The Journal of Industrial Ecology announces a special issue on Material Flow Analysis (MFA) - Free Download

Material flow analysis (MFA), the tracking and analysis of materials through the environment and the economy at various scales, holds out the promise of a unique lens through which to examine environmental challenges, providing a valuable addition to the toolkit available to analysts and decision makers.

The Journal of Industrial Ecology announces a special issue on
applications of MFA. This special issue describes a variety of ways
in which MFA has addressed real world situations around the globe,
particularly relating to problems of resource scarcity, pollution
abatement and waste management.

Articles in the special issue are available for free download at
http://www.wiley.com/go/appsmfa for
a limited time. A modest number of free print copies are available
for students, researchers from developing countries and journalists
(contact: indecol@yale.edu).

Prof. Ester van der
Voet, of the Institute of
Environmental Sciences (CML) at Leiden University, the
Netherlands, Prof. Claudia Binder
of the Institute of Systems Sciences,
Innovation and Sustainability Research (ISIS) at the University of
Graz, Austria, and Dr. Kirsten Rosselot of
Process Profiles, Calabasas,
California, served as co-editors of the special issue.

The Journal of Industrial Ecology, a peer-reviewed international
scientific journal, is owned by Yale University, headquartered at the
Yale School of Forestry & Environmental
Studies and published by Wiley-Blackwell. It is the official journal
of the International Society for Industrial Ecology.

Support for this special issue was provided by the U.S. National
Science Foundation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

====================
Reid J. Lifset, Assoc.
Dir. School of
Forestry & Env. Studies
Industrial Environmental Mgmt. Program Yale University
Editor, Journal of Industrial
Ecology 195 Prospect Street
203-432-6949 (tel) -5912 (fax) New Haven, CT 06511 USA
reid.lifset@yale.edu

PhD Scholarships; resource recovery and environmental impacts assessments, LCA etc.; Deadline 15th March 2010

Please find below details of four PhD scholarships in the areas of resource recovery and environmental impacts assessments, LCA etc. Deadline 15th March 2010

3R Scholarships available (check www.3R.env.dtu.dk for more details)

PhD 16: Resource and environmental impacts assessment of recycling of construction and demolition waste (C&D waste).
Construction and demolition (C&D) waste is one of the largest waste types in Denmark and the one showing the highest rate of recycling (>95%). However, the current recycling practice may be threatened by new regulation and lack of a holistic assessment of the overall benefits of recycling of C&D waste. Examples are: restrictive leaching test criteria cause testing of granulated concrete often to exceed limit values in particular for Cr; the extended producer responsibility applies also to reused concrete and may lead to excessive caution and thus with time may reduce recycling. A main aspect is that a careful mapping of C&D waste may show that only a very small part of the C&D waste stream may constitute a real risk while the remaining part is safely recyclable.

PhD 17: LCA model for sewage sludge - an EASEWASTE extension.
The project addresses resources and environmental impacts associated with management of sewage sludge by developing a special version of the waste-LCA-model EASEWASTE (Kirkeby et al,. 2006) that can assess the management of various types of sewage sludge as they are generated at sewage works. The sludge may undergo dewatering, transportation, digestion, composting, incineration, nutrient-recovery, landfilling or be use on land. The various management options provide different possibilities with respect to resource and energy recovery and cause different environmental impacts.

PhD 18: Inclusion in LCIA of human health impacts from occupational indoor or outdoor exposure to chemicals, pathogens and dust in waste management systems.
The project addresses human health impacts following from occupational exposure to chemicals, dust or pathogens for operators involved in the centralized sorting of waste or in the different treatments of the resulting waste fractions. It is expected that these human health impacts for some waste treatment technologies may be at least as important as the human health impacts caused by emissions to the environment, but it is not supported by any of the existing methods for life cycle assessment (LCA) and hence also not addressed by the EASEWASTE tool for LCA of waste management systems.

PhD 19: Innovations in design for recycling, collection and automated central recognition and sorting
The project shall identify and test upcoming methods for ‘waste design & material tagging’ paired with technologies for recognition/identification for centralized automated sorting/separation of waste streams with the aim of enhanced material recovery. A set of scenarios for future waste design and sorting and collection systems will be developed, and the efficiency of automated sorting of the waste streams deriving from these systems into recyclable waste fractions in lab scale will be documented. Finally, the technical, economic and environmental feasibility of the developed waste system designs will be analyzed by a system analysis approach.

