Das Projekt "REsource Management in Peri-urban AReas: Going Beyond Urban Metabolism (REPAiR)" wird/wurde gefördert durch: Kommission der Europäischen Gemeinschaften Brüssel. Es wird/wurde ausgeführt durch: Technische Universiteit Delft.A shift towards a more circular economy is crucial to achieve more sustainable and inclusive growth. Our objective is to provide local and regional authorities with an innovative transdisciplinary open source geodesign decision support environment (GDSE) developed and implemented in living labs in six metropolitan areas. The GDSE allows creating integrated, place-based eco-innovative spatial development strategies aiming at a quantitative reduction of waste flows in the strategic interface of peri-urban areas. These strategies will promote the use of waste as a resource, thus support the on-going initiatives of the EC towards establishing a strong circular economy. The identification of such eco-innovative strategies will be based on the integration of life cycle thinking and geodesign to operationalise urban metabolism. Our approach differs from previous UM as we introduce a reversed material flow accounting to collect data accurate and detailed enough for the design of a variety of solutions to place-based challenges. The developed impact and decision models allow quantification and validation of alternative solution paths and therefore promote sustainable urban development built on near-field synergies between the built and natural environments. This will be achieved by quantifying and tracking essential resource flows, mapping and quantification of negative and positive effects of present and future resource flows, and the determination of a set of indicators to inform decision makers concerning the optimization of (re-)use of resources. The GDSE will be open source. With a budget of €5 million, REPAiR funds a consortium rich in experience in waste and resource management, spatial decision support, territorial governance, spatial planning and urban design, and has deep knowledge of the 6 case study areas. REPAiR is supported by a user board, of key stakeholders for the development of CE as well as local authorities, who are heavily involved in the GDSE testing.
Das Projekt "H2020-EU.3.5. - Societal Challenges - Climate action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials - (H2020-EU.3.5. - Gesellschaftliche Herausforderungen - Klimaschutz, Umwelt, Ressourceneffizienz und Rohstoffe), National Contact Points for Climate action, Raw materials, Environment and Resource Efficiency (NCPs CaRE)" wird/wurde ausgeführt durch: Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH.
Das Projekt "Wechselwirkungen zwischen Hydrodynamik und Biofilmeigenschaften und -funktion in Fliessgewässern" wird/wurde gefördert durch: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Es wird/wurde ausgeführt durch: Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau, Institut für Umweltwissenschaften.
Das Projekt "Cycling resources embedded in systems containing Light Emitting Diodes (CYCLED)" wird/wurde gefördert durch: Kommission der Europäischen Gemeinschaften Brüssel. Es wird/wurde ausgeführt durch: Fraunhofer-Institut für Optronik, Systemtechnik und Bildauswertung.Objective: The project cycLED aims at optimising the flows of resources over all life-cycle phases of Light Emitting Diodes (LED) products. The energy saving potential for LEDs is significant, and the strategic importance of the LED technology is reflected in the current and upcoming market development. However, LED-based product systems contain many resources like indium, gallium or rare earth metals. Some of these substances are classified as critical raw materials at EU level. Therefore, if the current expansion of LED technologies is most welcomed from an economic and energy point of view, it requires optimising resource flows and addressing key societal issues. To strengthen the emerging LED market in Europe, cycLED focuses on improvement of the material flows and policy measures to remove barriers for LED technology dissemination. Innovation is needed to achieve an efficient management of the different materials used in LED systems, so that the growth of the LED-related markets is decoupled from resource depletion. A material flow analysis will first be conducted to obtain an overview of the most relevant materials contained in LED products, their origin and the situation regarding recycling. Further research will focus on the different life-cycle phases (production and manufacturing, assembling, use and material recycling) to provide overall solutions to improve the resource flows. These results will be combined to develop and implement solutions regarding product design for eco-innovation, adaptation of business models and overcoming of barriers to diffusion. Work packages dedicated to the development of indicators measuring the eco-innovation and to the dissemination of the results will accompany the research. The impacts of cycLED relate to resource savings, reduction of production costs, increase of competitiveness, creation of jobs and capacity building.
Das Projekt "Safety and quality assurance measures along the pellets supply chain (SAFEPELLETS)" wird/wurde gefördert durch: Kommission der Europäischen Gemeinschaften Brüssel. Es wird/wurde ausgeführt durch: Bioenergy 2020+ GmbH, Firmensitz Graz.Isolated incidents due to increased, toxic emissions in pellet storages have aroused great relevance and urgency on operational and customer safety in wood pellet supply chains. Reportedly two cases of death have occurred in large size vessels for ocean transportation and in harbour facilities. Another three incidents were reported in end-users storage rooms, the last of which resulted in the death of a German engineer. Furthermore, measurements in pellet storages show significantly increased CO concentrations for a relevant number of storages. Until now a definitive cause for increased CO concentration could not be found. Within this project the different approaches and results on safety in pellet supply chains are linked with each other and integrated to a supranational scope. This is of great importance as pellet markets are no longer isolated, but increasingly grow to international resource flows. In this regard, decisive parameters like the amount of off-gasses and the potential for self-heating related to the time from pellet production to end use as well as the raw material composition of pellets resulting from their origin have to be investigated within international scope. The proposed project aims to answer the question, where and under which conditions off-gassing and self-heating from biomass pellets occurs and what measures can be undertaken to reduce these risks. In turn, this project will end out into a draft for setting an international standard on safety measures and inspection methods along the whole pellets supply chain (e.g. by developing Material Safety Data Sheets for wood pellets). This safety issue is decisive for the further extension of pellets markets and thereby reflects high relevance for all enterprises in the pellet utilisation chain.