Parhaat käyttökelpoiset tekniikat (BAT) perunankuorimoiden jätteiden käsittelyssä -käytäntöjä Euroopan maista

Yhä suurempi osa suurkeittiöistä ja ravintoloista käyttää ruuan valmistuksessa valmiiksi prosessoituja kasviksia, jotka hankitaan pääasiassa lähellä sijaitsevista tilakuorimoista. Kuorimoilla syntyy suuria määriä jätettä, enimmäkseen kuorijätteitä, multaa ja jätevettä. Tässä työssä tarkastellaan perunankuorimoiden kuorintamenetelmiä ja kuorintaprosessia, prosessissa syntyviä jätteitä ja niiden käsittelyä sekä ympäristöasioiden hallintamenetel-miä kuorimoilla Suomessa ja muissa EU-maissa. Työn tavoitteena oli selvittää, minkälainen on lainsäädäntö ja minkälaiset ovat kuorimotoimintaa koskevat lupakäytännöt Ruotsissa, Saksassa, Belgiassa ja Iso-Britanniassa. Lisäksi tavoitteena oli selvittää, onko näissä maissa määritelty, millainen on perunankuorimoille soveltuva paras käyttökelpoinen tekniikka (BAT) erityisesti jätteiden käsittelyssä. Euroopan yhteisön neuvoston direktiivi (96/61/EY) ympäristön pilaantumisen ehkäisemisen ja vähentämisen yhtenäistämiseksi edellyttää perunankuorimoilta toimintaansa ympäristöluvan. Laitosten koko, joilta ympäristölupa vaaditaan, vaihtelee suuresti eri maissa. Myös kuorimoiden jäteveden puhdistusvaatimukset vaihtelevat maittain. Belgi-assa ja Saksassa perunankuorimoilla syntyville jätevesille on asetettu päästöraja-arvot laissa. Kansallinen BAT-ohjeistus vihanneksia ja hedelmiä jatkojalostavalle teollisuudelleon tehty Belgiassa ja Iso-Britanniassa. Sen sijaan Saksassa ja Ruotsissa kansallista ohjeistusta ei ole tehty. Kansallisten BAT-ohjeistusten pohjalta Euroopan yhteisöjen komissio on julkaissut tammikuussa 2006 elintarviketeollisuudelle BAT-vertailuasiakirjan eli BREFin (BAT Referense Document), joissa kuvataan yleisellä tasolla BAT-tekniikoiksi sovitut tekniikat mm. perunan prosessoinnissa. Tässä työssä tuli ilmi, että kokoerot Suomen ja tässä työssä tarkasteltavien maiden kuo-rimoiden välillä ovat suuret. Voidaankin todeta, että tässä työssä tarkastelluissa BAT - ohjeistuksissa ja Euroopan komission BREF-dokumentissa esitetyt BAT-tekniikat etenkin jätevedenpuhdistuksessa eivät suoraan ole sovellettavissa Suomen olosuhteisiin kuorimoidemme pienestä koosta johtuen. Kiinteiden kuorintajätteiden käsittelyssä BAT-tekniikoiksi ulkomailla on määritelty lä-hinnä rehukäyttö, kompostointi ja peltoon levitys. Perunankuorimoiden jäteveden puhdistuksessa BAT-tekniikaksi Belgiassa on määritelty primääripuhdistus ja sekundääripuhdistus aerobisella menetelmällä. Iso-Britanniassapuolestaan BAT-tekniikkaa on primää-ripuhdistus, sekundääripuhdistus aerobisesti tai anaerobisesti ja tertiääripuhdistus, mikäli se on taloudellisesti mahdollista toteuttaa. Kuorijätteiden kompostointi on tällä hetkelläSuomessa melko harvinaista, sillä jätteiden suuri vesipitoisuus ja kylmä ilmastomme vaikeuttavat kompostointia. Kompostointimah-dollisuuksia ja kompostointiprosessin optimointia kuorintajätteille sopivaksi tulisikin tutkia tulevaisuudessa yhtenä jätteiden käsittelyvaihtoehtona. Kuorimoiden jätevesien puhdistuksessa tulevat Suomessa kysymykseen lähinnä yksinkertaiset kiinteistökohtaiset pienpuhdistamot, kuten panospuhdistamot. Pienpuhdistamolaitteistoihin liittyvää tutki-mus-ja kehitystyötä on viime vuosina tehty paljon ja sitä olisi tärkeää jatkaa edelleen, jotta löydettäisiin entistä kustannustehokkaampia ratkaisuja.

