Finalized projects at Department of Industrial Ecology

KTH-China Joint Research Center for Industrial Ecology

In 2005, Shandong University (SDU) and KTH (Royal Institute of Technology) inaugurated a Joint Research Center for Industrial Ecology in the city of Jinan, P.R China.
In January 2006 JRCIE was given the status of a province center.
JRCIE is located in new facilities at the Shandong University campus. JRCIE developes activities in the areas of education, research & development, and commercial applications of sustainable technologies. The focus for this development is Shandong Province.

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RENET

RENET project is the mission between three countries: Germany, Sweden and Turkey. The main objective of the project is to improve the exchange of ideas, mutual understanding and co-operation among institutions of higher education in the field of renewable energy – with a focus on waste-to-energy, solar energy and bio-fuels, in order to promote information and technology transfer and to assist with the implementation of renewable energy policies in these regions.

Contact: Ph.D. student Anna Spitsyna

Risk aspects in Sustainable Development

This project has focused on a case study around the location of Loudden oil terminal in the central part of Stockholm. This case study was chosen because of its complexity regarding the decision-making process and stakeholder interest and because risk is an important parameter in the decision of the location of the oil harbour. The case study shows that land use planning is a delicate trade off between economic and social development and protection of environment and between the interests of different stakeholders. This planning process requires that information around risks of different types can be evaluated and presented in a transparent way for all the stakeholders involved. Risk is only one parameter among many in the decision process, but it is often an important one and one which is difficult to grasp.

Go to the Risk aspects in Sustainable Development homepage

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SDPROMO I

The Department of Industrial Ecology is carrying out two successive Erasmus-Mundus Action 4 projects
SDPROMO I: Promoting European Education in Sustainable Development (2006-2008) and SDPROMO II (2008-2010), which include the study of all available Master-level programs at EU Universities that focus on sustainable development, as well as the needs analysis in such an education in Latin America, Former Soviet Union countries, China, Africa, Caribbean, South-East Asia, Meda and Gulf countries. Our EU partners are UPC (Barcelona, Spain) and TU Delft (The Netherlands).
The overall aims of the projects are:

• to promote European Education in Sustainable development
• to encourage and enable highly qualified graduates and scholars from all over the world to obtain qualifications in Sustainable Development in the European Union
• to facilitate academic mobility between European Union and third-country institutions that carry out education and research in Sustainable Development
• to facilitate introduction of Sustainable Development concept in higher education and foster environmentally aware attitudes, skills and behaviour patterns, as well as a sense of ethical responsibility within the European Union and beyond its borders.

Contact: Olga Kordas

Process-based modelling of sorption as a possible tool within PA and SC modelling - A Pilot Case Exercise

Understanding of radionuclide transport and retention in fractured rock is a key in performance assessment of deep geological deposits for radioactive waste. In current reactive-transport models for radionuclide migration, the geochemical retention processes are commonly quantified through tracer (radionuclide) and site-specific conditional Kd-values, lumping a number of individual geochemical reactions. Generally, however, process-based models are expected to have a larger predictive capability and to apply over a wider range of geochemical conditions than Kd-based models. For sorption, such models explicitly handle the dependence of Kd on ionic strength, pH, Eh, and speciation of the tracer (e.g. hydrolysis and formation of soluble complexes) as well as effects of surface saturation and competition between tracers for surface sites.
Up to date, the necessity employing processed based models for sorption processes (ion-exchange and surface complexation) in Performance Assessment (PA) and in Site Characterisation (SC) and the prediction implications have not been well investigated.

This proposed project focuses on surface complexation in connection to physical transport and specifically aims at:

• Investigate the abilities of current common modelling tools (i.e. PHREEQC) to model radionuclide surface complexation in combination with physical transport.
• Investigate quantitative differences between Kd-based and process-based sorption model results for realistic fracture scenarios, with specific focus on conditions of changing major geochemistry.
• Show how processed passed modelling of sorption in connection to physical transport can be used in (and possibly improve) PA- and/or SC-modelling of radionuclide transport and retention in fractured rock.

Project leader: Ass. Professor Maria Malmström
Funding: SKB
Contact: Ass. Professor Maria Malmström

Household metabolism – Modelling the indirect environmental load of household purchase decisions and using the results to explore options for reductions and systems effects

The project aims at creating the best possible modelling tool for household metabolism of carbon nitrogen and energy based on a life cycle perspective of emissions. The tool – named EcoRunner - will be Internet based and comprises two parts, EcoRunner-total for the total household metabolism and Eco-Runner-purchase for the metabolism of single purchase decisions. During fall 2009, the tool will be used in a pilot experiment with consumers and later launched at the Internet.

Getachew Assefa, Björn Frostell, Dep. of Industrial Ecology, KTH, Stockholm, Lars Olsson, Helena Shanahan and
Contact: Ass. Professor Björn Frostell

Algae from the Baltic Sea and biogas production

A project working with a system analysis of all stages from harvest of algae in the Baltic Sea to biogas producktion have been iniated in co-operation with the municipality of Trelleborg in Southern Sweden. The project are dealing with the ecological, social and technological aspects in the production chain. Comparisons with other biomasses such as reed and blue mussels are also studied in the project. The project started during the summe of 2009 and will continue until 2011.

Contact: Ass. ProfessorFredrik Gröndahl