In den letzten Jahren sind biologisch Biokunststoffe immer mehr zum Forschungsinteresse geworden. Die Gründe liegen einerseits in der Suche nach Alternativen zur Verwendung von Kunststoffen auf Erdölbasis angesichts der zur Neige gehenden Erdölreserven und andererseits am Anwachsen der Müllberge und den damit verbundenen Problemen. Biokunststoffe können wie konventionelle Kunststoffe für eine große Vielfalt von Produkten, eingesetzt werden. Vor allem für kurzlebige Güter, wie Verpackungen oder Catering-Artikel sind Produkte aus Biokunststoff in höchstem Maße geeignet. Biokunststoffe werden aus nachwachsenden Quellen gewonnen und sind durch Mikroorganismen, also durch Kompostierung wieder abbaubar. Das vorliegende Projekt befasst sich mit Polyhydroxyalkanoaten (PHA), diese unterscheiden sich von anderen Biokunststoffen durch vorteilhafte Eigenschaften, wie Gasbarriereeigenschaften, Wasseraufnahme und Schmelztemperatur. Im Rahmen des beantragten Impulsprojektes soll ein wirtschaftlicher und ökologischer Prozess zur Herstellung von PHA entwickelt werden. Die Herausforderung liegt darin, ein neues Verfahren zu entwickeln, in dem einerseits auf die gegenseitige Wechselwirkung der einzelnen Grundoperationen bedacht genommen wird und andererseits danach getrachtet wird, Prozessnebenprodukte, nicht als Abfallströme aus dem Prozess ausschleusen zu müssen, sondern durch geeignete Aufbereitung wieder in den Prozess rückzuführen. Maximale Kreislaufschließung soll ermöglichen, ein Produkt, das den Anforderungen an Ressourcenschonung, Deponieentlastung und Abfallverarbeitung genügt, in einem Verfahren der Cleaner Produktion herzustellen.
Material and energy costs represent about 50% of the operating costs incurred by European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Although the potential for resource efficiency improvements is high, the necessary awareness and human resource capacities to explore this potential are limited. Existing tools for exploration of resource efficiency improvement potentials have several shortcomings: they are either tool-driven, of a solely qualitative nature or do not address all levels of a business. Users of such tools therefore miss important improvement opportunities. In order to overcome these limitations and to systematically identify, quantify and fully explore resource efficiency improvement potentials, an international team developed and tested a new comprehensive, needs-driven and quantitative diagnosis tool named the ĺEDIT Value Tool.̷ This tool can be used to perform initial diagnoses for companies. The EDIT Value Tool was piloted in eighteen manufacturing SMEs in six Central European countries. Evaluation of the test results showed that the tool is effective in helping company personnel to identify the main weaknesses and the potentials for company improvements. The tool achieves this by evaluating a business's characteristics: its stakeholder values, the corporate strategy to implement its mission and vision, assessment of the effectivity of the company's management systems, processes and products. The benefits of using the EDIT Value Tool that were of most benefit to the companies were the proposed changes to corporate technology and management. The collection of quantitative and qualitative data helped company personnel to develop new perspectives on how to monitor and to improve resource efficiency and to increase awareness of and commitment to more sustainable manufacturing systems. Quelle: http://www.sciencedirect.com/
Present concepts of industrial management are based on a linear value chain of products and services. Input materials such as raw materials, water and energy are transformed into products and by-products but cogenerating significant amount of wastes and polluting emissions. Cleaner production approach, focusing on single process efficiency within companies, and industrial symbiosis approach, focusing on systemic spatial resource efficiency among different companies, are both contributing to reduce the environmental impact of the industrial production. In this context, different tools to optimize industrial management have been developed, but none of them include both approaches. The aim of the present project is to combine both approaches in order to increase the overall resource efficiency of industrial processes within a system of different factories. Overall goal of the program Ecomanindustry: Development of a universal reproducible software based tool called CPIS for decision support integrating the existing experiences and methodologies of Cleaner Production (CP) and Industrial Symbiosis (IS). The CPIS-tool will facilitate inter-industrial assessment and communication for waste avoidance and reuse of materials based on the Software as a Service (SaaS) principles. Specific goals of the swiss partners: FHNW: FHNW will be the coordinator of the overall Project and lead field tests and case studies. FHNW will collect customer feedback on existing software and test user friendly and failure free functionality of a beta version of the developed CPIS-tool in a field test, and proof customer acceptance of the CPIS-tool application in two case studies. UNIL: UNIL will gather and valorize previous research and experiences of existing GIS-based decision support tools for the development of eco-industrial parks, design the concept, functionalities and boundaries of the software-based CPIS-tool, and choose the appropriate technologies to be implemented in the CPIS-tool. SOFIES: SOFIES will build a community of users and service provider, ensure the long term development of the CPIS-tool, promote the dissemination to other countries and elaborate adequate user guide and training to facilitate dissemination.
