In today's society, the availability of energy plays an integral part in our everyday lives. Unfortunately, the price of energy in Sweden has increased in recent decades. A large part of our energy consumption goes to heating modules for houses, where heating methods that depend on energy sources such as electricity, district heating, fuel oil, gas and biofuels are the most common ones. During the winter period, the increase in energy costs becomes significantly evident, especially for small property owners. This increase in energy cost is most noticeable for home owners with electric heating.This thesis is written at the Halmstad University, in cooperation with a company, which makes parts of this thesis confidential.

Pellets produceras av sågspån som är en restprodukt från sågverk. Tillverkningen av pellets är en energiintensiv process. Mest energi används för att torka det fuktiga sågspånet från ca 50 till ca 11 % fukthalt. Torkningen är inledningsvis effektiv men vid torkning av sågspån under 20 % fukthalt minskar torkningens energieffektivitet. Efter att det torkade sågspånet malts i en kvarn konditioneras det med överhettad ånga innan det pressas till pellets.

På senare år har klimatoron tilltagit i världen, ökade utsläpp av växthusgaser och stigande medeltemperaturer har fått ett stort utrymme på den politiska agendan. För att möta oron har man inom Europeiska Unionen enats om ett antal klimatmål som skall uppfyllas till år 2020. Sverige har under lång tid förlitat sig på skogsindustrin och därigenom byggt upp en stark industri och forskningsverksamhet. Skogsbaserad bioenergi står idag för 90 % av den bioenergi som förbrukas i Sverige. Råvaruöverskottet finns idag i norrlands inland men det stora behovet finns i storstadsregionerna i södra Sverige. Det finns dock vissa problem med transport och lagring av skogsbaserad biomassa och behovet av innovationer är därför stort. Torrefiering är en förädlingsmetod där energidensiteten höjs och lagringsegenskaperna förbättras genom rostning av biomassa i en syrefrimiljö. Syftet med denna studie är att utifrån ett företagsekonomiskt perspektiv undersöka potentialen hos torrefierad pellets under svenska förhållanden. I vår investeringskalkyl framgår det att break even-punkten för priset för torrefierad pellets är 367,55 kr/MWh. Känslighetsanalysen uppvisar att råvarukostnaden har störst påverkan på nettonuvärdet, följt av driftskostnaden och pris som hade samma påverkan, därefter kommer räntan och sist investeringskostnaden. Våra beräkningar visar att det finns en skillnad i tågtransportkostnad mellan torrefierad pellets och konventionell pellets per transporterad MWh.

Most people have been forced to throw away a pot-plant after its death. There are many reasons to the death of a plant, but mainly it?s because its owner forgets it, and therefore fails to water it. The purpose of this project is therefore to develop a product which can prevent this from happening, while the product has to have a low manufacturing cost to be able to compete whit other, similar, products on the market. During the project, a benchmarking has been done to give a clear picture of what the product has to compete with. The directives there are for CE-marking, and which of these who concerns the product has also been looked up.

I fokus för den här studien står en maskininvestering och råvarorna för pellets, deras täckningsbidrag samt kostnaderna för att tillverka pellets när olika råvaror tas i anspråk. Uppsatsen ger också läsaren en inblick i marknaden för pellets och konkurrensen om träråvaran. I korthet beskrivs också produktions- processen. Underlaget för den bidragskalkyl avseende råvara och investeringskalkyl på flisaggregatet har hämtats från biobränsleföretaget Laxå Pellets, Bruks-Klöckner AB och Allan Bruks AB-CBI. Med hjälp av bidragskalkylen jämförs kostnaderna för potentiella råvaror som kan pelleteras.

Göteborg Energi has a surplus of district heating during spring, summer and fall. The heat surplus is due to a constant production of waste heat from oil refineries and heat from waste incineration over the year. It would be desirable to increase the demand for heat and the uptime for the newly built combined heat and power generation plant, Rya Kraftvärmeverk. One alternative could be to integrate Rya Kraftvärmeverk with a pellet production facility. By producing heat, electricity and pellet in a joint process the energy use can be decreased.

