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.

An Internet application, VEDAIR, for estimation of air quality in regions with small-scale combustion of bio fuel has been developed by Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute with financing from Swedish Energy Agency and Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. The model contains user interface and a coupled model concept where concentrations of atmospheric pollutions are calculated for regional, urban and local contributions. In this report the model is described and a first study of air quality considering PM10 (particles with a diameter less than 10 µm) in two Swedish municipalities, Vänersborg and Gnosjö, is introduced.According to the result, there are areas with poor air quality even in smaller Swedish municipalities, mostly due to high emission from buildings with older wood heating furnace without hydraulic accumulator.In Vänersborg three areas were analysed in VEDAIR for the year 2003: Vargön, Mariedal and the downtown district. In the whole municipality the upper evaluation threshold for PM10, which is defined as 14 µg/m3 for annual average, was exceeded due to background contribution of particles. In all areas, however, the concentrations of PM10 were less than the environmental quality norms.

This study was conducted in the "Kåtaberget" forest reserve in Västerbotten in the summer of 1999. In the summer of 1995, a prescribed burning was performed in the reserve. In some places where coarse dry woody debris (logs and stumps) was present, the fire consumed the wood, as well as parts of the humus layer, creating deep-burned patches. The low intensity ground fire also created dead woody debris by burning off living trees with open fire scars, as well as standing dead trees. In this study, the post-fire tree seedling establishment was examined, with special attention given to the former presence of woody debris. The study also includes a survey of the areal extent of deep-burned patches, as well as an examination of tree seedling establishment in these patches, compared to other burnt ground.

In this study potential health risks for employees in connection with handling of bottom ash and bottom ash water at a Municipal Waste Incineration (MWI) plant have been investigated. Air surrounding the bottom ash and the bottom ash water has been examined. MWI is one of the primary ways to manage solid household waste, and bottom ash is the main solid residue produced by the incineration process. Bottom ash constitutes about 15-20% of the original waste. The bottom ash is extinguished in a water bath (bottom ash water).The study was carried out in a MWI plant in Karlstad, Sweden.

Forest management contributes to the changes in forest structure by turning heterogenous forests of varied age into homogenous forests of similar age and thus affect bird species depending on different structures or habitats which are lost during forestry. In this report, a study was made to investigate how the amount of decidious trees, dead wood and variation in tree diameter affect bird diversity. The purpose of this study was to be able to give forest management guidelines to increase bird diversity. This study was conducted by investigating 65 transects in forests of different structure south of Linköping, Sweden. Along the 65 transects, birds were inventoried as well as the vegetation.

Chinas government has a multifunctional program for a more sustainable forestry since 2000. This six key forest programs goal is to develop a more sustainable forest sector but also take environment consideration. The state forest administration in China has decided to create 5.8 million hectare of fast growing and high yield forest. Eucalyptus has showed to have good properties for pulp and timber production and therefore Eucalyptus plantations are under development in costal areas in southern China. By adding extra nutrients, growth can be enhanced in Eucalyptus plantations.

StoraEnso decided in year 2002 to build a pulp mill in the province of Guangxi, southernChina, and also establish eucalyptus plantations to provide it with raw material. By 2010StoraEnso controls about 90 000 of planned 120 000 ha, out of 75 000 ha is already plantedwith Eucalyptus.By using better genetic material, improve the tending, selecting the sites more careful and byusing a proper fertilization regime StoraEnso hopes to increase the mean annual incrementfrom today?s 25 m3/ha, on bark, to 35 m3/ha. This study is one part in this work to increase themean annual increment in the plantation.This master thesis is the forth in a series, that has followed up a fertilization trial that startedin spring 2006 when the trial was laid out and treatments decided. The aim with the trial is toexamine the production potential of Eucalyptus urophylla in Guangxi, southern China.

It is essential to reuse- and recycles residues to decrease the amount of deposit materials and reach sustainable energy use. Two ways to work towards this is to recycle wood ashes to the forest as nutrient compensation and extract biogas from combustion of biomass.The aim with this study was to decide whether wood ashes that been used for biogas upgrading with accelerated carbonation also can be used as a nutrient compensation in the woods according to recommendations from the Swedish Forest Agency (Skogsstyrelsen).The ashes that were used in this study came from Johan Andersson who works at JTI in Uppsala, who also treated the ashes with biogas. The ashes have, in both untreated and treated condition, been analyzed in this study according to contents of elements, leaching properties, hardening properties and contents of crystalline phases, to evaluate what impact carbonation with biogas has on the ashes.The accelerated carbonation led to hardening of the ash, and decreased amount of CaO- and increased amount of CaCO3. The CO2-uptake also entails a dilution of the elements, and the content of nutrients and trace elements decreases. However the results show an indication of an uptake of S from the biogas to the ash, since the dilution had a smaller impact on S than the rest of the elements.

