The biogas value chains in the Swedish region of Skåne

Biogas systems are complex in the sense that they cut across several sectors, mainly agriculture, waste management and energy. Cooperation between actors in these sectors must work for biogas projects to be realised and successful. The aim of this report is to describe the biogas systems in Skåne from a value chain perspective, including important development pathways. The different segments in the value chain are mapped with regard to actors, actors in supporting activities, technologies and institutions (mainly regulations). Skåne is a fairly small part of Sweden in terms of land area but it is the most important agricultural and food producing region in Sweden and comparatively densely populated. These characteristics explain why Skåne is an important (if not the most important) biogas region in Sweden. The earliest applications of biogas were for the purpose of reducing the volume of sewage from waste water treatment plants. The biogas produced was used mainly for plant process needs and part of it was often flared. Much of the biogas today, from a variety of types of biogas plants, is upgraded and used for transport. The development towards transport applications can be traced back to the desire to reduce oil dependence and urban air pollution from diesel buses. Initially buses were converted to compressed natural gas, but with regional ambitions for fossil free public transport attention in recent years has turned to compressed biogas. Biogas value chains have developed in response to sustainability concerns in energy and transport, sewage sludge and waste handling, and in agriculture. The development has generated new business opportunities, especially in the field of upgrading. The production of biogas, for transport fuel, waste handling and fertiliser, is expected to continue to grow in Skåne

Supervised Learning Applied to Air Traffic Trajectory Classification

Given the recent increase of interest in introducing new vehicle types and missions into the National Airspace System, a transition towards a more autonomous air traffic control system is required in order to enable and handle increased density and complexity. This paper presents an exploratory effort of the needed autonomous capabilities by exploring supervised learning techniques in the context of aircraft trajectories. In particular, it focuses on the application of machine learning algorithms and neural network models to a runway recognition trajectory-classification study. It investigates the applicability and effectiveness of various classifiers using datasets containing trajectory records for a month of air traffic. A feature importance and sensitivity analysis are conducted to challenge the chosen time-based datasets and the ten selected features. The study demonstrates that classification accuracy levels of 90% and above can be reached in less than 40 seconds of training for most machine learning classifiers when one track data point, described by the ten selected features at a particular time step, per trajectory is used as input. It also shows that neural network models can achieve similar accuracy levels but at higher training time costs

Scandinavian demonstration projects for sustainable energy and transport:Their contribution to the formation of broad and aligned networks

This report gives results of an analysis of effects of demonstration projects in transition processes to sustainable energy and transport in the Scandinavian countries. The report is a result of the research project “Role of demonstration projects in innovation: transition to sustainable energy and transport” (2013–2014). It was funded by the Forfi programme at the Research Council of Norway

Carbon Ruins: Engaging with Post-Fossil Transitions through Participatory World-Building

While many pathways to post-fossil futures have been articulated, most fail to engage people in imagining themselves as being part of those futures and involved in the transition. Following recent calls for more immersive experiences, the 2019 initiative “Carbon Ruins—An Exhibition of the Fossil Era” (Carbon Ruins) is a performance set around a historical museum from the future, which uses recognisable, culturally powerful physical objects to bridge the gap between abstract scenarios and everyday experiences. Through its physical presence and extensive media coverage, Carbon Ruins struck a chord with scientists, activists, creative professionals, policy makers, civil society organisations, and the general public. Like other imaginary worlds, Carbon Ruins is not finished. It is an open-ended process of narrating, imagining, and representing (the transition to) a post-fossil future. In this article we reflect upon Carbon Ruins as a participatory form of world-building that allows for new ways of knowing, and new ways of being, in relation to post-fossil transitions. We discern three different kinds of authorship that were taken on by participants: as originators, dwellers, and explorers. While the originator makes the future world a recognisable place, the dweller can engage active hope in place of a passive sense of urgency, and the explorer can transform resignation into commitment, with a fresh determination to leave the fossil era behind. Situating Carbon Ruins within a critical political tradition, we find post-fossil world-building to be a form of critique that destabilises accustomed ways of thinking and opens up new fields of experience that allows things to be done differently

Decarbonising industry in Sweden

This report analyses the technical opportunities for a complete decarbonisation of the basic material industry in Sweden by 2050. From this assessment, the report discusses policy implications for the industry sector given the overall framework set by the ongoing international climate negotiations. Relying on current production systems and applying “end-of-pipe” solutions will be insufficient to reduce emissions below the estimates produced by most climate economic modeling. Decarbonising the industrial sectors while maintaining production volumes requires a major effort to develop, introduce and invest in novel process designs that currently are not available on the market. For achieving this, our analysis points to the need for complementing the current main climate policy approach of pricing the emissions via the EU ETS with a stronger policy for technical change. The support needs to include funding for RD&D but also for market development support in a broad sense. So far, this approach has worked well in the renewable energy sector through the use of various support schemes. The report outlines a technology strategy for industry that identifies a set of broad technological platforms and infrastructure needs such as electrowinning, black liquor gasification, biomass based bulk chemicals, magnesium based cement, application of industrial CCS e.t.c., that all are in need of targeted support. A road map for creating a common vision between government, industry and civil society is a crucial first step. The overall purpose of a roadmap may be to establish priorities on RD&D, coordinate various actors, create networks and institutions for knowledge sharing, and map possible future technology and policy pathways

