Utformning av ett hållbart och kostnadseffektivt energisystem : en genomförbarhets studie vid Rusape General Hospital i Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe suffers from power outages due to reduced electricity generation from the two main energy sources coal- and hydropower. Even though the electricity supply to the hospital are highly prioritized during these blackouts, the electricity is not enough to power them all. The country has faced problems with lack of fossil fuel availability and high fuel prices. This report focuses on Rusape General Hospital in the Makoni district which is grid-connected and has diesel generators as a backup system. The aim of this project was to perform a feasibility study and examine how a sustainable energy system at the hospital would look like to reduce the power outages. A system which would be driven by solar power and uses batteries as a backup system was investigated. It was a comparison between the current system and two potential future systems with renewable energy. One of the most critical areas is the maternity ward including an operating room, which is highly prioritized among the departments at the hospital. The project examined how the energy system would look like whether the energy production covered the entire hospital or only the maternity ward. The information needed for the project was collected during a study visit of eight weeks at the hospital through interviews and a questionnaire formula. This was in a collaboration with Family Action for Community Empowerment in Zimbabwe and Engineers Without Borders. To analyse the different systems a software called HOMER Pro was used for the simulations. It gives the most cost-efficient energy production for a given system. Through simulations, the most cost-efficient solution for the entire hospital was a system with photovoltaic (PV) panels, Lithium-Ion batteries and the existing diesel generators, called System 1 in this paper. It resulted in an energy production of 131 112 kWh annually from the PV panels alone and required an installed capacity of 81.1 kW. The suggested system for the maternity ward is called System 2, with PV panels and Lithium-Ion batteries. The energy production from PV panels was in this case 7102 kWh annually and corresponded to an installed capacity of 4.43 kW. The challenges for these two suggested systems would be the lack of installers in the country, how the global warming will affect the temperature sensitive components in the future, the high investment costs and the variations of the electric load at the hospital

The potential to use rhizobacteria within agricultural innovations instead of chemical inputs : taking quality and quantity of the crop into consideration

Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are soil bacteria that occur naturally, colonize the roots of plants and can promote plant growth. PGPR isolated and used as inoculum to seed or plants is mostly marketed as a growth stimulant because it facilitates registration and reduces costs, even though PGPR may also serve as biocontrol products. An example of its effect as a growth stimulant is that it can stimulate an increased growth of lateral roots, which in itself leads to e.g. increased water and mineral uptake and thus a stronger plant. Quantity and quality effects of crops harvested on PGPR treated material will be addressed in this work and will be focussed on food crops. Possible conflicts with organic production will also be addressed. Use in climates like Swedish conditions will be the main focus, however comparisons will be made between Sweden and a global scale. It will be discussed when PGPR will be used to a greater extent, what is required to get there and what knowledge gaps there are. This literature study was conducted by collection of data and search of scientific literature in databases. In conclusion, several of the studies have shown that both the quality and quantity are not only maintained with the use of PGPR, but also improved

Kommunal skolbiblioteksutveckling i professionell samverkan : En praktisk diskursanalys med fallstudie

