IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute
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Energy Integration of Domsjö Biorefinery Cluster
No full textWithin the Domsjö Biorefinery cluster in Örnsköldsvik, all the industries are cooperating regarding energy. The cluster consists of one wood pulp production facility, two bio-chemical facilities and one energy facility. In this study, we have analysed how efficient the steam is used within the industries. Are steam of right pressure and temperature used for the right purposes? To what extent could steam be replaced by district heating? And, how big is the potential to use simultaneous heat and cold demand for energy integration? The method for energy analysis was “pinch analysis”. It is found that steam of 7 bar(g) and 170 °C is used to supply a major part of the heat demand, sometimes even heat demands of low temperatures. Such demands would be more efficient to supply by district heating. Alternatively, a new utility with temperatures 40/120 °C could be introduced, either within the total site, or only within the biggest of the industries. The practical heat recovery potential is about 15 MW for the total site, and about 10 MW at the biggest of the industries. For all alternatives, steam capacity is released, which for example could be used for increased industrial production without investments in new steam boilers. Alternatively, the released capacity could be used to completely (or partially) offset the steam requirements of a new process plant at the Domsjö site.Den här rapporten finns endast på engelska. Svensk sammanfattning finns i rapporten
Solid state breakers as climate solutions
No full textÖkad flexibilitet i elnätets utkant är nödvändigt för att uppnå ambitiöst satta klimatmål. En sådan ökad flexibilitet kan fås genom smarta energilösningar. Dessa lösningar förväntas vara en del av det pågående skiftet inom energiförsörjningen, med ett större fokus på förnybar energi, både centralt och distribuerat i näten. Detta kombineras med att konsumenter får möjlighet att minska sina energikostnader genom att flytta sin elförbrukning i tiden, får bättre information kring och lösningar för att automatisera sin energiförbrukning och kan ta steget mot att bli prosumenter. Genom en systematisk genomgång av vetenskaplig litteratur ges en överblick av den potentiella flexibilitet som finns hos olika el-laster i bostadssektorn i Frankrike, Tyskland, Storbritannien och Sverige. Uppgifterna har hämtats från litteratur och skalats upp homogent för att spegla den nationella potentialen, inklusive effekten som den potentiella flexibiliteten har på koldioxidutsläppen. Våra resultat visar att mellan 2% och 18% av elanvändningen i bostadssektorn i de fyra EU-länderna kan flyttas i tiden, vilket skulle resultera i att utsläpp på mellan 10 och 28 Mton CO2 per år kan undvikas till förmån för att maximera användandet av förnybara energikällor. Med dagens prismekanismer och tariffer för energianvändning är flexibilitet av denna typ inte ekonomiskt hållbar och därför krävs förändringar.This report describes the work performed by IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL) and co-funded by Stiftelsen Institutet för Vatten- och Luftvårdsforskning (SIVL) and Blixt Tech AB. Increased flexibility at the grid edge is required to achieve ambitious climate goals and can be provided by smart energy solutions. Such solutions are expected to support the ongoing shift on the supply side towards more renewable generation (both on grid and distributed) and to offer consumers the opportunity to reduce costs by demand shifting. In combination with better information and automation to optimize energy use, grid edge solutions can take customers a step forward to become prosumers. Using a systematic review of the scientific literature, an overview – for France, Germany, UK and Sweden – is provided of the potential flexibility of different residential electrical loads. The potentials obtained from the literature have been upscaled to the national level, including the corresponding effects in terms of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The results show that between 2% and 18% of the electricity from the residential sector in the four countries could be shifted, resulting in total emissions reductions of 10 MtCO2 from peak shaving, or 24 Mt CO2 per year if the flexibility would optimize the deployment of renewables. Additional incentives are needed, and changes are required in energy price mechanisms and tariffs to make flexibility economically feasible on the market.