Sellu- ja paperiteollisuuden haitallisimmat ilmapäästöt

Diplomityössä luotiin katsaus sellu- ja paperiteollisuuden haitallisimpiin ilmapäästöihin ja ilmapäästömäärien kehitykseen Suomessa 1990-luvun alusta nykypäivään. Työssä tutustuttiin sellu- ja paperiteollisuuden ilmapäästöjä rajoittavan lainsäädännön ajankohtaisiin asioihin Suomessa ja Euroopan Unionissa, sekä tarkasteltiin nykyisen lainsäädännön perustana olleita ilmastosopimuksia eli kansainvälisen ilmastopolitiikan syntyä ja kehittymistä. Työssä on myös selvitetty ilman osuutta paperinvalmistuksessa, tutustuttu ilmapäästöjen rajoittamismenetelmiin ja eri mittausmenetelmiin ilmapäästöjen toteamiseksi. Työn puitteissa suoritettiin mittalaitetestejä eri paperitehtailla. Haitallisimpia ja määrällisesti suurimpia ilmapäästöjä sellu- ja paperiteollisuudessa ovat typen ja rikin oksidit, pelkistyneet rikkiyhdisteet, hiukkaset, haihtuvat orgaaniset yhdisteet (VOC) ja hiilidioksidi. Ilmapäästömäärät Suomessa ovat typenoksideja lukuun ottamatta olleet laskussa 1990-luvun alusta nykypäivään. Tärkein kasvihuonekaasu on hiilidioksidi, jonka määrää rajoitetaan Kioton sopimuksessa. Vuoden 2002 aikana selvinneekin, mikä on Kioton sopimuksen vaikutus Suomen metsäteollisuuteen. Päästömittauksia tarvitaan lainsäädännön raja-arvojen toteamiseksi, mittauksia suorittavat sertifioidut päästömittauslaboratoriot. Suoritetuissa mittalaitetesteissä havaittiin mittalaitteiden soveltuvuudessa kosteiden paperiprosessin poistokaasujen määrittämiseen suuria eroja.

Environmental policy instruments concerning industrial end-use energy efficiency

Energy efficiency and saving energy are the main question marks when thinking of reducing carbon dioxide emissions or cutting costs. The objective of thesis is to evaluate policy instruments concerning end-use energy efficiency of heavy industry in European Union. These policy instruments may be divided in various ways, but in this thesis the division is to administrative, financial, informative and voluntary instruments. Administrative instruments introduced in this thesis are Directive on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control, Directive on Energy End-use Efficiency and Energy Services, and Climate and Energy Package. Financial means include energy and emission taxation, EU Emission Trading Scheme and diverse support systems. Informative instruments consist of horizontal BAT Reference Document for Energy Efficiency, as well as substantial EU documents including Green Paper on Energy Efficiency, Action Plan for Energy Efficiency and An Energy Policy for Europe. And finally, voluntary instruments include environmental managements systems like ISO 14001 and EMAS, energy auditing and benchmarking. The efficiency of different policy instruments vary quite a lot. Informative instruments lack the commitment from industry and are thus almost ineffective, contrary to EU Emission Trading Scheme, which is said to be the solution to climate problems. The efficiency of administrative means can be placed between those mentioned and voluntary instruments are still quite fresh to be examined fruitfully. However, each instrument has their potential and challenges. Cases from corporate world strengthen the results from theoretical part. Cases were written mainly on the basis of interviews. The interviewees praised the energy efficiency contract of Finnish industry, but the EU ETS takes the leading role of policy instruments. However, for industry the reductions do not come easily.

Efficiency of the ISM Code in Finnish Shipping Companies

Due to increasing waterborne transportation in the Gulf of Finland, the risk of a hazardous accident increases and therefore manifold preventive actions are needed. As a main legislative authority in the maritime community, The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has set down plenary laws and recommendations which are e.g., utilised in the safe operations in ships and pollution prevention. One of these compulsory requirements, the ISM Code, requires proactive attitude both from the top management and operational workers in the shipping companies. In this study, a crosssectional approach was taken to analyse whether the ISM Code has actively enhanced maritime safety in the Gulf of Finland. The analysis included; 1) performance of the ISM Code in Finnish shipping companies, 2) statistical measurements of maritime safety, 3) influence of corporate top management to the safety culture and 4) comparing safety management practices in shipping companies and port operations of Finnish maritime and port authorities. The main results found were that maritime safety culture has developed in the right direction after the launch of the ISM Code in the 1990´s. However, this study does not exclusively prove that the improvements are the consequence of the ISM Code. Accident prone ships can be recognized due to their behaviour and there is a lesson to learn from the safety culture of some high standard safety disciplines such as, air traffic. In addition, the reporting of accidents and nearmisses should be more widely used in shipping industry. In conclusion, there is still much to be improved in the maritime safety culture of the Finnish Shipping industry, e.g., a “no blame culture” needs to be adopted.

