SINTEF Community

Manufacturing companies have played an important role in improving standards of living worldwide. However, in a linear setting, they are also linked to unsustainable production and consumption patterns. The concept of circular economy has gained traction in recent years: it aims at eventually severing this link, through keeping resources ‘in the loop’. Through a systematic literature review, this paper seeks to revisit the concept of circular economy in the manufacturing industry in order to determine whether the body of research has moved beyond concept development and into verified implementation in industry. Furthermore, we aim to analyse the important link between circular economy in manufacturing and sustainable development. The review shows that the field has indeed moved from purely conceptual work into empirical studies and research into implementation tools. However, in empirical studies, the sustainability impact of CE practices is typically adressed only through the environmental dimension, neglecting the social and economic dimensions. Further, a key finding is that the prevalence of narrow approaches to sustainability in manufacturing leads to a risk that circular economy implementation efforts will fail to provide solutions that are socially, environmentally, and economically beneficial. Holistic approaches are needed to avoid the implementation of solutions that may be framed as circular, but neglect the sustainability component.

Buildings play a key role in the transition to a low-carbon-energy system and in achieving Paris Agreement climate targets. Analyzing potential scenarios for building decarbonization in different socioeconomic contexts is a crucial step to develop national and transnational roadmaps to achieve global emission reduction targets. This study integrates building stock energy models for 32 countries across four continents to create carbon emission mitigation reference scenarios and decarbonization scenarios by 2050, covering 60% of today's global building emissions. These decarbonization pathways are compared to those from global models. Results demonstrate that reference scenarios are in all countries insufficient to achieve substantial decarbonization and lead, in some regions, to significant increases, i.e., China and South America. Decarbonization scenarios lead to substantial carbon reductions within the range projected in the 2 °C scenario but are still insufficient to achieve the decarbonization goals under the 1.5 °C scenario.

Development of new building HVAC control algorithms has grown due to needs for energy efficiency and operational flexibility. However, case studies demonstrating new algorithms are largely individualized, making algorithm performance difficult to compare directly. In addition, the effort and expertise required to implement case studies in real or simulated buildings limits rapid prototyping potential. Therefore, this paper presents the Building Optimization Testing Framework (BOPTEST) and associated software for simulation-based benchmarking of building HVAC control algorithms. A containerized run-time environment (RTE) enables rapid, repeatable deployment of common building emulators representing different system types. Emulators use Modelica to represent realistic physical dynamics, embed baseline control, and enable overwriting supervisory and local-loop control signals. Finally, a common set of key performance indicators are calculated within the RTE and reported to the user. This paper details the design and implementation of software and demonstrates its usage to benchmark a Model Predictive Control strategy.

Plastic, and its pollution of marine ecosystems, has emerged as a global concern. Among the several other sources, plastics from abandoned, lost, or discarded fishing gears (ALDFG), and ropes are considered the most dangerous for marine wildlife. In EU states, the management ALDFG is prioritized through a dedicated action plan owing to the hazardous nature of ALDFG and the increase in commercial fishing activity in EU waters. The action plan demands to close the loop of plastics from fishing to ensure sustainable resource management using strategies of the circular economy (CE). Commercial fishing is a crucial sector in Norway, generating 4000 tons of waste plastic annually from fishing gears and ropes. While recycling, landfilling, and incineration are the standard end-of-life management options, the recycling industry in the region is immature. The lack of recycling capacity and inadequate infrastructure results in exporting most of the recyclable fraction out of Norway for further processing. Although within the framework of CE, the transboundary export of waste for recycling misses the opportunity to create value out of waste within the region. Therefore, in the pursuit of CE strategies, it is essential to ensure regional sustainability. In this study, we assess the environmental, economic, and social impacts of landfilling, incinerating, and recycling of waste fishing gears in Norway. To represent the current state, we include two existing recycling scenarios for the assessment, namely, recycling (inland) and recycling (export). Based on qualitative and quantitative data from relevant stakeholders, we adapted multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to rank the end-of-life (EOL) alternatives through their ability to sustainably manage 4000 tons of waste plastics from fishing gears in Norway. The ranking and insights from stakeholder interaction were used to ascertain potential barriers in realizing principles of CE and to further recognize opportunities for establishing circular business models in the region.