Ökad flexibilitet i elnätets utkant är nödvändigt för att uppnå ambitiösa klimatmål och ökad flexibilitet kan fås genom smarta energilösningar. Potentialerna har hämtats från litteratur och skalats upp homogent för att spegla den nationella potentialen, inklusive effekten som den potentiella flexibiliteten har på koldioxidutsläpp. Våra resultat visar att i de fyra EU-länderna kan mellan 2% och 18% av elanvändningen i bostadssektorn flyttas i tiden, vilket skulle resultera i att utsläpp mellan 10 och 28 Mton CO2 per år kan undvikas
Datakvalitet för en LCA-beräkning av ett byggnadsverk
No full textIn order to communicate an LCA calculation for a building, and so that the result can be interpretable by the recipient, it must include quality documentation describing condition for calculations, assumptions and models used, and what data evaluations, delimitations and shortcomings that exists. If this is done in a consistent manner, regardless of the type of building, the ambition is to facilitate the development of the quality documentation and to interpret it. In the digitization we believe that the environmental impact will be calculated in a digitized way with life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology by facilitating already used tools. If these LCA calculations only include numerical numbers without simultaneously communicating something about how they are calculated, there is a risk that the LCA result is incorrectly interpreted and misleading. Therefore, it is important to supplement the LCA result with quality documentation. The aim of this report is to propose the contents of the LCA accompanying quality documentation for a building, with a scope to simplifying interpretation of the calculation results. The proposed quality documentation is expected to form the basis for a digital quality report. In the report the quality documentary is divided into the following parts: • The extent of the inventoryregarding construction parts, life cycle and information modules. • Quality of the resource summary, underlying LCA environmental data and the resulting weighted quality index for the calculated result. • Design of the LCA result,as part of the quality report, thus steering up the entire level of information delivery's lowest level of ambition. In the next stage of digitization, we expect that the results of what is described in the report will be digitized in future projects. The quality documentation for an LCA environmental calculation for a building should be seen as a complement to Q metadata (Erlandsson 2018a) for the construction products used during the life cycle. By supplementing Q metadata for environmental declarations for all kinds of construction products with quality documentation for an LCA calculation for all kinds of buildings, the vision is that these two works will strengthen an increased transparency about the quality of the LCA calculations.Genom den digitalisering vi ser framför oss kommer miljöpåverkan att kunna beräknas med livscykelanalys (LCA) direkt i de digitala vertyg som redan används i byggprocessen. Om dessa beräkningar bara inkluderar numeriska siffror, utan att samtidigt kommunicera något om hur de är beräknade, så finns det en risk att LCA-beräkningens resultat tolkas fel, vilket i sin tur kan leda till missvisande slutsatser. Därför är det viktigt att komplettera LCA-resultatet med en kvalitetsdokumentation. I denna rapport föreslås innehållet i en standardiserad kvalitetsdokumentation för en LCA-beräkning för en byggnad eller ett anläggmingsprojekt, där syftet är att förenkla framtagandet och tolkningen av beräkningsresultaten. I nästa steg i utvecklingsarbetet förväntar vi oss att resultatet av det som beskrivs i rapporten kommer att digitaliseras
Metoder för snabb och enkel mätning av exponering för kvarts i arbetsmiljön – finns det?