Regards

Abhi

New Article on Industrial Symbiosis

Dear All

I have recently got a paper on industrial symbiosis accepted in the Journal of Cleaner Production and this may be of interest. Authorship of the paper is Inês Costa, Guillaume Massard & Abhishek Agarwal. It is still not formated in the in-house style of the journal; however, it is available through the following link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2009.12.019

Also if you are planning to submit an abstract for the track 'Sustainable communities with - not despite - industry: industrial symbiosis & eco-industrial development / networking' at the International Sustainable Development Research Conference Hong Kong, 30 May – 1 June, 2010, please do so by 31st January 2010.

Please submit the abstract using the online system at http://www.kadinst.hku.hk/sdconf10/abstract_submission.html under the conference theme "Industrial symbiosis, eco-industrial parks and eco-industrial networking and regional sustainability"; and please email a copy of the abstract to Abhishek Agarwal via a.agarwal@rgu.ac.uk

Papers submitted in the track will be considered for publication in a special issue of a reputed sustainable development journal.

Further information available at http://www.abhibiz.co.uk/2009/12/iseidein-track-at-sustainable.html

Kind regards

Abhi
www.abhibiz.co.uk

6th Annual Warmnet Conference: Tackling Waste 2009

6th Annual Warmnet Conference: Tackling Waste 29th - 30th June 2009
University of Nottingham Jubilee Campus, Nottingham, UK

Sixth annual conference showcasing novel and innovative approaches to tackling waste.

Call For Papers

Postgraduate and new researchers are invited to submit a 200 word abstract on novel and innovative approaches to tackling waste, we particularly welcome submissions demonstrating a business focussed approach. Tackling Waste 2009 presents a unique opportunity for waste management researchers and businesses to showcase their research and achievements in innovative waste management

Submit abstracts to: tacklingwaste@northampton.ac.uk
Abstracts should be in MS Word format and 200 words maximum
Deadline for submission: 27th April 2009

2009 and the UK-NISP

Hello Everyone

It is quite a while not to have posted any updates. I guess it is still not too late to wish you a productive 2009. I think all of us are looking forward to the ISIE and ISDR conferences in 2009. Unfortunately, they are very close to each other perhaps restricting some of us to attend both.

A good news is that we have few new members who have joined the blog recently making a total of 30 contributors. Your support is greatly appreciated. I would encourage you to write small entries and update about industrial symbiosis and waste / resource efficiency efforts in your respective areas and also to send details of any research projects you are involved with, papers recently published etc. to keep each other updated and perhaps to seek collaboration e.g. for conducting comparative studies.

Also it would be useful to send me any links that you think are relevant to this blog and/or any papers and / or reports on industrial symbiosis and I can upload these on the blog for easy access for all.

In the mean time I have a little update on NISP activities / strategies / scope below:


1. Intelligence Based Industrial Symbiosis

NISP is moving their focus from demand led approach to Intelligence Based Industrial Symbiosis. Regional Economic Development through the Intelligence Based Industrial Symbiosis (RED IBIS) is their next slogan. And this perhaps demonstrates the change in the NISP strategy that may be required for the continuation of funding in the UK and to introduce / market NISP services in other countries.

Peter Laybourn said:
“East Midlands Development Agency and Advantage West Midlands (in the UK) are among the first to recognise the potential of a RED IBIS type approach. The former has commissioned a study on resource mapping and the latter has commissioned market ‘intelligence' based IS for two industry sectors.

It is anticipated that if the UK adopts the full RED IBIS approach then countries that are already emulating NISP, such as China and Mexico, will follow suit based on the UK's learning experience.” Peter Laybourn*

2. Scope of NISP Activities

The UK National Industrial Symbiosis Programme (NISP) has been making significant efforts to transpose the UK IS model in other countries of the world. Some of the NISP initiatives that are taking place internationally are outlined by Peter Laybourn:

“Chicago is home to the US's first ‘UK style' IS programme, ‘Waste to Profit'. Run in conjunction with the City of Chicago, the United States Business Council for Sustainable Development (US BCSD) and the Chicago Manufacturing Center with support from NISP, it is now in its third year. The Chicago Waste to Profit Network aims to continue to grow and promote economic development for the whole State of Illinois.

