Suchergebnisse

There is a steadily growing awareness for environmental issues caused by the increased energy use, mainly in the industrial world. The use of fossil fuels has reached the point where it can not be looked at as an endless source, the resources are decreasing at a pace where alternative energy sources will be a necessity for this and future generations. Global warming, due to increased concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, has become one of the most important issues on the political agenda at all levels. A widespread opinion is that energy conservation technologies are needed and a shift towards renewable energy sources is required to attain a sustainable development of our society and a progress in the developing countries. This thesis is focusing on two different energy conservation technologies in different applications. The open absorption system, a modification of an absorption heat pump is a promising technique in moist air processes, recovering the latent heat in the air and decreasing the total heat demand. The technology has been tested in two full scale pilot plants at a sawmill operating four timber dryers and another unit installed at an indoor swimming pool. The technique has had positive outcomes in both operational energy conservation respects. It has been shown that the energy demand was decreased considerably in both applications. The investment cost has proved to be relatively high, but optimization of operational parameters shows a potential to decrease the initial investment and make the technology more competitive. Pressurized entrained-flow high temperature black liquor gasification (PEHT- BLG), developed by Chemrec AB, is another novel technique presented in this thesis. Black liquor is an important by-product in the papermaking process. Chemicals and energy is recovered in the conventional recovery boiler where superheated steam is produced to generate electricity and process heat. The cooking chemicals are recovered from the smelt in the bottom of the boiler in a separate recovery cycle. By introducing PEHT-BLG, a synthesis gas is obtained that can be used to generate electricity or be reformed into alternative automotive fuels. A demonstration plant, constructed by Chemrec AB, has been running periodically since late 2005. The plant is located at the Kappa Smurfit mill in conjunction with the Energy Technology Centre in Piteå, Sweden. In this thesis CFD models of the quench and counter current condenser have been performed and presented. The long term objectives with the CFD models are to create a tool that can be an aid in future scale-ups and for optimisation purposes. Since PEHT-BLG enhances the flexibility of the black liquor recovery cycle it is a promising alternative for future industrial commercialization if the remaining issues can be overcome. ; Godkänd; 2007; 20070511 (ysko)

Donor aid is often regarded as being informally tied (aid increases donorrecipient exports) and this effect is, in general, interpreted as being harmful to aid recipients. However, in this paper, using a gravity model, we show that aid is also positively associated with recipient-donor exports. That is, aid increases bilateral trade ows in both directions. Our interpretation is that an intensi ed aid relation reduces the e ective cost of geographic distance. We find a particularly strong relation between aid in the form of technical assistance and exports in both directions. When we disaggregate aid to specifically study the effects from trade-related assistance (Aid for Trade) the effect is small and fully accounted for by aid to investments in trade-related infrastructure. Our sample includes all 184 countries for which data is available during the period 1990 to 2005.

AbstractCriticisms of nudging suggest that nudges infringe on decision makers' autonomy. Yet, little empirical research has explored whether people who are subjected to nudges agree. In three between-group experiments (N = 2083), we subject participants to contrasting choice architectures and measure experiences of autonomy, choice-satisfaction, perceived threat to freedom of choice, and objection to the choice architecture. Participants who received a prosocial opt-out default nudge made more prosocial choices but did not report lower autonomy or choice satisfaction than participants in opt-in default or active-choice conditions. This was the case even when the presence of the nudge was disclosed, and when monetary choice stakes were introduced. With monetary choice stakes, participants perceived the threat to freedom of choice as slightly higher in the nudge condition than in the other conditions, but objection to the choice architecture did not differ between the conditions. Taken together, our results suggest that default nudges are less manipulative and autonomy-infringing than sometimes feared. We recommend that policymakers include measures of choice experiences when testing out new interventions.

The departure point of this paper is the use of visualization as a tool in action case research. In such research, the researcher seeks a balance between interpreting qualitative data and intervening to solve the problem of the research partner. The communicative and knowledge aspects of visualization are highlighted. The research partner in this research, Flower Systems Ltd. (FSL), is a software company that has developed the ISOX 2000 document management system especially to meet the needs of social services in local governments. Over the last year, employees at various social service agencies have complained about the usability and user friendliness of ISOX. In the action case research two kinds of results are expected: concrete results, as in taking action in a problem solving context (here, the usability problem with ISOX), and conceptual results, as in listing proposed changes to a theoretical framework. The question raised in this paper is: What are the benefits of using visualization as a tool for building interpretations and understandings that are shared by both researchers and practitioners? The concrete results of the collaboration are 1) a more user-friendly, redesigned version of ISOX based on the use of different visualization techniques and 2) a change in how FSL works on redesign. The conceptual result is a list of proposed changes to the knowledge visualization framework, based on the empirical findings and theoretical framework regarding visualization

An ongoing discussion concerns road-pricing schemes as measures to abate traffic congestion and air pollution in metropolitan areas. If such measures are to be effective, road-pricing fees must be set sufficiently high However, municipalities are likely to have other goals besides reducing car use, such as upholding fairness among citizens and financial goals such as creating revenues. If conflicts prove to exist between different goals, road-pricing schemes are not likely to achieve the environmental goal. To investigate the degree to which these goal conflicts exist, members of the local governments in the three major metropolitan areas of Sweden responded to a survey questionnaire. In the questionnaire they rated a number of principles guiding the setting of road-pricing fees hypothesized to correspond to the three goals. The results showed that, for the political majority, the hypothesized goal conflicts existed in that no single goal was optimized. It is concluded that in particular fairness may prevent road pricing achieving the environmental goal.

The United Nation's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer an extensive framework for coordinating and shaping government policies, and for engaging the public with sustainability. Public understanding of the SDGs and sustainability can influence this engagement, as people are more likely to accept and share information consistent with their own understanding. We identify public understandings of SDGs through mental maps of how people relate the SDGs to environmental, social and economic sustainability. Using responses from 12 developed/developing countries (n = 2,134), we identified four mental maps that varied mainly on two dimensions, which diverged from some expert models. Some people's mental maps identified tension between achieving environmental versus social sustainability, whereas for others the tension was between economic sustainability and the other two sustainability elements. Some people related different SDGs to each element of sustainability, whereas others saw all SDGs as targeting the same sustainability element(s). These findings highlight opportunities and challenges to engage the public with sustainability more effectively, especially with wide-ranging initiatives such as a Green New Deal. We observed cultural differences but we also identified a dominant mental map across countries that could serve as a default model for communicating sustainability internationally.

Personal and political action on climate change is traditionally thought to be motivated by people accepting its reality and importance. However, convincing the public that climate change is real faces powerful ideological obstacles1, 2, 3, 4, and climate change is slipping in public importance in many countries5, 6. Here we investigate a different approach, identifying whether potential co-benefits of addressing climate change7 could motivate pro-environmental behaviour around the world for both those convinced and unconvinced that climate change is real. We describe an integrated framework for assessing beliefs about co-benefits8, distinguishing social conditions (for example, economic development, reduced pollution or disease) and community character (for example, benevolence, competence). Data from all inhabited continents (24 countries; 6,196 participants) showed that two co-benefit types, Development (economic and scientific advancement) and Benevolence (a more moral and caring community), motivated public, private and financial actions to address climate change to a similar degree as believing climate change is important. Critically, relationships were similar for both convinced and unconvinced participants, showing that co-benefits can motivate action across ideological divides. These relationships were also independent of perceived climate change importance, and could not be explained by political ideology, age, or gender. Communicating co-benefits could motivate action on climate change where traditional approaches have stalled.