No full textInom byggverksamhet förekommer många arbetsmoment då respirabelt oorganiskt damm som innehåller kvarts bildas. Att exponeras för kvarts över det hygieniska gränsvärdet innebär flera allvarliga hälsorisker, som att utveckla silikos, cancer och kronisk obstruktiv lungsjukdom och även hjärt-kärl- och reumatiska sjukdomar. Byggnadsarbetare är en yrkeskategori som löper stor risk att exponeras för kvarts. Att snabbt kunna mäta vilka kvarts halter som anställda exponeras för eller som förekommer vid olika arbetsmoment som underlag för beslut om vilka åtgärder som ska genomföras för att skydda arbetstagarna är därför viktigt. Dagens metoder för exponeringsmätning av respirabelt oorganiskt damm och kvarts, som utvecklades på 1970/80-talet, är tidskrävande och resultatet av mätningen redovisas ofta flera veckor efter att provtagningen har genomförts. Det kan innebära att det arbete som utförts vid byggarbetsplatsen har ofta avslutats innan mätresultat erhålls. Dessutom krävs specialistkompetens för att kunna utföra provtagning och analys. Byggbranschen har därför lyft behovet av moderna, snabbare och billigare mätmetoder – gärna direktvisande instrument - som kan användas för att jämföra uppmätta halter med hygieniska gränsvärden för respirabelt damm och kvarts och som kan ge underlag vid exponeringsbedömningar. En granskning har gjorts av de mätmetoder som finns och används och vi har även sökt analysmetoder som är under utveckling. Granskningen visar att den enda metod som i dagsläget är tänkbar för att snabbt mäta exponering är filterprovtagning och analys med ett portabelt FTIR-instrument. Ett sådant instrument kostar i storleksordningen 150 000 – 300 000 SEK. En alternativ metod, som har mer fokus på att kontrollera exponering för höga dammhalter, bygger på användning av partikelinstrument. Med dessa instrument flyttas fokus från att mäta exponering för kvarts till att identifiera dammande arbetsmoment och vidta åtgärder för att minska exponeringen. Det finns flera olika typer av partikelinstrument i olika prisklasser, från cirka 50 000 SEK och uppåt. Denna typ av mätningar kräver närvaro under hela arbetsdagen och kontroll av om det förekommer tillfälliga höga exponeringar för damm. Inom IVL drivs ett parallellt projekt om referensmätningar för kvarts inom byggindustrin. I det projektet har direktvisande instrument för respirabelt damm använts för att kartlägga dammande arbetsmoment, på ett liknande sätt som beskrivs ovan. Resultat från det projektet kommer att rapporteras i en separat rapport.Construction includes many processes where respirable inorganic dust containing crystalline silica is generated. Exposure to silica in concentration above the Swedish occupational exposure limit value (OEL) is connected to severe health hazards, such as risk of developing silicosis, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as well as cardiovascular and rheumatic diseases. Constructions workers have a high risk of exposure to silica. Measurement of workers exposure to silica and measurement of what concentrations occur during different work tasks is essential as a basis for decisions about what control measures are needed to protect the workers. The methods used to measure the concentration of respirable organic dust and silica were developed during the 1970ies and 1980ies. The methods require a lot of time and the result of the measurements are usually presented several weeks after the measurement was conducted. In practice, the work tasks during which the measurements were conducted have often ceased before getting the results from the measurements. In addition, expert knowledge is often required both for the measurements and the analysis. Therefore, the construction industry has pointed out the need for modern, fast and cheap methods to measure silica exposure. The aim is to be able to measure the exposure to respirable dust and silica, the results of which can be used as a basis for risk assessments. Direct-reading instruments is an interesting option which should be evaluated. Available and used measuring methods have been reviewed and methods under development have been searched for. The review shows that the only currently available method which can be used to measure respirable silica is filter sampling followed by field analyses with a portable FTIR-instrument. The cost for such an instrument is currently between 150 000 and 300 000 SEK. An alternative method, which has focus on controlling exposure to high concentrations of dust instead of measuring exposure, is measurements with an instrument measuring the number and mass of particles. These instruments are used to identify work tasks generating high concentrations of dust, which moves focus from exposure and comparison with OEL to identifying and controlling the emissions of dust. There are several different instruments available at different prices, ranging from 50 000 SEK and upwards. This type of measurement require presence during the working day in order to facilitate identification of the cause of temporary high concentrations of dust, i.e. what work tasks are generating the high concentrations. Within IVL, a parallel project is currently ongoing about so called reference