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Objective: The recycling business is traditionally dominated by SMEs. In the last 5 years a general trend in the electronics recycling sector to bigger companies is very visible. Multinational, multi-sector companies are buying several smaller recyclers every year. Hence the previous project HydroWEEE (03/200902/2012) dealt with the recovery of rare and precious metals from WEEE. The idea has been to develop a mobile plant using hydrometallurgical processes to extract metals like yttrium, indium, lithium, cobalt, zinc, copper, gold, silver, nickel, lead, tin in a high purity. By making this plant mobile several SMEs can benefit from the same plant. By making the processes universal several fractions (lamps, CRTs, LCDs, printed circuit boards and Li-batteries) can be treated in the same mobile plant in batches. This reduces the minimum quantities and necessary investments. In addition these innovative HydroWEEE processes produce pure enough materials that can be directly used for electroplating and other applications. The objective of HydroWEEE Demo is to build 2 industrial, real-life demonstration plants (1 stationary and 1 mobile) in order to test the performance and prove the viability of the processes from an integrated point of view (technical, economical, operational, social) including the assessment of its risks (incl. health) and benefits to the society and the environment as well as remove the barriers for a wide market uptake. Finally the previously developed processes of extracting yttrium, indium, lithium, cobalt, zinc, copper, gold, silver, nickel, lead, tin will be improved and new processes to recover additional metals which are still in this fractions (Cerium, Platinum, Palladium, Europium, Lanthanum, Terbium, ) as well as the integrated treatment of solid and liquid wastes will be developed. Summarized HydroWEEE Demo will boost European competitiveness by applying novel processes for improved resource efficiency by extracting rare and precious metals.
Objective: The poor condition of sanitation and wastewater management in India (as in many Asian countries) is well documented and has recently led the Asian Development Bank to call for a revolution in wastewater management across Asia. Conventional, centralized approaches have failed in many areas and will hardly be able to solve potential problems in rural, hilly and rapidly developing urban areas in India. Instead, innovative, decentralised systems aiming at various benefits are needed. A main benefit in the context of SARASWATI is the reuse of treated wastewater for different purposes. Other benefits include reuse of energy and nutrients, which are also important. Despite the overall poor condition of wastewater treatment across South Asia, India has already considerable experience with such decentralised approaches. Over the last decade, hundreds of decentralised wastewater treatment plants of different technology types have been installed all over India. However, not all are functioning well and several also failed, due to various reasons. Also, there is no consolidated evaluation and review of all those existing plants available. As a result there is only very limited knowledge on the performance of those existing technologies available and a review and evaluation of those plants is very timely in order to derive sound conclusions and recommendations for future wastewater management strategies in India. SARASWATI will perform such a comprehensive and independent evaluation and hence provide key suggestions for the improvement of existing technologies. In addition, SARASWATI aims at deploying selected proven EU technologies with a potential for solving grave water challenges in India (water pollution due to discharge of untreated wastewater and storm-water, water scarcity and groundwater depletion, unhygienic sludge handling practices due to lack of suitable technologies). Water challenged sites have been identified in 5 Indian States comprising almost all regions.
The Clean Hydrogen in European Cities (CHIC) Project is the essential next step to full commercialisation of hydrogen powered fuel cell (H2FC) buses. CHIC will reduce the 'time to market' for the technology and support 'market lift off' 2 central objectives of the Joint Undertaking. CHIC will: - Intensively test the technology to generate learning for the final steps towards commercialisation by operating 28 H2FC buses in medium sized fleets in normal city bus operation and 10 fuel cell passenger cars, and substantially enlarging hydrogen infrastructure in 5 European regions. - Embed the substantial knowledge and experience from previous H2FC bus projects (CUTE & HyFLEET:CUTE). - Accelerate development of clean public transport systems in 14 new European Regions. - Conduct a life cycle based sustainability assessment of the use of H2FC buses in public transport, based on a triple bottom line approach considering environmental, economic and social aspects. - Identify the advantages, improvement potentials, complementarities and synergies of H2FC buses compared with conventional and alternative technologies - Build a critical mass of public support for the benefits of 'green' hydrogen powered transport, leading to increased visibility and political commitment across Europe. The project is based on a staged introduction and build-up of H2FC bus fleets and the supporting infrastructure across Europe. A phased approach will link experienced and new cities in partnerships, greatly facilitating the smooth introduction of the new systems now and into the future. With this arrangement the project will be linked to projects fully funded from other sources and therefore magnifies the impact of the JTI. In the context of the H2FC bus projects and progress achieved to this point, the expected results of CHIC will take the technology to the brink of commercialisation, leading in turn to very significant environmental & economic benefits to Europe and to the World.