The US BCSD is soon to meet the new President, Barack Obama, and present a proposal to establish and develop a national US IS scheme based on the UK model developed by NISP. If successful, this could catapult IS onto a widely visible world stage.

IS regional schemes have also been established in China, Mexico and Brazil. Lessons learned in the UK helped shape a ‘circular economy' initiative in the Yunnan Province of South West China.” Peter Laybourn**

3. NISP Synergy Workshop

I attended / assisted with ((actually hosted a table)) a NISP synergy workshop recently which was focused on identifying the “WANTS” and “HAVES” within the food and drinks sector. NISP being publicly funded, it was obviously a free event (with free lunch) for anyone to attend. It was attended by food sector professionals, environmental consultants, waste service providers (representatives of companies that provide services e.g. In-vessel composting, anaerobic digestion etc.). The approach used involved discussing and identifying the wants and haves of the companies and mixing and matching the use of by-products. Appears to be quite an effective approach overall and NISP claims to have identified 100 potential synergies. Now the question is how many of these go forward to fruition; and are we lacking in the cross-sectoral and thus innovation approach to IS as this approach just seems to link the waste producers to waste sorters? Am I understanding this right? Any views?

That’s all from me today. Hope you find this interesting to read. I look forward to any of your views on the above and any updates from your respective areas / countries.

Thank you for your support.

Best

Abhi

www.abhibiz.co.uk

References:

* Laybourn, Peter (2008) RED IBIS set to become second generation industrial symbiosis, Environmentalist, Issue No. 63 Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment

**Laybourn, Peter (2009) Industrial Symbiosis – coming to a country near you!, Environmentalist, Issue No. 71, Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment

Excellent Opportunity in Waste Management / Engineering - Case Studentship in Leeds

Great Opportunity - Please pass it on to anyone who may be interested:

Project Title: The Development of Geopolymer Systems for the Immobilisation of Waste Streams – A Win-Win-Win Situation

School/Department/Institute: Civil Engineering (Civil Engineering Materials Group)

UK/EU/International (please indicate) UK + EU

Award type: EPSRC industrial CASE Studentship

Number of Awards: 1

Supervisor Name: Dr Leon Black

Value: £12,900 + £1200 industrial top up

Application deadline: (open until filled)

Project Description (300 words maximum):
The combustion of municipal waste to produce energy reduces amount of material sent to landfill. However, it produces a material which may be classed as hazardous. Furthermore, there are demands to reduce the amount of material, especially hazardous material, sent to landfill. This project aims to develop geopolymerisation of incinerator residues and other waste streams, to produce stable, inert materials suitable for construction of waste management infrastructure. Achieving these aims will be a win-win-win situation, using waste to treat waste, diverting material from landfill, and producing a useable material.
The Materials group within the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Leeds has a long history in the field of cementitious materials. The group are experts on the microstructure and stability of a wide range of cements and blended cements, i.e. cements incorporating materials such as slag or fly ash. The group is ideally placed at the interface between materials’ science and civil engineering, and this fusion of materials’ science and engineering to understand waste stream stabilisation is one of the key points of this project. A number of techniques are available within the department to investigate the microstructural, chemical and engineering properties of the stabilised wastes, e.g. electron microscopy, thermal analysis, porosimetry, compressive strength and leaching behaviour, etc.
The project is supported by a major waste management company, who are incredibly keen to develop novel and innovative approaches to waste management. The novel use of waste materials in this project excites them, and their continued enthusiasm and drive to see a successful outcome is ensured. As operators of a number of incinerators, the sponsors have a thorough knowledge of the environmental and legislative aspects of the project. They are also committed to training and supervision within their company, both in terms of sample testing and in providing a thorough grounding in the operation and regulation of the waste industry.
The project is at the interface between chemistry, engineering and waste management. As such it suits any physical / environmental sciences or engineering background. Most important is the ability to think logically.

How to apply:
Graduate School Office, Faculty of Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT

Email address:
Further information contact: Dr Leon Black
Name: Leon Black
Email: l.black@leeds.ac.uk
Telephone: 0113 343 2283