E-grocery is developing into a frequent and prominent form of online shopping. While some empirical studies suggest that online shopping substitutes personal shopping travel, others indicate a limited or no impact on number of trips and travel distance. Mobility for passengers and freight is one of the key issues in integrated planning in urban areas, and the growth of e-commerce and home deliveries is likely to affect the structure and performance of the urban freight chain. This study explores the use of home delivery services through a survey among Norwegian users of services connected to food and groceries. The study draws on insight from the survey to discuss how city municipalities can integrate trends of urbanisation and digitalisation into planning for sustainable mobility and efficient urban freight transport. A prominent finding is that home delivery of food and groceries is associated with fewer trips to physical grocery stores and reduced car use on these trips. In considering implications for city planning, several strategies and potential instruments are presented and discussed.

This paper investigates the application of Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) to inverse problems in unsaturated groundwater flow. PINNs are applied to the types of unsaturated groundwater flow problems modelled with the Richards partial differential equation and the van Genuchten constitutive model. The inverse problem is formulated here as a problem with known or measured values of the solution to the Richards equation at several spatio-temporal instances, and unknown values of solution at the rest of the problem domain and unknown parameters of the van Genuchten model. PINNs solve inverse problems by reformulating the loss function of a deep neural network such that it simultaneously aims to satisfy the measured values and the unknown values at a set of collocation points distributed across the problem domain. The novelty of the paper originates from the development of PINN formulations for the Richards equation that requires training of a single neural network. The results demonstrate that PINNs are capable of efficiently solving the inverse problem with relatively accurate approximation of the solution to the Richards equation and estimates of the van Genuchten model parameters.

Seawater, as an alternative magnesium source, has the potential to improve the overall economics and environmental footprint of struvite production compared to the use of pure magnesium salts. However, the dilution effect and the presence of other ions in seawater can reduce the phosphorus recovery potential and the simultaneous precipitation of other compounds may reduce the quality of the produced struvite. This work presents a comparative study of seawater and MgCl2 by performing a series of thermodynamic equilibrium modeling and crystallization experiments. The results revealed that acceptable phosphorus recovery (80–90%) is achievable by using seawater as the magnesium source for struvite precipitation. Further, the simultaneous precipitation of calcium phosphates was successfully controlled and minimized by optimum selection of reaction pH and seawater volume (i.e. Mg:P and Mg:Ca molar ratios). The increase of temperature from 20 °C to 30 °C reduced the phosphorus recovery by 15–20% while it increased the particle size by 30–35%. The presence of suspended solids in reject water did not have significant effects on phosphorus recovery but it made the struvite separation difficult as the obtained struvite was mixed with suspended solids. The experimental results and economic evaluation showed that the use of seawater can reduce the chemical costs (30–50%) and the CO2-footprint (8–40%) of struvite production. It was concluded that seawater is a potential alternative to pure magnesium sources in struvite production, while studies in larger scale and continuous mode are needed for further verification before full-scale applications.

Digitalization in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) sector is slow due to significant challenges in technology adoption. The study aims to promote technology adoption by advancing the understanding of digital technologies in the AEC sector. This article presents the findings from a quantitative scoping review, encompassing 3950 technology-related abstracts retrieved from the Scopus database, providing a preliminary assessment of literature size, geographic innovation hotspots, research gaps, and key concepts in the AEC field. The results show that Building Information Modelling (1852 studies) dominates the literature, while topics like 3D Printing (311) and Internet of Things (227) are gaining traction. China (687 publications) and the United States (566) produce most research articles. Despite the increasing interest in emerging technologies, their implementation often necessitates acquiring specific skill sets. Academia needs to put a stronger focus on these technologies in education and tighter collaboration with the industry is needed.