measurements for silica in the construction industry. Reference measurements are measurements made under well-defined circumstances, which can be used as a basis for risk assessment in other companies, provided the circumstances are similar. In that project, direct-reading instruments for measurement of respirable dust have been used in a way which resembles the description above. The result from that projekt will be published in a separate report this year (2019).Inom byggverksamhet förekommer exponering för respirabel kvarts, som innebär allvarliga hälsorisker. Mätning av förekommande halter behövs som underlag för beslut om åtgärder. Dagens mätmetoder är tidskrävande och resultatet redovisas ofta flera veckor efter provtagning. Därför finns behov av snabbare mätmetoder. Den alternativa mätmetod som i dagsläget är tänkbar är filterprovtagning och analys med ett portabelt FTIR-instrument. Ett sådant instrument kostar i storleksordningen 150 000 – 300 000 SEK. Alternativt kan partikelinstrument användas för att identifiera förekomst av höga halter av kvartshaltigt damm
Study on the durability of European passenger car emission control systems utilizing remote sensing data
No full textAn important development has been the acquisition of vehicle mileage information from UK data for individual vehicles, and more recently from Sweden. This information provides a direct measure of mileage effects on vehicle emissions. Considering the whole dataset, containing almost 1 million vehicle measurements in total, mileage deterioration factors have been derived that show the change in emissions at 0, 50,000, 100,000 and 200,000 km for petrol and diesel cars, separated from the influence of VSP and ambient temperature on emissions. For emissions of CO and NOx from petrol vehicles the data show increasing emissions with increased mileage, with earlier Euro standards showing more deterioration. The trends in HC with mileage are mixed, with Euro 3 and 4 vehicles showing a decrease in emissions with age. There is evidence that the emission of CO and HC increase as diesel passenger car mileage increases. The quantification of HC from Euro 6 vehicles by means of remote sensing is more uncertain. Emissions of NOx from Euro 5 and 6 diesel vehicles show no obvious change as the vehicle mileage increases and there is limited evidence of an increase for Euro 3 and 4 vehicles at high mileages up to 200,000 km.Den här rapporten finns endast på engelska
Försurning och övergödning i Östergötlands län - Resultat från Krondroppsnätet till och med 2017/18
No full textÖstergötlands län har varit medlem i Krondroppsnätet under 28 år. I denna rapport redovisas resultaten från mätningar under det hydrologiska året 2017/18 i Östergötland. Ett hydrologiskt år omfattar oktober till och med september påföljande år. Mätningarna från 2017/18 ger tillsammans med tidigare års mätningar en bra bild över försurningsläget och kvävesituationen i Östergötland. Vidare redovisas resultaten i förhållande till övriga mätningar inom Krondroppsnätet. I rapporten redovisas även andra relaterade projekt samt aktuella händelser från 2018, som är relevanta ur Krondroppsnätets synvinkel
Plastics in passenger cars - A comparison over types and time
No full textThis study compared plastics content in passenger cars. It concluded that there has likely been no change in passenger cars’ plastics share in the past twenty years and the next five years will likely tell a similar story. Three methods were used to estimate the future trends for plastics content in cars. The first was a literature review. This data showed a slight increase of plastic material shares in some sources, but the transparency of data selection, material categorization (what is a “plastic”), and calculation methods left us questioning its legitimacy. The second method was based on our own selection of cars representing the Swedish car fleet with A2mac1 vehicle breakdown data for each model. Since we controlled more variables in this data, we were more convinced of its legitimacy. The results show that there has been no change in plastics fraction in cars for each separate driveline in the past twenty years. The third method was using Volvo car material data compiled from each model’s numerous part suppliers for a single production year, to compare to the other methods. The study was conducted as part of the project Explore in the research program Closing the Loop, funded by Mistra.The automotive industry uses almost ten percent of all plastics in Europe. To map the potential recyclable plastic material available for recycling today and into future years, this study has analyzed the history of plastics in cars, as well as several factors that may affect the plastics content in cars to be recycled
Estimating the potential of incremental behavioural changes to reduce Swedish emissions of NEC Directive air pollutants