The Environmental Status of the Port of HaminaKotka

This study is a part of the Ecologically Friendly Port Ust-Luga (EFP) project. The purpose of this study is to examine the environmental status of the Finnish ports and, more specifically, the Port of HaminaKotka. An analysis of the environmental status is performed mainly as a literature review, because the Finnish ports must comply with Finnish and EU legislation and with the binding international regulations and conventions created by different organizations. The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has done groundbreaking work in the field of maritime safety and maritime environmental protection. The MARPOL convention has a great impact on decreasing pollution from international shipping and it applies to 99% of the world’s merchant tonnage. Pollution prevention covers: Oil pollution, Chemical pollution, Air pollution and GHG Emissions, Dumping of Wasted and Other Matters, Garbage, Sewage, Port Reception Facilities, Special Areas under MARPOL and Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas. There is also Pollution Prevention for other treaties like anti-fouling systems used on ships, the transfer of alien species by ships’ ballast water and the environmentally sound recycling of ships. There are more than twenty different EU and international regulations that influence ports and port operations in Finland. In addition, there is also national legislation that has an effect on Finnish ports. For the most part, the legislation for ports is common in the EU area, but the biggest and most important difference between the legislation in Finland and other EU countries is due to the Act on Environmental Impact Assessment Procedure. The Act states that the environmental impact assessment procedure shall be applied to projects that may have significant adverse environmental impacts, due to the special features of Finland`s nature and environment. In this Act, the term environmental impact refers to the direct and indirect effects inside and outside Finnish territory of a project or operations on human health, living conditions and amenity; soil, water, air, climate, organisms, interaction between them and biodiversity; community structure, buildings, landscape, townscape and cultural heritage; utilization of natural resources. In Finland, the Environmental Permit requires that ports collect all necessary information concerning environmental effects and make required reports to the Finnish authorities, stakeholders and the public. Commonly, environmental reporting is public and environmental achievements are emphasized in reporting and in media. At the moment, the problem in environmental reporting is that it’s difficult to compare data from different ports. There is enough data concerning the environmental effects and performance, but the manner of reporting and the quality of the data varies between ports. There are differences in the units and codes used, in some cases the information is not sufficient and it can even be rather unreliable. There are also differences regarding the subjects that are emphasized in reporting.

Susteinable steelmaking by process integration

Environmental issues, including global warming, have been serious challenges realized worldwide, and they have become particularly important for the iron and steel manufacturers during the last decades. Many sites has been shut down in developed countries due to environmental regulation and pollution prevention while a large number of production plants have been established in developing countries which has changed the economy of this business. Sustainable development is a concept, which today affects economic growth, environmental protection, and social progress in setting up the basis for future ecosystem. A sustainable headway may attempt to preserve natural resources, recycle and reuse materials, prevent pollution, enhance yield and increase profitability. To achieve these objectives numerous alternatives should be examined in the sustainable process design. Conventional engineering work cannot address all of these substitutes effectively and efficiently to find an optimal route of processing. A systematic framework is needed as a tool to guide designers to make decisions based on overall concepts of the system, identifying the key bottlenecks and opportunities, which lead to an optimal design and operation of the systems. Since the 1980s, researchers have made big efforts to develop tools for what today is referred to as Process Integration. Advanced mathematics has been used in simulation models to evaluate various available alternatives considering physical, economic and environmental constraints. Improvements on feed material and operation, competitive energy market, environmental restrictions and the role of Nordic steelworks as energy supplier (electricity and district heat) make a great motivation behind integration among industries toward more sustainable operation, which could increase the overall energy efficiency and decrease environmental impacts. In this study, through different steps a model is developed for primary steelmaking, with the Finnish steel sector as a reference, to evaluate future operation concepts of a steelmaking site regarding sustainability. The research started by potential study on increasing energy efficiency and carbon dioxide reduction due to integration of steelworks with chemical plants for possible utilization of available off-gases in the system as chemical products. These off-gases from blast furnace, basic oxygen furnace and coke oven furnace are mainly contained of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, nitrogen and partially methane (in coke oven gas) and have proportionally low heating value but are currently used as fuel within these industries. Nonlinear optimization technique is used to assess integration with methanol plant under novel blast furnace technologies and (partially) substitution of coal with other reducing agents and fuels such as heavy oil, natural gas and biomass in the system. Technical aspect of integration and its effect on blast furnace operation regardless of capital expenditure of new operational units are studied to evaluate feasibility of the idea behind the research. Later on the concept of polygeneration system added and a superstructure generated with alternative routes for off-gases pretreatment and further utilization on a polygeneration system producing electricity, district heat and methanol. (Vacuum) pressure swing adsorption, membrane technology and chemical absorption for gas separation; partial oxidation, carbon dioxide and steam methane reforming for methane gasification; gas and liquid phase methanol synthesis are the main alternative process units considered in the superstructure. Due to high degree of integration in process synthesis, and optimization techniques, equation oriented modeling is chosen as an alternative and effective strategy to previous sequential modelling for process analysis to investigate suggested superstructure. A mixed integer nonlinear programming is developed to study behavior of the integrated system under different economic and environmental scenarios. Net present value and specific carbon dioxide emission is taken to compare economic and environmental aspects of integrated system respectively for different fuel systems, alternative blast furnace reductants, implementation of new blast furnace technologies, and carbon dioxide emission penalties. Sensitivity analysis, carbon distribution and the effect of external seasonal energy demand is investigated with different optimization techniques. This tool can provide useful information concerning techno-environmental and economic aspects for decision-making and estimate optimal operational condition of current and future primary steelmaking under alternative scenarios. The results of the work have demonstrated that it is possible in the future to develop steelmaking towards more sustainable operation.