Reuse of construction materials and products has great potential to reduce the environmental footprint of a building. However, the way buildings are designed and constructed rarely considers closed loop materials systems and the implementation of reuse in building projects is associated with many hurdles. Various professionals might experience different challenges or might be affected to different degrees. The objective of this paper is to provide an insight into experiences and perspectives of professional actors involved in projects with a focus on reuse in Norway. A series of interviews with manufacturers, architects, contractors, environmental consultants, and public institutions was conducted to (i) identify barriers and success factors for reuse in pilot projects, (ii) capture the issues that seem most pressing for different actors, (iii) identify which actors in the value chain need to be more included into reuse processes, and (iv) define and prioritise necessary actions to advance reuse in Norway. The results suggest that reuse in Norway could be greatly advanced by more communication and cooperation between different actors in the value chain. Especially manufacturers can play an important role and need to be more involved in reuse processes. Planning for and practical execution of reuse will benefit from well-functioning research infrastructure. However, legislation needs to be adjusted in favour of reuse. Currently being one of the greatest barriers as experienced by most actors, it has the potential to become the greatest enabler for the reuse of materials and products in the Norwegian building sector.

Building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) has attracted increased commercial interest in recent years due to a growing focus on efficient utilization of land area and local renewable energy generation. Aesthetic aspects must be considered when photovoltaic panels are applied as building elements. Colours can be added by reflecting some of the sunlight that otherwise could have been utilized for electricity generation. Reflectance spectra of commercial solar cell modules have been measured and analysed. Relative efficiency loss caused by the reflected solar radiation energy has been calculated. The calculated losses in efficiency based on measured spectra have been compared to model spectra with colour coordinates corresponding to RAL colours as well as more idealized monochromatic spectra. The analysis shows that the most important colour parameter affecting loss is the lightness. The second most important parameter is the hue of the colour, with green-yellow colours having the lowest loss, and pink colours resulting in the highest loss, when colours with the same lightness are compared. A Colour Performance Index (CPI) given by luminous reflectance divided by relative loss has been proposed as a figure of merit, thus allowing for a useful comparison of colours with different lightness.

High energy and material demand in the building sector causes large greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This sector needs large-scale technological improvements in the transition to a future low-emission society. Extensive research is carried out on highly energy-efficient and zero emission buildings (ZEB), but the new technologies slowly penetrate the market. Until now, no bottom-up studies have applied a dynamic building stock energy model at the national level to quantify effects of a large-scale ZEB introduction. Using the RE-BUILDS 2.0 model, we explore and extensively discuss the aggregated potential for energy and GHG emission savings in the Norwegian building stock towards 2050. A Baseline scenario is compared with two ZEB scenarios assuming introduction of the ZEB definition and ZEB technologies applied in the future new built and renovated buildings, with an increased ambition level over time. The results reveal a large potential for energy and GHG emission savings of ZEB deployment towards 2050. Hence, stricter future regulations and practice will have important aggregated effects. Due to the long lifetime of buildings and potential lock-in effects, it is urgent that ZEB policies are implemented if the climate change mitigation potential of the Norwegian building stock is going to be reached.

Hydrogen may play a significant part in sustainable energy transition. This paper discusses the sociotechnical interactions that are driving and hindering development of hydrogen value chains in Norway. The study is based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. A multi-level perspective (MLP) is deployed to discuss how exogenous trends and uncertainties interact with processes and strategies in the national energy system, and how this influences the transition potential associated with Norwegian hydrogen production. We explore different transition pathways towards a low-emission society in 2050 and find that Norwegian hydrogen production and its deployment for decarbonization of maritime and heavy-duty transport, decarbonisation of industry and flexibility services may play a crucial role. Currently, the development is at a branching point where national coordination is crucial to unlock the potential. The hybrid approach provides new knowledge on underlying system dynamics and contributes to the discourse on pathways in transition studies.

There is concern about potential exposure to opportunistic pathogens when reopening buildings closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, water samples were collected before, during, and after flushing showers in five unoccupied (i.e., for ∼2 months) university buildings with quantification of opportunists via a cultivation-based assay (Legionella pneumophila only) and quantitative PCR. L. pneumophila were not detected by either method; Legionella spp., nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), and Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC), however, were widespread. Using quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA), the estimated risks of illness from exposure to L. pneumophila and MAC via showering were generally low (i.e., less than a 10–7 daily risk threshold), with the exception of systemic infection risk from MAC exposure in some buildings. Flushing rapidly restored the total chlorine (as chloramine) residual and decreased bacterial gene targets to building inlet concentrations within 30 min. During the postflush stagnation period, the residual chlorine dissipated within a few days and bacteria rebounded, approaching preflush concentrations after 6–7 days. These results suggest that flushing can quickly improve water quality in unoccupied buildings, but the improvement may only last a few days.