This study has been carried out at Södra´s 31 local forestry districts and within six plant terminals. The production and sale of seedlings at Södra is managed in collaboration with ?Södra Odlarna?. Approximately 35 million plants are cultivated each year, providing Södra´s members with a wide choice of high quality plants. The seedlings are nurtured at nurseries before transferred to plant terminals where they are stored and watered.

This study was carried out at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Dept. of Agricultural Research for Northern Sweden. The aim of the study was to determine how plant species richness and diversity influence the nitrogen pools and nitrogen fluxes in the soil. Plant and soil samples from a biodiversity experiment in grasslands were used. Thirty plots with 12 grassland plant species (legumes, grasses, and non-legume herbs), combined from 1-12 species were investigated.

REFERATI tusentals år har hästen varit nära människan och tjänat som krigs-, arbets- och sportdjur. När hästen domesticerades för tusentals år sedan begränsades dess tillvaro till mindre utrymmen för att vara lättillgängliga. Hästen ska ha tillgång till en ren och torr liggplats som dagligen rengörs. De vanligaste strömedlen är spån, halm och torv. På senare år har det kommit fram nya strömaterial av restprodukter från pappersindustrin.

The global wood pellet market has seen a rapid growth after the adoption of the Kyoto protocol and the renewable energy incentives created within the European Union. The global consumption of wood pellets reached 13,5 million tonnes in 2010 and several experts estimate the consumption to be between 35-50 million tonnes by 2020. These forescasts raise the questions which regions that can supply this vast amount of wood pellets and what the conditions are for producing it. This study evaluates the conditions for wood pellet production and export from British Columbia, on Canada?s west coast, focusing on existing industry structure, raw material supply and the distribution chain.

Heat is distributed to the district heating customers through pipes with water as a heat carrier. The district heating system is complex. To decide what is leakages from the district heating net versus what is the water consumption of the plant, is difficult. Therefore, the purpose of this master thesis is to establish a model where the district heating net?s leakages but also the water consumption of the plant can be followed daily. The project is performed at Vattenfall´s district heating power plant in Uppsala. Information is gathered through discussions, drawings of the plant and guided tours of the plant.

This report is a bachelor's thesis of two students from the Energy and Environment degree at KTH Stockholm. Grinda is an island situated Stockholm archipelago. Skärgårdsstiftelsen is landowners and manages the area. Grinda Wärdshus, a guest house located in the island, currently uses an oil-fired boiler as a heating system. The aim of this thesis is to investigate whether wood chips or pellets is, from a sustainability standpoint, a suitable heating method for the guest house.

Sedan 1971 tillverkar LKAB pellets för direktreduktion. Dagens pellets,KPRS (Kiruna Pellets Reduction Special), med tillsatser av dolomit, kalksten, bentonit och organiskt material framställs kommersiellt på KK3 pelleteseringsverket i Kiruna av magnetit. Pellets tillverkas i huvudfraktioner 9-12,5 och 12,5-16 mm vilka fylls proportionerligt i reduktionsugnen. Mängden såld pellets uppgår till cirka 4 Mt per år. LKAB undersöker reducerad pellets bland annat med avseende på fysisk hållfasthet, ihopkladdningsgrad och olika faktorers påverkan på metalliserings- och uppkolningsgrad.

Insecticides will be removed from Swedish forestry, at present insecticides are used to treat our seedlings to avoid them from being attacked by pine weevils. With the forthcoming ban on insecticides alternative protective measures will have to be tested. Holmen Forest Ltd has aimed to find an alternative and have developed a mechanic pine weevils protection accessory as well as a new concept on planting pipes. Studies have been conducted on the behalf of Holmen Forest Ltd to see how planting with the newly developed mechanical protectors and plant pipe stands up against the conventional methods used today. The study was conducted over a three week period. Three factors were compared regarding planting quality including i) pressure around the plant, ii) the depth the plant ended up in, iii) plant angle. Mechanical plant pipes were used in the study, and where tested like a one-handed and a two-handed pipe. The study concludes that further development is needed for the mechanic plant protector to live up to the speed and quality of conventional methods.

This report contains a study of replacing nuclear power with biofuel. The nuclear plant, OKG north of Oskarshamn in Sweden has been chosen and an extensive literature study about the nuclear plant has been implemented. The main aspect of this report is the availability of biofuels and whether it would be economically sustainable. Sweden?s most common biofuels are examined with regard to scope of use and potential.