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.

Peat litter has been used in animal houses for a long time. Because of its good ability to absorb liquid and nutrients from the manure it can create a dry surface for animals and a valuable manure product. Through changes in agricultural practises the use of peat litter has diminished and is to a great extent replaced by straw, sawdust and cutter shavings although Sweden is rich in peat-findings. The aim of this work was to summarize the presented knowledge about the used of peat litter, techniques, advantages and disadvantages and to compare with other commonly used litter materials. Articles on peat litter have been searched for in magazines, databases and books at SLU library. Visits to peat industries, interviews with peat producers and with peat researchers contributed to the material. Peat is not a uniformly material.

Different methods for shelterwood cutting have been used in differ-ent parts of Europe since the middle ages. The use of shelter wood cutting in Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) forests in Sweden met a revival in the early 1990s as an alternative for the dominating clear-cutting system when silvicultural costs increased dramatically for the latter. Shelterwood cutting systems involve some possible problems but also a lot of positive effects. Among the problems are increased risk of wind throw and damage of the remaining shelter trees caused by the cutting operation. Positive effects are for example a valuable growth in the remaining trees and increased biological di-versity. This study is based on a total of 79 trees from 4 different treatments in a spruce shelterwood, cut in 1994, in the middle of Sweden (62,4º N).

Denna rapport är resultatet av en analys som gjorts vid Vest-Woods fabrik i Forserum under våren 2007 i syfte att reducera interna transporter. Vest-Wood AB i Forserum tillverkar dörrar för den svenska marknaden men förser också en annan fabrik (SdrFelding i Danmark) i samma koncern med dörrstommar. Materialhantering för att förse Sdr Felding fabriken med dörrstommar medför i dagsläget mycket interna transporter i Forserumsfabriken. För att klara ojämn efterfrågan från Sdr Felding fabriken samt för att kunna jämna ut sin egen produktion har Forserumsfabriken valtatt lagerföra de tolv artiklar som beställs mest frekvent från Sdr Felding fabriken. Buffertlagret vid Forserumsfabriken där artiklarna lagerförs är placerat ca 200 m från produktionen vilket medför mycket intern transport för hantering av dessa.

Trenden i byggbranschen är att efterfrågan på täta, energisnåla byggnader ökar. Passivhus och andra lågenergikonstruktioner blir vanligare och vanligare. Riskerna med att bygga in organiskt material som trä i dessa konstruktioner har fått branschen att börja titta på alternativa material. Lättbetong är ett material som både har bärande och isolerande egenskaper. Dessutom är det inte organiskt vilket gör det okänsligt för mikrobiell påväxt.

Årsskiftet 2003/2004 trädde Lagen (2003:778) om skydd mot olyckor i kraft. Därmed upphävdes Räddningstjänstlagen. Lagtexten kräver att kommuner skall upprätta en riskhanteringsplan för tänkbara olyckstillfällen. Vänersborgs kommun har beslutat göra så och en del i detta arbete är att sammanställa en riskanalys. Denna rapport innehåller en riskanalys för farligt gods inom Vänersborgs tätort samt riksväg 45.

In this thesis tests has been performed on the pull strength of screws glued into glulam beams.The experiment is based on the already approved method whereby the diameter of the drilled holes is the same as the screw outer diameter of 1 mm or bigger. The screws strength class shall not be less than 4.6 (EN ISO 898-1:1999, 1999).The difference in the experiments that were performed where that the drilled diameter were 1 mm smaller than the outer diameter of the screw so that the screw thread was worked into the wood.In the tests the gluing where made on M8 glulam beams. The screws where drilled at and angel of 90°tangental to the fiber direction with a diameter of 7 mm. The gluing of the screws where made in three different depths and where later exposed to pulling forces. The results showed both pulling breaks and screw breaks when they reached their maximum capacity.