Our modern society is characterized by increasing diversity and complexity, leading to overwhelming challenges like climate change or environmental degradation. These problems are posing impracticable ethical dilemmas and conflicts of interest among an expanding range of institutional logics. While this cognitive, ideological, scientific, and political diversity can represent a major barrier for the collaborative work that sustainability transitions require, it is also a necessary resource for innovation and adaptation. It is then natural to wonder how diversity and collaboration among institutional logics can be accommodated and balanced. In this article, we develop a framework to explain the role of boundary objects in sustainability transitions (BOIST framework), which describes how ambiguous artefacts (boundary objects) can be deliberately employed by actors to drive transitions through bridging conflicting logics without constraining their diversity. The applicability of the framework is demonstrated with an in-depth case study of the Copenhagen municipality’s transition to more sustainable stormwater management.

A systematic scoping review was performed to map literature in the field of Design for Disassembly (DfD) in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction industry and identify existing built DfD structures to compare the current DfD practice and research front. Online scientific databases and architecture magazines were searched and almost 470 journal and conference articles, grey literature, and online magazine articles were selected for scope mapping and case study analysis. Based on the gathered literature the key research focus areas were identified as follows: analysis (barriers identification, standard development, literature review, feasibility study, ethical issues), frameworks, Building Information Modelling (BIM), tool development (indicator, method, technology), and case study analysis (concepts, structures, connections). Qualitative and quantitative data for 151 built DfD structure examples identified in the literature were collected and analyzed to give an overview of the current practices and trends in the AEC industry. The DfD building was found to have various definitions and implementations and 50% of the built DfD structures have area below 300 m2. The structure in 75% of the identified existing DfD buildings is made of timber while research literature into enabling technology is dominated by the development of the connections for reinforced concrete and hybrid concrete-steel structures.

The main objective of the present study is to evaluate individuals’ views on the usefulness of driverless shuttles and to examine if the provision of better access to public transit (thanks to the connection provided by shuttles) would make them consider public transit in the future. The survey was carried out amongst members of the Norwegian Automobile Federation (n = 1419). The results indicated that a large share of the sample (71.8%) did not evaluate driverless shuttles as useful. Cluster members who stated that it was unlikely that the implementation of driverless shuttles would make them use the public transit more were more worried concerning the safety and security issues, the greatest concern being traffic safety (accidents). Cluster members who stated that it was likely that they would use the public transit more had more trust in the ability of the authorities to reduce the risk of accidents, and they accepted having more automation in future buses. Developers of shuttles, city governments, transport operators, and other authorities should consider the findings of this study in order to develop specific measures to increase the acceptance of automation in the transport sector. We recommend better informing the general public about the procedures for implementing driverless shuttles in mixed traffic and the safety and security requirements for the vehicle automation system. It is crucial to explain the measures (e.g. comprehensive risk analysis, site inspection, laws and regulations) that will be set out to ensure that no incidents or accidents will occur. In the meantime, the actors should do their utmost to reassure passengers and other road users by demonstrating the effectiveness of the safety and security systems.

This study reviewed heat recovery technologies and their application in residential buildings in cold climates. The increasing efforts on reducing building energy use over the recent years have resulted in improved insulated and airtight buildings. Reduced infiltration can result in poor indoor air quality owing to insufficient ventilation rates. In cold climates, an energy-efficient mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery provides controlled airflow rates and thereby ensures healthy indoor air quality while using a limited amount of energy. This is of particular importance during the heating season when the windows and doors are closed to sustain indoor thermal comfort. This review examines the various heat recovery technologies employed in residential buildings, including state-of-the-art approaches adapted to cold climates. These technologies were compared in terms of various criteria. Frosting has been observed frequently in heat exchangers used in cold regions, which reduces their performance. Various frosting control strategies were discussed in this review including frosting prevention and defrosting. Currently, available frost control strategies degrade indoor air quality or result in increased energy consumption. Finally, The effects of applying heat recovery for mechanical ventilation on indoor air quality were addressed. Based on the current review, recommendations for future research are proposed.