Denna uppsats undersöker skolbibliotekens förutsättningar på kommunal nivå genom att använda sig av flera teoretiska och metodologiska angreppssätt. Särskilt central är frågan om varför relativt få elever har tillgång till skolbibliotek, trots att deras rätt till detta har varit lagstadgad sedan 2011. Uppsatsen vilar dels på en kulturanalys och dels på en fallstudie av ett projektarbete i Kiruna kommun där målet var att ta fram en skolbiblioteksmodell för samverkan mellan det kommunala biblioteket och skolan. Kulturanalysens kärna utgörs av en diskursanalys av skolbibliotekens kontext och villkor utifrån tre aktörer som är centrala i arbetet med skolbiblioteksutveckling på kommunal nivå: Skolan; Biblioteket; Kommunpolitiken. Fallstudien syftar till att ta vara på den kunskapsutveckling och det teoretiska arbetet utfördes i samband med projektarbetet, samt att utgöra en konkret bas för en vidare analys av skolbibliotekens villkor. Uppsatsens grundantagande är att även om diskursiva skillnader och strider kan vara till fördel för en verksamhets utveckling måste det finnas tillräckliga kontaktytor aktörerna emellan för att en verksamhet alls ska vara möjlig. Utifrån detta undersöks hinder och möjligheter för att detta ska ske. Sammanfattningsvis visar uppsatsen på att skolbibliotekens utveckling är beroende av en komplicerad dynamik. En skolbiblioteksutveckling av det slag som förespråkas av bibliotekssfären – i enlighet med enligt skolans värden ”beprövad erfarenhet och vetenskaplig grund” – innebär ur skolans perspektiv en omfattande omställning i förhållande till nuvarande föreställningar om skolbibliotekets verksamhet. Tillsammans med ekonomiska faktorer påverkar därför organisationskulturella faktorer och förkunskaper förutsättningarna för skolbibliotekens utveckling. Det finns därför behov av breda fortbildningsinsatser gentemot skolan, tvärvetenskaplig forskning om skolbibliotek samt motsvarande inslag i lärarutbildningen. Det går även att se ett behov av att biblioteksfältet ytterligare etablerar sig som profession. Slutligen är det av vikt att förr snarare än senare upprätta ramar för evidensbaserad och integrerad skolbiblioteksverksamhet där skol- och biblioteksprofessionerna kan mötas i praktiskt samarbete – snarare än att låta skolbiblioteksdiskursen fastna i logistik, isolerade (till skillnad från integrerade) biblioteksinsatser eller ett sökande efter konsensus i resonemang om den ideala innebörden i begreppet ”skolbibliotek”

Optimisering av elanvändning vid batteriproduktion

Energy storage is an important key for future energy systems. A most common form of energy storage is the battery. However, producing a battery is not very efficient nor sustainable. Therefore, every part and every machine in the manufacturing process must be measured and analysed. The next step is to find solutions of how to make each part more effective. The purpose of the thesis was to analyse the power consumption of a battery cycling machine and log the temperature changes. The quality of a battery cell is tested by charging and discharging the cell to different state of charge in this machine. The results showed a lower efficiency during standby state, which is a state when the machine is not used yet is still running. The efficiency increased during charge and discharge of the cells. Moreover, with enough cells discharging at the same time, the machine could produce electricity. This would also mean that the cells charge at the same time and lead to a volatile load profile. The temperature increased slightly during charge and discharge but not above the upper limit. In summary, by scheming the usage of the machines adapted to the number of cells, some machines can be turned off instead of being in standby state. All the machines should be connected to each other in order to exchange excess electricity between them. These solutions can lower the power consumption and make the process more efficient

Optimisering av elanvändning vid batteriproduktion

Energy storage is an important key for future energy systems. A most common form of energy storage is the battery. However, producing a battery is not very efficient nor sustainable. Therefore, every part and every machine in the manufacturing process must be measured and analysed. The next step is to find solutions of how to make each part more effective. The purpose of the thesis was to analyse the power consumption of a battery cycling machine and log the temperature changes. The quality of a battery cell is tested by charging and discharging the cell to different state of charge in this machine. The results showed a lower efficiency during standby state, which is a state when the machine is not used yet is still running. The efficiency increased during charge and discharge of the cells. Moreover, with enough cells discharging at the same time, the machine could produce electricity. This would also mean that the cells charge at the same time and lead to a volatile load profile. The temperature increased slightly during charge and discharge but not above the upper limit. In summary, by scheming the usage of the machines adapted to the number of cells, some machines can be turned off instead of being in standby state. All the machines should be connected to each other in order to exchange excess electricity between them. These solutions can lower the power consumption and make the process more efficient

Carbon balance in boreal forests : Forest management for minimising climate impact and school pupils' misconceptions of the carbon cycle.