NRCT component: Assoc.Prof.Dr. Sruamsiri, Pittaya - Development of Clean Technology for Off-season Fruit Production: A Case Study of Mango, Longan, Litchi and Tangerine. Specific basic and applied science activities for each crop will be carried out in an attempt to solve the following issues. Longan: Previous research work has shown that flower induction can successfully be manipulated by application of KClO3. This crop is therefore an ideal model plant to investigate the regulatory mechanisms of flowering by: 1. determining acquisition and distribution of KClO3 using isotope labelling techniques and measuring enzyme activities in leaves to decide whether nitrate reductase is involved in the conversion and flower inducing activity of KClO3; 2. identifying mutual influences between hormones including their time-dependent changes brought about by manipulation of hormone biosynthesis through exogenously applied plant growth regulators (PGRs); 3. investigating the effect of off-season production systems on carbohydrate distribution and reserves. Mango: Paclobutrazol (PBZ) is already commercially used to manipulated flower induction in mango, however, the technique may not be sustainable due to its persistence in plant and soil. Prohexadione-Ca (Pro-Ca), another gibberellin biosynthesis inhibiting compound, and specific crop management techniques may prove to be successful and more sustainable alternatives to PBZ and warrant detailed investigation by: 1. evaluating appropriate time-of-season, concentration and application procedure (injection or spray) of Pro-Ca as possible alternative of PBZ and subsequent effects on hormonal status; 2. pruning or defoliation techniques which may induce a secondary flower through an altered hormonal status in the bud tissue. Litchi: There are still no proven orchard management practices for inducing off-season flowering in litchi. The main research objective is to study the significance of plant stress (pruning, girdling shoot tipping techniques, water and nutrient deficiency) on flowering signals by determining carbohydrate changes and hormonal status.
Am Interdisziplinären Institut für Umwelt und Wirtschaft der Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien wurde im Jahr 1996 eine sozialwissenschaftliche Begleitforschung des ersten Jahrganges von ÖKOPROFIT-Dornbirn durchgeführt. Dazu wurden über den Zeitraum eines Jahres mehr als 40 beteiligte Akteuren persönlich befragt, der Projektforschritt mittels regelmäßiger schriftlicher Fragebögen erhoben und die durchgeführten Workshops und Veranstaltungen beobachtet. Die vorliegende vom Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Jugend und Familie geförderte Arbeit dokumentiert die Erfahrungen aus der Sichtweise der beteiligten Akteure und identifiziert die wichtigsten Erfolgsfaktoren für die Übertragbarkeit des ÖKOPROFIT-Konzepts auf andere Gemeinden bzw. Regionen. Ein Vergleich mit den in Graz und Klagenfurt durchgeführten ÖKOPROFIT-Projekten zeigt den Gestaltungsspielraum und die Flexibilität des Konzepts auf. Im Jahre 1998 wurde aufbauend auf den Arbeiten zuvor eine Langfrist-Evaluation durchgeführt, die aufzeigen sollte, ob das ÖKOPROFIT-Konzept geeignet ist, eine dauerhafte Etablierung des betrieblichen Umweltschutzes zu garantieren.