Heavy-metal pollution and remediation of forest soil around the Harjavalta Cu-Ni smelter, in SW Finland

Abstract

A practical right-sided incisional gastropexy technique for treatment or prevention of gastric dilatation volvulus

Yhteenveto: Käytännöllinen oikeanpuoleinen viiltogastropeksia mahalaukun laajentumisen ja kiertymisen hoitona tai ennaltaehkäisynä

The Effects of Multifactorial Fall Prevention on the Psychological Risk Factors of Falling

Psychological factors, such as depression or depressive symptoms and fear of falling are linked to falls among the aged. According to previous studies, they may increase the risk of falls and injurious falls. In addition, depression or a high amount of depressive symptoms and fear of falling may hinder participation in preventive activities. Despite the severe consequences of both conditions and their high prevalence among the aged, they have rarely been studied in the context of fall prevention. The study aimed to assess the effects of multifactorial fall prevention on the psychological risk factors of falling (depressive symptoms and fear of falling) among the community-dwelling aged at increased risk of falling. In addition, it aimed to determine factors predicting high adherence to preventive activities. Volunteers aged 65 or over, who had fallen during the year previous to randomisation were recruited. Participants (n=591) were randomised into an intervention or a control group. The intervention group received a multifactorial fall prevention programme including geriatric assessment, individual guidance on fall and fracture prevention, group- and home-based physical exercise, psychosocial group activities, lectures and home hazards assessment. The control group had a one-time counselling on fall and fracture prevention. The data on psychological risk factors of falling were collected by self-rated questionnaires. Multifactorial fall prevention was not effective in reducing depressive symptoms or fear of falling compared to one-time counselling in the total sample. However, in subgroup analyses, depressive symptoms reduced statistically significantly more among the men and older participants of the intervention group compared to the control group. Female gender, high physical and cognitive abilities and low self-perceived probability of falling were independent predictors of higher adherence in organised activities. In conclusion, few psychological benefits were gained during this multifactorial fall prevention trial. More attention should be focused on adherence, especially among the aged with functional disabilities.

Fouling, prevention of fouling, and clearing in filtration

In this thesis fouling of conventional filter fabrics and membranes was studied. In the beginning of the thesis fouling and how it can be measured and predicted is reviewed. Information on different methods on how fouling canbe decreased or cleaned away is also given. The experimental part is divided into two sections; fabric filtration and membrane filtration. Fouling of the filter fabrics was studied with silica or cupper slurries and fouling of the membranes was studied with pulp and paper mill waters. The fouled filter materials were characterised according to many different methods. The most useful way to observe fouling is to measure the changes in the permeate flux. Fouling can also be seen visually e.g. with scanning electron microscopy. Consequently, also the reason for the fouling in question might be found. Different filtration characteristics affect fouling e.g. as the filtration pressure was increased it did not have much influence on the permeate flux, but the pressure caused the membrane to get fouled faster. Also, an increase of shear rate on the membrane surface decreased fouling. Different pretreatment methods for the effluent were tested in membrane filtration to decrease fouling. The tested methods; biological treatment, ozonation, enzymatic treatment and flocculation, did not have a clear influence on the fouling of the membrane, but e.g. a biological treatment combined with ultrafiltration made the tested groundwood mill circulation water purer than ultrafiltration alone.