Objective: Human use and exploitation of the biosphere is increasing at such a pace and scale that the sustainability of major ecosystems is threatened, and may not be able to continue to function in ways that are vital to the existence of humanity. Re-framing environmental resource use has led to the emergence of the concepts of ecosystem services (ES) and natural capital (NC). This discourse indicates not only a change in our understanding of planetary functions at the ecosystem scale, but also a fundamental shift in how we perceive the relationship between people and the ecosystems on which they depend. OPERAs (OPERATIONAL POTENTIAL OF ECOSYSTEMS RESEARCH APPLICATIONS) aims to improve understanding of how ES/NC contribute to human well-being in different social-ecological systems in inland and coastal zones, in rural and urban areas, related to different ecosystems including forests and fresh water resources. The OPERAs research will establish whether, how and under what conditions the ES/NC concepts can move beyond the academic domain towards practical implementation in support of sustainable ecosystem management. OPERAs will use a meta-analysis (systematic review) of existing ES/NC practice to identify knowledge gaps and requirements for new policy options and instruments. New insights, and improved or novel tools and instruments, will be tested in practice in exemplar case studies in a range of socio-ecological systems across locales, sectors, scales and time. Throughout this iterative process, available resources and tools will be brought together in a Resource Hub, a web-based portal that will be co-developed by scientists and practitioners representing different interests and perspectives on the development, communication and implementation of the ES/NC concepts. The Resource Hub will provide the main interface between OPERAs and a Community of Excellence (CoE) for continued practice that will benefit from OPERAs outcomes.
Objective: Integrated assessment and energy-economy models have become central tools for informing long-term global and regional climate mitigation strategies. There is a large demand for improved representations of complex system interactions and thorough validation of model behaviour in order to increase user confidence in climate policy assessments. ADVANCE aims to respond to this demand by facilitating the development of a new generation of integrated assessment models. This will be achieved by substantial progress in key areas where model improvements are greatly needed: end use and energy service demand; representation of heterogeneity, behaviour, innovation and consumer choices; technical change and uncertainty; system integration, path dependencies and resource constraints; and economic impacts of mitigation policies. In the past, methodological innovations and improvements were hindered by the unavailability of suitable input data. The ADVANCE project will make a large and coordinated effort to generate relevant datasets. These datasets, along with newly developed methodologies, will be made available to the broader scientific community as open-access resources. ADVANCE will also put a focus on improved model transparency, model validation, and data handling. A central objective of ADVANCE is to evaluate and to improve the suitability of models for climate policy impact assessments. The improved models will be applied to an assessment of long-term EU climate policy in a global context, and disseminated to the wider community. The ADVANCE consortium brings together long-standing expertise in integrated assessment and energy-economy modelling with a strong expertise in material flows, energy system integration, and energy service demand.
Objective: NACLIM aims at investigating and quantifying the predictability of the climate in the North Atlantic/European sector related to North Atlantic/Arctic sea surface temperature (SST) and sea ice variability and change on seasonal to decadal time scales. SST and sea-ice forcing have a crucial impact on weather and climate in Europe. Rather than running climate forecasts ourselves, we will analyse the multi-model decadal prediction experiments currently performed as part of the fifth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) and critically assess the quality of predictions of the near-future state of key oceanic and atmospheric quantities relevant to the SST and sea-ice distribution and the related climate. Long-term observations of relevant ocean parameters will be carried out, necessary to assess the forecast skill of the model-based prediction results. We will identify those observations that are key to the quality of the prediction and in turn optimize the present observing system. We will quantify the impact of North Atlantic/European climate change on high trophic levels of the oceanic ecosystem as well as on urban societies.