Koldioxidhalterna stiger i världen, vilket bidrar till global uppvärmning. Skogen har en viktig roll i klimatarbetet då stora mängder kol finns lagrad i skog och mark. Speciellt mycket kol finns i boreal skog, som bland annat finns i norra Sverige. Idag pågår en debatt huruvida det är mer fördelaktigt att behålla gammal skog som kolsänka, eller avverka den för att ge plats åt yngre träd. Syftet med litteraturstudien var att ge en klargörande bild över hur åldern på boreal skog påverkar ekosystemets kolbalans, genom att undersöka skogens kolupptagningshastighet samt möjlighet till kollagring. Studien visade att äldre skog har ett större totalt kollager, att medelåldrig skog har högst tillväxthastighet (nettoekosystemproduktion, NEP och nettoprimärproduktion, NPP) samt att NEP är negativ de första 10 åren. Studien visade på osäkerhet kring kolupptag i gamla skogar. Flera variabler, såsom substitution, störningar och biologisk mångfald är inte undersökta i studien och behövs tas i beaktning vid beslutsfattande. Trots detta, antyder litteraturstudien att det är fördelaktigt att låta gammal skog stå kvar som kolsänka, eftersom koldioxidutsläppen behöver minska snarast. Ytterligare ett syfte med studien var att kartlägga de missuppfattningar elever, i senare delen av skolan, har gällande kolets kretslopp. Studien visade på missuppfattningar gällande fotosyntes och respiration hos växter, nedbrytarnas roll samt sammanblandning av begrepp. För att åtgärda problemet kan uppgifter göras där atomer följs över olika nivåer, för att sätta processerna i sitt sammanhang. Stort fokus gällande missuppfattningarna ligger på fotosyntes och respiration och inga artiklar hittades gällande exempelvis det snabba, respektive långsamma, kretsloppet. Få studier är gjorda på svenska elever och då svensk kursplan lägger fokus på samband mellan olika nivåer kan missuppfattningarna vara i annorlunda i Sverige. Hur missuppfattningarna ser ut i svensk skola är föremål för vidare forskning.The amount of carbon dioxide is rising in the atmosphere, which contributes, to global warming. Since large amounts of carbon are stored in forests, forests play an important part the efforts to improve the environment. Boreal forests, found in e.g. the northern part of Sweden, store especially large amounts of carbon. Today it is being debated whether it is more beneficial for the environment to keep old forests as a carbon sink, or to cut them down in order to make room for younger trees. The purpose of this literature study was to clarify how the age of the forest affects the carbon balance of the ecosystem, by examining the forest’s rate of carbon sequestration and capability of carbon storage. The literature study concluded that older forests, in total, store larger amounts of carbon, while middle-aged forests have he highest growth rate (net ecosystem production, NEP, and gross primary production, GPP) and that NEP is negative in the first ten years. The study showed some uncertainty concerning carbon uptake in old forests. Several variables, such as the effects of substitution, disturbances and biodiversity were not examined in this study and need to be further considered before making decisions. However, the literature study suggests that it is more beneficial to leave old forests as a carbon sink, since emissions of carbon dioxide urgently need to be reduced. Another purpose of the study was to examine the misconceptions that students, in the later school years, have regarding the carbon cycle. This study found misconceptions concerning photosynthesis and respiration in plants, the role of decomposers, as well as getting concepts mixed up with one another. To solve this problem, assignments could be designed where atoms are traced between different levels, in order to put the processes in context. A large part of the focus regarding these misconceptions has been on photosynthesis and respiration and no articles were found regarding e.g. the fast; and the slow; carbon cycle. Few studies of Swedish students have been made and since the Swedish curriculum focuses on the relationship between different levels, the misconceptions might be different in Sweden; what these misconceptions could be in Swedish schools is yet to be investigated