Road salt emissions: A comparison of measurements and modelling using the NORTRIP road dust emission model

AbstractDe-icing of road surfaces is necessary in many countries during winter to improve vehicle traction. Large amounts of salt, most often sodium chloride, are applied every year. Most of this salt is removed through drainage or traffic spray processes but a certain amount may be suspended, after drying of the road surface, into the air and will contribute to the concentration of particulate matter. Though some measurements of salt concentrations are available near roads, the link between road maintenance salting activities and observed concentrations of salt in ambient air is yet to be quantified. In this study the NORTRIP road dust emission model, which estimates the emissions of both dust and salt from the road surface, is applied at five sites in four Nordic countries for ten separate winter periods where daily mean ambient air measurements of salt concentrations are available. The model is capable of reproducing many of the salt emission episodes, both in time and intensity, but also fails on other occasions. The observed mean concentration of salt in PM10, over all ten datasets, is 4.2 μg/m3 and the modelled mean is 2.8 μg/m3, giving a fractional bias of −0.38. The RMSE of the mean concentrations, over all 10 datasets, is 2.9 μg/m3 with an average R2 of 0.28. The mean concentration of salt is similar to the mean exhaust contribution during the winter periods of 2.6 μg/m3. The contribution of salt to the kerbside winter mean PM10 concentration is estimated to increase by 4.1 ± 3.4 μg/m3 for every kg/m2 of salt applied on the road surface during the winter season. Additional sensitivity studies showed that the accurate logging of salt applications is a prerequisite for predicting salt emissions, as well as good quality data on precipitation. It also highlights the need for more simultaneous measurements of salt loading together with ambient air concentrations to help improve model parameterisations of salt and moisture removal processes

Life Cycle Assessment of Road Vehicles for Private and Public Transportation

Ever increasing prosperity and global civilization heralds an increasing demand for communication and transport. The transport sector alone accounts for one quarter of global human greenhouse gas emissions. In the transport sector, road transport alone is responsible for 70%. To help mitigate these emissions, people are advised to take advantage of public transportation systems, on the argument that public transit is more environmentally friendly than private transport. To assess the environmental benefits of public transit contra private transport, a process life cycle analysis is performed on three private vehicles and three transit vehicles. The private vehicles are composed of a Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV), a hatchback family car and a smaller subcompact car. The transit buses consist of two intercity buses with different motors: one bus powered by diesel and one powered by compressed natural gas. A third bus, a long distance diesel coach, is also analyzed.The results from the LCA are addressed and the emissions associated with the passenger kilometres travelled are benchmarked and analyzed