Objective: The science of complex systems distinguishes linear from non-linear dynamics. Simpler systems can often be satisfactory described by linear models, but complex systems require non-linear models that can capture more of the characteristics of such systems, such as thresholds, feedback loops, avalanche effects, and irreversibility. Linear systems can be validated by aligning models to the past and using the model to predict the future. Non-linear systems, however, are often time-asymmetric - they can be explained with the wisdom of hindsight, but are not always predictable. For example, systems may respond sharply to minor perturbations, and the quality of this response is a measure of the system resilience. In practice, non-linear dynamics are significant both at the micro-scale of small history and at the macro-scale of deep time. The brilliant young scientist, for example, may experience a series of epiphanies that change his/her understanding and behaviour in an unpredictable and irreversible way. The scientific community as a whole may experience an innovation-cascade that has a similar effect on a much larger scale. Current models of climate change and carbon emission assume the immediate past is a reasonable guide to the future. They struggle to represent the complex causal structures and time-asymmetries of many socio-natural systems. COMPLEX will integrate the quasi-classic models of meso-scale processes with our best understanding of fine-grained space-time patterns and the system-flips that are likely to occur in the long interval between now and 2050. We believe the sub-national region is the key point of entry for studying climate change and its cause-effect interrelations. It is small enough to be sensitive to local factors, large enough to interact with supra-national agencies and stable enough to be historically and culturally distinctive. In addition to undertaking case studies in Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, Spain and Italy, We will develop a suite of modelling tools and decision-support systems to inform national and supra-national policy and support communities across Europe working to make the transition to a low-carbon economy.
Objective: The recent devastating earthquakes and associated tsunamis in Japan, Indonesia, and Haiti, which killed more than half a million people, highlighted how mankind is still far away from a satisfactory level of seismic risk mitigation. Among the regions around the Mediterranean Sea for which earthquakes represent a major threat to their social and economic development, the area around the Marmara Sea, one of the most densely populated parts of Europe, is subjected to a high level of seismic hazard. For this region the MARSITE project is proposed with the aim of assessing the state of the art of seismic risk evaluation and management at European level. This will be the starting point to move a step forward towards new concepts of risk mitigation and management by long-term monitoring activities carried out both on land and at sea. The MARSITE project aims to coordinate research groups with different scientific skills (from seismology to engineering to gas geochemistry) in a comprehensive monitoring activity developed both in the Marmara Sea and in the surrounding urban and country areas. The project plans to coordinate initiatives to collect multidisciplinary data, to be shared, interpreted and merged in consistent theoretical and practical models suitable for the implementation of good practices to move the necessary information to the end users.
Eine hinreichende Wasserversorgung und ein Abwassersystem zu gewährleisten, ist besonders in Ballungsgebieten eine Herausforderung für Regierungen weltweit. Die prognostizierten dramatischen globalen Veränderungen machen diese Aufgabe noch schwieriger. Bevölkerungswachstum, Verstädterung, die voranschreitenden Industrialisierung, der Klimawandel und ein drastischer Anstieg des Wasserverbrauchs belasten urbane Wasserressourcen massiv. Um die Wasserknappheit in Ballungsgebieten zu regulieren, braucht es einen Paradigmenwechsel vom konventionellen end-of-pipe-Wassermanagement (nachgeschaltete Maßnahmen) hin zu einem integrierten Ansatz. Dieser integrierte Ansatz sollte verschiedene Elemente beinhalten. Hierzu zählen: (i) Maßnahmen für den gesamten städtischen Wasserkreislauf (sowohl Ab- als auch Frischwasser werden hier als Bestandteile von Wasserressourcen im Allgemeinen betrachtet); (ii) Optimierung des Wasserverbrauchs durch die Wiederverwendung von Abwasser und durch das Verhindern der Verunreinigung von Frischwasser; (iii) Priorisierung von natürlichen und technischen Kleinanlagen, die flexibel und kosteneffizient sind und nur einen minimalen Instandhaltungsaufwand erfordern. Solche Anlagen, wie z.B. Pflanzenkläranlagen, Rigolenversickerung, Bodenfilterung und Uferfiltration, fördern die naturnahe Wasserreinigung und -speicherung. Außerdem haben kompakte technische Anlagen wie SBR (Sequencing Batch Reactor) und MBR (Membranbioreaktoren) in den letzten Jahren einen großen Entwicklungsfortschritt gemacht. Darüber hinaus können sie große und stark variierende Schadstoffbelastungen aufnehmen, saisonale Fluktuationen in der Wasserverfügbarkeit ausgleichen und in die Stadtplanung als grüne Infrastruktur, die zusätzliche sozioökonomische Vorteile wie z.B. Erholungsmöglichkeiten bietet, integriert werden. In Europa werden diese Systeme seit vielen Jahren entwickelt und das Potential für ihre Anwendung in Entwicklungs- und neu-industrialisierten Ländern ist weithin anerkannt. Allerdings herrschen in Indien und vielen weiteren Entwicklungs- und neu-industrialisierten Ländern in wärmeren Klimazonen andere Umweltbedingungen. Unter Berücksichtigung dieser Tatsachen zielt das Projekt NaWaTech auf die Maximierung des Nutzens von natürlichen und kompakten technischen Systemen und Prozessen für das effektive Management von kommunalen Wasserressourcen, von Wasserversorgung und Abwasserentsorgung und von kommunalen Wasserkreisläufen in städtischen Gebieten in Indien. (Text gekürzt)
In den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten konnten große Fortschritte im Bereich der Bewertung von Umweltauswirkungen von Produkten und Dienstleistungen entlang des Lebenszyklus (Ökobilanzierung) erreicht werden. In der Praxis zeigen sich jedoch Probleme aufgrund inkonsistenter, z. B. veralteter, Datenquellen und Daternerhebungsmethoden. MyEcoCost will eine Lösung für die Problematik der inkonsistenten Bewertung entwickeln, basierend auf einem globalen, wissenschaftlich fundierten und automatisierten Ansatz. Das zu entwicklende 'myEco-Cost'-System soll in der Lage sein, den Ressourcenverbrauch unterschiedlicher Produkte, Dienstleistungen und Technologien konsistent zu berechnen. Das Projekt wird Konzepte, Methoden und technische Lösungen innerhalb von allgemeinen Geschäftsprozessen (Produktentwicklung, Produktion, Verkauf, Administration, Entsorgung/Recycling/Wiederverwendung) erforschen, weiterentwickeln und testen. Jede dieser Produktlebenszyklen soll in die Berechnung der ökologischen Kosten (EcoCost) integriert werden. Darüber hinaus sollen durch die rekursive Methodik auch komplexere Wertschöpfungsketten und Elemente des Wirtschaftssystems präziser abgebildet werden. Das Projekt myEcoCost trägt dazu bei, wirtschaftlichen Akteuren, inklusive kleiner und mittlerer Unternehmen sowie Konsumenten, einen Zugang zu verbesserten Informationen des Ressourcenverbrauches von Geschäftsprozessen zu ermöglichen. Eine internet-basierte, anwendungsorientierte Architektur des Informationssystems soll so konzipiert werden, dass die Ressourceneffizienz erfasst und eine Verbesserung der Entscheidungsgrundlagen ermöglicht wird. Das Projekt ist in sieben Arbeitspakete (AP) gegliedert: Beschreibung der Anforderungen und der Architektur des Systems (AP 1), Methodik der Ressourcenkostenrechnung (AP 2), Entwicklung des MyEcoCost Systems (AP 3), Entwicklung einer Kommunikations- und Netzwerk-Infrastruktur (AP 4), Validierung des Konzepts und Systems (AP 5), Dissemination und Nutzung (AP 6) und Projektmanagement und Koordination (AP 7). Das Wuppertal Institut leitet die Arbeiten in Arbeitspaket 2, bei dem Richtlinien für die Berechnungsmethodologie des Ressourcenverbrauchs entwickelt werden sollen. Darüber hinaus koordiniert es die Arbeit im Beirat sowie im Bereich der Öffentlichkeitsarbeit. Dadurch wird ein wesentlicher Beitrag zur Verbreitung der Projektergebnisse in der Wissenschaft und der Ergebnisprüfung im Rahmen eines Stakeholderdialoges, geleistet.
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