No full textFollowing EU regulations, Sweden needs to reduce 2005 emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, non-methane volatile organic compounds, ammonia and fine particulate matter with 22, 66, 36, 17, and 19% by 2030, and largest efforts are needed to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions. However, since the targets are ambitious and the time frame is short, there is a risk that some of the already proposed efforts will be inadequate. It is therefore useful to estimate the emission reduction potential from an implementation of behavioral change measures. The analysis was done in several steps. From an overview of the literature 10 measures were selected for analysis. After this, the national potential of the measures was estimated through re-calculations of the emission scenarios supporting the official Swedish emission projections. The current data quality only allows for the results to be considered best available estimates. Given this caveat the analysis shows that the measures could contribute with 12-24% of the required additional nitrogen oxide emission reductions in 2030. If all measures would be implemented emissions of carbon dioxide (biogenic and fossil) could be reduced by 2-4 Mtonne. The report also presents several knowledge gaps that needs to be considered prior to any governmental action.The report presents a quantification of how 2030 emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases could be affected by 10 easily available changes in everyday behavior. These changes relate to dietary choice, personal mobility and indoor climate control. The analysis shows that the changes together could reduce expected Swedish 2030 emissions of NOx with 1.7 – 3 ktonne, PM2.5 with 1 – 2.6 ktonne, and CO2 with 2-4 Mtonne. The measures could thereby contribute significantly to Swedish air pollution and climate targets
Environmental differentiated port dues
No full textThere are incentive schemes in Swedish ports that offer lower port dues for ships with high environmental performance, but there is currently no similar scheme for trucks. However, larger environmental and city development problems related to road transports have resulted in increased pressure on ports to suggest and implement mitigating actions to reduce environmental impacts caused by road traffic to and from the port. Four port-related incentives are analysed in this report: a port due discount for ships with reduced speed in the fairway channel; a port due discount for ships with very low NOX emissions from auxiliary engines; an entrance fee for trucks passing through the port gate during peak hours; and a differentiated entrance fee for trucks based on the truck’s environmental performance. The national cost-minimizing freight transport model Samgods was used to simulate the impacts of the gate fees. From a legal perspective, some issues related to implementation have been identified but depend on the detailed design of the proposed charging. The main criterion for EU is that the fee or tax cannot have discriminatory effects or hinder the free movement of goods or services. This project also gives an overview of environmental policy measures to explore the possibility to implement the port dues. Introduction of environmentally differentiated port dues globally, or at least in the EU, would include greater incentives for shipping companies, ship owners and road haulers to invest in emission abatement technologies or use alternative fuels.The project examines how environmentally differentiated dues and incentives in ports can reduce the environmental impact caused by transport modes that call at the port. Both land and sea transport are addressed, and an interdisciplinary approach was taken, including environmental, legal, policy and goods flow perspectives. By introducing these port dues, port can contribute to a shift to more environmentally efficient transport, vehicles, ships, technologies and alternative fuels
Plastics and Sustainable Investments – an information brief for investors
No full textPlastics is a group of versatile and useful materials. They are important for many industries as well as for everyday practices – and should thus be important also for investors and financial actors. A transition to sustainable plastics will require investments in production, management, and recycling – and investments need to transition towards sustainable practices as argued by many international organisations and governments. The challenge is to deal with several sustainability issues: the complete dependency on fossil resources and energy for production; low rates of recycling – also of material that is collected for recycling; unsustainable waste management which contributes to plastic pollution of terrestrial and aquatic environments. To this list could also be added health concerns related primarily to the use of different types of additives.Plastics are important for both industry and individuals – and should be for investors and financial actors. Responsible investors need to tackle those significant problems: • A dependence on fossil raw materials and energy which contributes to climate change. • Dysfunctional management of waste and recycling of plastics. • Littering and pollution of terrestrial and aquatic environments. This report addresses these problems and discusses emerging development pathways that have the potential to mitigate the negative effects. It also presents reasons for why the financial sector should look carefully at investments related to plastics