Concept study of slurry lifting from deep sea mining in an arctic environment

Ved store havdyp finnes det mineral- og metallrike avsetninger. Flere av disse metallene brukes i dagens teknologi for produksjon og lagring av fornybar energi. Videre er det forventet en økning i etterspørselen av metallene brukt i teknogi forbundet med det grønne skiftet. Midhavsrygger forbindes ofte med hydrotemale skorsteiner og de stabile forholdene rundt midthavsrygger tillater at det over tid kan samles opp store avsetninger av massive sulfider, også referert til som SMS (Seafloor Massive Sulphides) som felles ut av væsken som kommer ut av skorsteinene. Norge har suverenitet over en del av den nordlige Midtatlantiske ryggen i forbindelse med suverenitet av Jan Mayen og Spitsbergen er noen av disse områdene interessante for undersjøisk guvedrift. I tilegg er det bekreftet flere aktive skorsteiner med tilhørende SMS avsteninger i disse områdene. En teknisk utfordring med å hente ut disse mineralene fra havdyp på 800-5000 meters dyp er å løfte den brutte malmen til overflaten. Dagens løsning med å løfte malmen er å bruke en stiv riser som henger fra et produksjonsfartøy i overflaten, mens malmen løftes ved hjelp av en nedsenkbar pumpe som pumper opp malmen som en slurry til produksjonsfartøyet. En ulempe med denne løsningen er at den ikke tåler store værlaster, for eksemper bølger, som er vanlige i arktis. Denne masteroppgaven består av et konseptuelt design av et løftesystem som kan brukes i arktiske strøk. Designet er basert på en litteraturstudie og designet er evaluert ved hjelp av en FMECA (Feil Moduser Effekt og Kritikalitets Analyse, "Failure Modes Effects and Criticality Analysis"). Design studien ble avgrenset til løfting av en slurry, hvor slurryen blir sendt inn til systemet ferdig blandet med sjøvann i et fleksibel rør. Et resultat av FMECAen er hvilken komponent som er mest kritisk for svikt. Fokuset i denne FMECAen var teknisk svikt og estimat av påfølgende nedetid. Det er ikke blitt foretatt et detaljert design av det foreslåtte konseptet, men en mulighetstudie av ulike konsepter. Grunnet denne mangelen av detaljer har ikke detaljerte dimensjoner blitt etablert og kostnadsestimat er ikke utført. Det foreslåtte designet er en hybrid riser løsning som står på havbunnen og er koblet til overflatefartøyet ved hjelp av et fleksibelt stigerør. Slurrien blir løftet ved hjelp av en fortregningspumpe drevet av trykksatt returvann. Dette konseptet frigjør stigerøret fra overflatefartøyets bevegelser, men stigerøret blir da ikke mobilt. En konsekvens av dette er at det er et større behov for infrastruktur på havbunnen. Men dette kan gi muligheten for å skape en løftesentral for flere mindre felt. En mulighet med en slik sentral er at en kan samle ressuser som trengs for undervanns sørvis. Hammerfest ble valgt som logistikk havn for operasjonen og har en seilings avstand på circa 616 kilometer fra Lokeslottet. Det ble antatt en uplanlagt mobilsering av et skip med last vil ta fem dager til det er på plass ved Lokeslottet. Dette ble brukt til estimat av uplanlagt nedetid. En observasjon av dette var at det å ikke ha deler, utstyr eller personell tiljengelig ved behov kan medføre mye ekstra nedetid. For å unngå ikke planlagt nedetid kan det være lurt å bruke tilstandovervåkning til å overvåke tilstanden på installert utstyr, slik at nødvendig vedlikehold kan bli utført ved planlagte stans. FMECAen endte med 106 feilmoduser, den mest kritiske feilen var utmatting i "slurry pipe". Noen flere feil er vurdert i diskusjonsdelen. Flere frekvensestimater og nedetidsestimater er hentet fra "OREDA 2015 subsea equipment reliability handbook". Hvor overførbare pålitlighetsdataene er til undersjøisk gruvedrift er uvisst, men det er en av få tiljengelige åpne pålitlighetsdatabaser. Det er lite data å sammenligne resultatene i FMECAen med, så en validering av disse resultatene var ikke mulig. Til videre arbeid er det foreslått å utføre et mer detaljert design slik at et skikkelig grundighetstudie kan utføres, et videre studie i å bruke en riser kollektivt til løfting fra flere felt og se på hvilken størrelse på avsetningene som er av interesse.In the deep sea there are deposits that can contain large volumes of high-grade ore containing minerals and metals used in new renewable energy technology. A boost in the demand for these metals are expected to increase due to focus towards the green energy transition. Mid ocean spreading ridges are often associated with hydrothermal vents, that can accumulate significant Seafloor Massive Sulphide (SMS) deposits, due to the stable conditions allowing for long-lived venting activity. Metals are also found in polymetallic nodules, metal-rich crusts and as rare-earth elements (REE). Norway has sovereignty of a part of the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where hydrothermal vents and SMS deposits are confirmed. A technical challenge of extracting minerals from deep waters (800-5000 meters) is to lift the ore from the seabed to the surface. The current state-of-the-art lifting systems consists of a riser hanging off the production vessel and utilises a submersible pump to lift the slurry to the surface vessel. A limitation of this design is that it cannot be operated during harsh environmental conditions, like in the arctic. This thesis consists of a conceptual design study of a lifting system suitable for arctic environments. The design is based on a literature review and an evaluation of this design by the use of a Failure Modes Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA). The design was limited to slurry lifting, where the slurry enters the system premixed with seawater delivered by a flexible jumper. The goal of the FMECA is to expose the most critical components in the design. The main focus of the FMECA has been towards the operational phase and the possibilities for maintenance and rough downtime estimates. There has not been a detailed design of the suggested system, more an exploratory study of the possible concepts. Due to this lack of detail there are no detailed dimensions and economic estimates. The final suggested design is a hybrid riser configuration, standing on the seabed and connected to the surface vessel by a flexible jumper. The slurry is lifted by the use of a positive displacement pump, powered by the pressurised return water of the slurry. This concept decouples the riser from the motions of the surface vessel, but the riser is stationary. A consequence of this is that more bottom infrastructure is needed as a field expands, but this also opens up for new possibilities; a central lifting hub serving several smaller fields and the hub can host several subsea service capabilities. Hammerfest was the harbour of choice as the logistics harbour. It is a town located on the Norwegian mainland and has approximately 616 km sailing distance to the sites along the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge where hydrothermal vents and SMS deposits are confirmed. It is assumed it will take five days for an unplanned mobilisation of a vessel to deliver goods. This was used to estimate downtime. A conclusion from this exercise was that the logistics of the operations are important, and the potential wait of lacking spares, equipment or personnel can lead to serious extensions to unplanned downtime. To avoid unplanned downtime it is important to monitor the state of the equipment used. The tools for data assisted condition monitoring can be helpful to track the degradation of the monitored equipment and one can perform preventive maintenance on the degraded equipment during the planned maintenance cycles. The FMECA resulted in 106 failure modes and the most critical component was the slurry pipe failing due to fatigue. A few selected failures are selected for the discussion. Some of the frequency estimates and repair time estimates was selected from the OREDA 2015 subsea equipment reliability data handbook. The true match of the reliability data is uncertain, but this is one of the few available offshore reliability databases. The focus of the FMECA was mainly towards technical failures, resulting in downtime due to repair and some failures due to environmental spillages. There are little data to compare the results with and one is unable to check the validity of these results. For further work it is suggested to complete a more detailed design to check technical feasibility, and to explore the use of a collective lifting hub further to see what size deposits are of interest

Air quality mapping of NO2 with the use of passive samplers.