A key challenge in recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) is the accumulation of particulate organic matter, especially the fine and colloidal fraction due to low removal efficiency of today's technology. The supply of organic matter is typically the limiting resource determining the carrying capacity (CC) of heterotrophic bacteria in the system. An appropriate and stable CC is proposed as a strategy for an optimal microbial environment in RAS with less blooms of opportunistic bacteria and more stable community dynamics. In this study, we investigated the effects of including a membrane for ultrafiltration in the RAS water treatment loop (treating 10–15% of the total water flow) to reduce the amount of fine and colloidal organic matter. Atlantic salmon parr (Salmo salar) were reared in two pilot-scale RAS (mRAS: membrane, cRAS: conventional). To evaluate the bacterial dynamics with and without membrane filtration at different organic loadings, the water exchange rates of the systems were manipulated equally to create periods with high and low loading of organic matter. The results showed that in the mRAS water, the level of organic matter was more stable throughout the experiment for the changing organic matter loadings. As a consequence, water in mRAS had higher microbial diversity, lower and shorter bacterial blooms and generally lower bacterial densities than in cRAS. All variables indicate a better microbial environment in the water of the system with membrane filtration. Also, the physicochemical water quality was better in mRAS in terms of lower turbidity and particulate organic matter (POC), and slightly lower concentrations of total ammonia nitrogen (TAN). The composition of the microbial communities was significantly different between the two systems, and temporal variations in the community dynamics were observed in both systems during the periods with different organic loadings. At high organic loading, the genus Mycobacterium had high relative abundance in the cRAS water (up to 0.25) compared to mRAS (0.01–0.03). The fish in mRAS were significantly bigger (14%) than fish in cRAS at the end of the experiment, however it is hard to conclude whether the better growth in mRAS was due to higher temperatures (caused by membrane operation) or better water quality, as it was probably a combination of both. We can conclude that membrane filtration gave more stable and better physicochemical and microbial water quality, which will reduce the probability for microbially related accidents in RAS.

Harvesting, processing, and exporting of seafood are longheld traditions in Norway due to its vast marine resources. In the 1970s, Norway became an international leader in marine aquaculture. The seafood industry is of great importance to the Norwegian economy. This paper documents the seafood industry's direct and indirect effects on Norway's economy from 2004 to 2017. We use a national Input–Output model to quantify to what extent the Norwegian seafood industry has created appreciable effects both in the core industries of the value chain, as well as in the supplier industries and other industries through ripple effects. The total contribution is measured in terms of value added (contribution to GNP) and employment (FTE). We find particularly high growth in total value added generated by the seafood industry during the period. However, within the seafood industry, there are different trends associated with development for the value chain of fisheries and aquaculture. The value chain for aquaculture, which includes its impacts on other industries, is the fastest growing part of the seafood value chain, while fisheries show a more moderate growth. Hence, aquaculture became the dominant part of the Norwegian seafood value chain from 2010 to 2013 and onwards measured in value-added and employment, respectively.

There are international activities and on-going initiatives, particularly at the European level, to define what Positive Energy Districts should be, as the driving concept for the urban transition to a sustainable future. The first objective of the paper is to contribute to the on-going and lively debate about the definition of the notion of Sustainable Plus Energy Neighbourhood (SPEN), which highlights the multiple dimensions when talking about sustainability in districts moving beyond the traditional and strict building energy assessment. Based on a holistic methodology which ensures the consideration of the multidimensional nature and goals of SPEN, the paper outlines an evaluation framework. The evaluation framework defines the key performance indicators distributed in five categories that consider energy and power performance, GHG emissions, indoor environmental quality, smartness, flexibility, life cycle costs and social sustainability. This framework is designed to be implemented during integrated design processes aiming to select design options for a neighbourhood as well within during the operational phase for monitoring its performance. Further work will include the implementation and validation of the framework in four real-life positive energy neighbourhoods in different climate zones of Europe as part of syn.ikia H2020 project.