Solenergi och vätgas (ett demonstrationsprojekt)

Vätgas antas ofta ingå i ett framtida fossilfritt energisystem och därmed vara en del av lösningen till hur vi ska förhindra klimatförändringarna. Var och hur vätgas är mest lämplig att använda i ett sådant system är dock ännu oklart. Mest lovande verkar vätgas vara som ersättning för bensin och diesel i persontransporter och som långtidslagring av energi från förnybara energikällor samt som komplement till batterier på platser där elnätet inte är utbyggt. Inom de flesta av vätgasens möjliga tillämpningsområden finns andra tekniker som har liknande eller andra fördelar. Vilken teknik som kommer att användas i framtiden är därför svårt att förutse och fler demonstrationsprojekt av olika skala och utvärderingar behövs för att kunna dra några slutsatser. Vätgas framförs ofta som en miljövänlig energibärare som inte bidrar till växthuseffekten och inte har några utsläpp vid användning. Det första påståendet är endast sant då produktion sker med förnybara energiresurser. För att skapa intresse och ökad kunskap om att vätgas kan användas som drivmedel har ett vätgascykelprojekt initierats av Vätgassamverkan Syd och Kristianstad kommun. En prototyp till en elcykel som drivs av bränsleceller och batterier kommer att byggas. Om projektet är lyckat kan denna prototyp komma att utvecklas till en färdig produkt.I ett första skede kommer vätgasen till bränslecellerna köpas in på tub för tankning av cykeln. På sikt är tanken att en produktionsanläggning för vätgas ska byggas i Kristianstad. I denna ska vätgas produceras genom elektrolys med el från solceller. Produktionsanläggningen ska användas i pedagogiskt syfte inom verksamheten på C4idéforum och visa på hur vätgas kan produceras både lokalt och från förnybara energikällor. Tillsammans med cykeln demonstreras hur vätgasen kan användas som ett bränsle utan utsläpp av växthusgaser. Olika alternativ till hur en sådan produktionsanläggning kan se ut har undersökts. En av utgångspunkterna var att produktionsanläggningen skulle vara fristående vilket visade sig kraftigt begränsa valmöjligheterna bland de elektrolysörer som finns på marknaden. Efter utvärdering av ett antal liknande projekt runt om i världen där elektrolysörer kopplats till solcellspaneler togs 3 alternativ fram för tankstationen. Simuleringar av de olikaalternativen visade att alla tre var mycket dyra lösningar och att förlusterna för ett säkert system med all kringutrustning för att vätgasen ska kunna användas i cykeln blev mycket stora. Två alternativ för ett större system simulerades också vilket visade att ett större system ger bättre verkningsgrad, lägre förluster samt lägre kostnad

Comparison of Fuel Consumption of Descent Trajectories Under Arrival Metering

This paper compares fuel consumption of descent trajectories from cruise altitude to meter fix when the required time of arrival is later than the nominal time of arrival at the meter fix. The required delay, which is the difference between the nominal and the required times of arrival, is achieved by either slowing down the aircraft in the cruise and descent phases or flying a longer route at a constant altitude. Performance models of ten different Boeing and Airbus aircraft, obtained from the Base of Aircraft Data, are employed for generating the results. It is demonstrated that the most fuel-efficient speed control strategy for absorbing delay is first reducing descent speed as much as possible and then reducing cruise speed. This is a common finding for all ten aircraft considered. For some aircraft, flying at a fixed flight path angle and constant Mach-calibrated-airspeed results in lower fuel consumption compared to standard descent at idle-thrust and constant Mach-calibrated- airspeed. Finally, for the cases examined, it is shown that executing a path stretch maneuver at cruise altitude and descent at a reduced speed is more fuel efficient than inserting an intermediate-altitude cruise segment

Performance of an Automated System for Control of Traffic in Terminal Airspace

This paper examines the performance of a system that performs automated conflict resolution and arrival scheduling for aircraft in the terminal airspace around major airports. Such a system has the potential to perform separation assurance and arrival sequencing tasks that are currently handled manually by human controllers. The performance of the system is tested against several simulated traffic scenarios that are characterized by the rate at which air traffic is metered into the terminal airspace. For each traffic scenario, the levels of performance that are examined include: number of conflicts predicted to occur, types of resolution maneuver used to resolve predicted conflicts, and the amount of delay for all flights. The simulation results indicate that the percentage of arrivals that required a maneuver that changes the flight's horizontal route ranged between 11% and 15% in all traffic scenarios. That finding has certain implications if this automated system were to be implemented simply as a decision support tool. It is also found that arrival delay due to purely wake vortex separation requirements on final approach constituted only between 29% and 35% of total arrival delay, while the remaining major portion of it is mainly due to delay back propagation effects