To assist in producing spatial maps of NO2 concentrations this report details methodologies for creating such maps in a cost effective way, with the use of passive samplers. It provides an overview of passive sampling methods in regard to their costs and quality. It then provides a statistical assessment of the uncertainty in converting limitedpassive sampler measurements to annual mean and percentile concentrations, based on an analysis of measurement data available in Nordic countries. This is discussed in relation to the European air quality directives. It then reviews the current state-of-the-art in air quality mapping using both passive samplers and other data sources. Finally it describes and recommends different mapping methodologies

NORTRIP model development and documentation: NOn-exhaust Road TRaffic Induced Particle emission modelling.

The NORTRIP model is the result of research efforts carried out by a number of Nordic institutes to improve our understanding and ability to model non-exhaust traffic emissions and has been developed through the Nordic Council of Ministers project NORTRIP (NOn-exhaust Road Traffic Induced Particle emissions). The NORTRIP model is a process based non-exhaust emission model that is intended for application without site specific empirical factors. It takes into account direct wear emissions, the build up of mass on the road surface, the suspension of this mass, as well as the application and suspension of salt and sand. It combines a road dust sub-model with a road moisture sub-model in order to properly describe the retention of dust on the road surface. The model can be applied for assessment purposes and for the management and evaluation of abatement strategies regarding road wear, salting and sanding. The model development and its documentation, along with its application to a large number of Nordic datasets, is described in detail in this report

Scenario dispersion and exposure calculations of NO2 for 2010, 2015 and 2020 for Oslo.

Commissioned by SFT, NILU has performed dispersion and exposure calculations to estimate the NO2 concentrations for 2010, 2015 and 2020. A change in vehicular class composition and NOX emission oxidation rates have been made to investigate the effect, and to better reflect recent years trends in measurement data

Modelling non-exhaust emissions of PM10 in Oslo. Impact of the environmental speed limit using the NORTRIP model.

This report was requested by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (Statens vegvesen) to provide information concerning non-exhaust traffic emissions in Oslo and the impact of changes in environmental speed limits on these emissions. This report provides the results of calculations made with the dispersion model EPISODE coupled to the NORTRIP road dust emission model, a recently developed emission model for calculating non-exhaust emissions. The change in modelled emissions due to changes in environmental speed limit are calculated for two different speed scenarios, where 'speed limit' and 'realistic speed' changes are compared. In addition the impact of the environmental speed limit is compared to other road dust control measures involving studded tyre share and heavy duty vehicle reduction, taken from a previous report

Net zero portfolio targets for development finance institutions: challenges and solutions

Development finance needs to be better aligned with climate change objectives, and many experts see net zero portfolio targets as a powerful way to achieve this. This paper explores the operational implications of net zero portfolio targets for development finance institutions (DFIs). We set out an agenda to move development finance towards net zero goals in a way that acknowledges development concerns. These include (1) setting context-specific emissions pathways with granular bottom-up data and emphasising climate-development win-wins; (2) dealing with inertia and lumpiness in the portfolio through ‘when’ flexibility (multiyear carbon budgets) and ‘where’ flexibility (sharing of carbon space); (3) encouraging transition projects through future-emissions accounting and transition credits; (4) managing climate-development and other trade-offs with an internal carbon price and ESG standards; and (5) accounting for emissions after project-end with monitoring and legal provisions

Multi-color imaging of sub-mitochondrial structures in living cells using structured illumination microscopy

Source at https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2017-0112. Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.The dimensions of mitochondria are close to the diffraction limit of conventional light microscopy techniques, making the complex internal structures of mitochondria unresolvable. In recent years, new fluorescence-based optical imaging techniques have emerged, which allow for optical imaging below the conventional limit, enabling super-resolution (SR). Possibly the most promising SR and diffraction-limited microscopy techniques for live-cell imaging are structured illumination microscopy (SIM) and deconvolution microscopy (DV), respectively. Both SIM and DV are widefield techniques and therefore provide fast-imaging speed as compared to scanning based microscopy techniques. We have exploited the capabilities of three-dimensional (3D) SIM and 3D DV to investigate different sub-mitochondrial structures in living cells: the outer membrane, the intermembrane space, and the matrix. Using different mitochondrial probes, each of these sub-structures was first investigated individually and then in combination. We describe the challenges associated with simultaneous labeling and SR imaging and the optimized labeling protocol and imaging conditions to obtain simultaneous three-color SR imaging of multiple mitochondrial regions in living cells. To investigate both mitochondrial dynamics and structural details in the same cell, the combined usage of DV for long-term time-lapse imaging and 3D SIM for detailed, selected time point analysis was a useful strategy