2003. During this project the information collected in Phase 1 was evaluated and 16 of the sites were chosen to proceed to MIFO Phase 2 (six sites in Kiruna, and 5 sites respectively in Svappavaara and Malmberget). The sampling of these 16 sites was performed during week 27 2004.

The county administration asked LKAB to make an inventory of possibly contaminated sites caused by their mining activity. The inventory should be performed according to the MIFO model, a method from SEPA which is used to assess a contaminated site. The first phase involves collection of information through interviews and site inspections and in phase 2 a general survey with field sampling is conducted.LKAB started the work with the first phase of the survey during 2003. During this project the information collected in Phase 1 was evaluated and 16 of the sites were chosen to proceed to MIFO Phase 2 (six sites in Kiruna, and 5 sites respectively in Svappavaara and Malmberget). The sampling of these 16 sites was performed during week 27 2004.

When cylinders for motor saws are manufactured there are high demands on the cylinders strength and wearing qualities. Aluminum is a material with low density and is used by Husqvarna AB for their motor saw cylinders. The aluminum is strengthening with nickel that is attached to the cylinders through electrolysis. When aluminum is in contact with oxygen a film of oxide is formed. To eliminate the oxide and to prevent formation of new oxide zinc is used.

In order to avoid harmful substances ending up at the municipal sewage treatment plants, it is important to purify the wastewater at the source. One such source is the wheel washers available in many tire garages which are used to wash the wheels on our vehicles when we change between summer and winter tires. It is important to wash the wheels before storage, to extend the tires lifetime. The purpose of this study is to find a green innovative solution for reduction of emissions of heavy Metals at the source, so that the sludge from the sewage treatment plants can be used as fertilizer. The target is to find a wheel wash method which leads to compliance with the guidelines for car washers, and that also provides a better washing result than with the existing method.

Åfors glasswork was a company which started in 1876 and closed in 2012 due to the bad economical situation in the company. After its closure, the glasswork left behind contaminated soil with different concentrations of heavy Metals such as, arsenic from arsenic trioxide, a chemical used to remove bubbles during the melting of glass, and lead oxide, a chemical used in the production of crystal glass. Crystal glass?s production occurred under 1921-1971, but emissions of lead into the air from Åfors glasswork continued until 2011, because of the artist Bertil Valliens? artglas was made in Åfors glasswork from 1970?s and onwards.The aim of this study was to estimate how much lead (Pb) and arsenic (As) that were released by Åfors Glasswork into the atmosphere during the operational period of the glasswork in comparison with how much of lead and arsenic were purchased for the company. Added to the assistance of the data from National Archives the variations in the activities of Åfors glasswork could be shown.

The mining industry, in terms of ore excavation and metal production, is and has been important to the Swedish economy. In connection with the ore excavation process, large amounts of partly sulphidic waste are produced. When the metal sulphides are exposed to air and water they are eventually oxidised, which leads to the formation of acidic water with high concentrations of metal cations and sulphate ions, so called Acid Mine Drainage (AMD). This water may reach the nearest surroundings and cause negative environmental effects. By covering the waste with soil or water, the oxidation process can be minimised. At the Rävlidmyran mine in the county of Västerbotten open pit mining took place between 1951 and 1991.

With the prospect of future construction on the Skutskär Pulp Mill property, Stora Enso Fine Paper has initiated an investigation of soil contaminants and a risk assessment of these contaminants. A soil and groundwater investigation has therefore been conducted on an open area of about 16 000 square meters, situated between the current wood room and digester house. To be able to integrate this study into an investigation for the whole industrial property, the study has been carried out as a phase 2 study according to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency?s Methods of Inventories of Contaminated sites (MIFO).The site investigation has involved soil and groundwater sampling, together with the analysis of heavy Metals and organic contaminants. The degree of hazard posed by the contaminants, the level of contamination, the potential for migration of the contaminants, as well as the degree to which protection of human health and the environment is required in the area, have been weighed together for an overall risk assessment of the area with regard to human health and the environment.The investigated area was built up by filling in the coastal waters.

Most of the city of Uppsala rests on postglacial clay with a varying content of sulphur. The sulphur occurs naturally in the clay in reduced form as sulphide and the clay is for that reason usually called ?sulphide clay?. Excavation during construction activities gives rise to large amounts of excavation material, of which the sulphide clay is a considerable part.When the clay is exposed to air and water, an oxidation of the sulphides occurs which may produce an acid leachate and the mobilisation of heavy Metals bound in the clay or underlying material. The aim of the work has been to improve our understanding of the behaviour of sulphide clays and produce a basis for risk assessment in the future handling of excavation material with high sulphide content.

During a fire large amounts of particles and unhealthy agents occur.  Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and toxic Metals are examples among many others. These agents have a capacity to bond to particles and when the fire is extinguished, the particles can be transferred with the extinguish water into the soil and to the groundwater.Recent studies in particles have been conducted. A study by Ulrika Iverfelt (2014) reviled that the particles from a fire contained large amounts of both PAH and Metals, which is consistent with earlier analyses. Her column experiments with particles in the size ? 11 microns and ?100 microns in silica sand, reviled that the larger particles was immobilized because the transportation was influenced by sieving or physiochemical particle and surface interactions.The transport of the particles in soil and groundwater is regulated by two main mechanisms: physiochemical surface interactions and straining.

Södra Cell Mörrum is one of the five paper pulp plants that are included in Södra Cell, and the paper pulp that is produced here is not only sold to Swedish paper mills. Most of the paper pulp is exported to different countries in Europe. In the manufacturing process the plant needs different kind of process water and there are guideline values for how much copper, iron and sodium this water is allowed to contain. Analyzes of this water is in the current situation done with an atomic absorption spectrometric instrument (AAS-instrument) with a flame. Measurements done with flame-AAS of samples that have concentrations near the guideline values for copper, iron and sodium, are not reliable. The reason for not being reliable is that the quantitation limits of these Metals are higher than the limit values.