Mid Sweden University

Spillage of diesel oil and other petroleum products is a commonly creating need for siteremediation of contaminated soils. In Sweden the most common remediation action isexcavation of the contaminated soil and off site biological treatment by composting.However, a number of small sites spread out in rural areas end up low on priority lists, andwill not be attended to within foreseeable future if ever. For such areas a low cost, easy toapply remediation techniques would be of interest. Enhanced bioremediation of dieselcontaminants in soil by whey addition has been demonstrated in lab scale. Whey is a byproductfrom cheese production. A first pilot remediation trial on an actual site in Gäddede,County of Jämtland, was started the summer of 2010. Using this site as a case study ascreening life cycle assessment model has been set up. The goal of the study was toinvestigate the environmental performance of the whey method, to benchmark the wheymethod toward the excavation and composting practice and to identify environmental hotspots in the whey treatment life cycle. The study aims at establishing if further work shouldbe put into developing the method, or if the environmental performance is such that the wheymethod should be abandoned. It should be noted that even with a slightly worseenvironmental performance compared to other remediation alternatives whey treatment couldstill be of interest, since the small scale sites in rural areas we talk about here otherwise mostoften would not be attended to.Results from the screening life cycle assessment indicate a rather good environmentalperformance of the whey method, partly depending on impact category considered. For thewhey method, impacts from farming activities in the milk production chain allocated to thewhey give significant contributions. Transportation gives important impacts from both thewhey method and the excavation and off site composting, thus logistics should always beconsidered and optimized. The whey on-site treatment could be an interesting alternative forbioremediation especially at sites that would not otherwise be treated, due to small size orremote location.

Decentralized composting is an emerging method for managing biowaste, engaging waste generators as active recyclers in the waste management cycle. Evaluating performance and identifying optimization opportunities within this composting framework is essential to maximize its benefits and address its challenges. In small-scale composters, fresh waste is continuously mixed with previously added materials, shifting the typical composting process. As with larger systems, the composition of the feedstock influences the temperature profile and the quality of the final product. The issue of whether to include animal-source waste remains controversial in the development of standards and program guidelines. On the other hand, evaluating a leachate recycling method could help prevent nutrient loss and mitigate environmental impacts when bulking agents are lacking. In this study, kitchen and garden wastes were composted in 500-L static composters under cold climate conditions. We examined obtained compost stability, maturity, and quality parameters to determine the effects of adding animal by-product waste and/or recycling leachate. Our findings indicate that including animal by-products allows reaching sanitation temperatures under cold weather conditions and that recycling leachates could reduce nutrient losses and alleviate environmental and other user concerns while improving temperature, stability, maturity, and product quality patterns in decentralized composting. 

Palm oil is used for cooking in Southeast Asia and Africa and as a food additive in a number of processed foods world-wide. The production of palm oil is increasing, and it is of special interest from a nutritional point of view due to its high energy content and its significant content of micronutrients. In addition, palm oil is increasingly used to produce various biofuels. Due to large production volumes and diverse applications of palm oil, it is highly interesting and important to study the environmental impacts of its production. This chapter discusses how the environmental impacts of palm oil can be assessed, focusing on the life cycle environmental impacts of palm oil in comparison to similar products. A brief overview of life cycle assessment as a method is given, and results are presented together with suggestions for environmental improvements of palm oil cultivation and production. It is shown that the magnitude of the environmental impacts connected to palm oil in relation to other products is heavily affected by the choice of environmental indicators, which in LCA studies consist of both an environmental impact category and a so-called functional unit. Regarding impact categories, the global warming and acidification potentials of palm oil are lower than those of rapeseed oil per kg oil. The water footprint of palm oil and rapeseed oil are about the same on a mass basis, but for the two land use indicators soil erosion and heavy metal accumulation, rapeseed oil has a lower impact than palm oil. Specific interest is given to the life cycle energy use of palm oil in response to the unclear and diverse definitions of this impact category in different studies. It is concluded that there is a need to carefully define the energy use impact category when reporting on palm oil or similar products, and also to differentiate between different kinds of energy sources. If instead of mass the micronutrient content is applied as functional unit, palm oil still has lower global warming potential and acidification than rapeseed oil when compared on the basis of vitamin E content. However, if β-carotene content is used as functional unit, rapeseed oil is not relevant for comparison due to its negligible content of β-carotene. For that case, palm oil is therefore instead compared to tomatoes on a β-carotene basis, since tomatoes are rich in β-carotene. The tomatoes were shown to perform better then palm oil regarding global warming potential on a β-carotene basis. The effects of time and scale on the environmental impacts of palm oil, which includes changes in technical performance and electricity sources, are also discussed in this chapter. It is shown that combustion of the methane formed from the palm oil mill effluent can significantly reduce the global warming potential.

A life cycle assessment of hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) biofuel was performed. The study was commissioned by Volvo Technology Corporation and Volvo Penta Corporation as part of an effort to gain a better understanding of the environmental impact of potential future biobased liquid fuels for cars and trucks. The life cycle includes production of vegetable oil from rape, oil palm or Jatropha, transport of the oil to the production site, production of the HVO from the oil, and combustion of the HVO. The functional unit of the study is 1 kWh energy out from the engine of a heavy-duty truck and the environmental impact categories that are considered are global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP), eutrophication potential (EP) and embedded fossil production energy. System expansion was used to take into account byproducts from activities in the systems; this choice was made partly to make this study comparable to results reported by other studies. The results show that HVO produced from palm oil combined with energy production from biogas produced from the palm oil mill effluent has the lowest environmental impact of the feedstocks investigated in this report. HVO has a significantly lower life cycle GWP than conventional diesel oil for all feedstocks investigated, and a GWP that is comparable to results for e.g. rape methyl ester reported in the literature. The results show that emissions from soil caused by microbial activities and leakage are the largest contributors to most environmental impact categories, which is supported also by other studies. Nitrous oxide emissions from soil account for more than half of the GWP of HVO. Nitrogen oxides and ammonia emissions from soil cause almost all of the life cycle EP of HVO and contribute significantly to the AP as well. The embedded fossil production energy was shown to be similar to results for e.g. rape methyl ester from other studies. A sensitivity analysis shows that variations in crop yield and in nitrous oxide emissions from microbial activities in soil can cause significant changes to the results.

Nowadays humans struggle to supply and attain longer and more appropriate life time. Introducing new technologies, which, speeded up by modernization and industrialization, is the main subject in many branches of science to improve the human’s life; but this rate of innovation is not always pleasurable. As seen in many cases, side effects of using new technology come up as warning signs, and lead to huge environmental and humanitarian disaster with irreversible impact. Moreover, most of these technologies might be applied in different kinds of warfare where nations use high-Tech as tools to reach other’s resources and raise their economic benefits. As in most wars that happened in the world, updated technologies have been applied to overcome the combatant, which finally shows up as damages on the environment, economy, civilians and soldiers. In this study we reviewed the reasons of shaping warfare and its consequences in different aspects of environment, civilians, soldiers and economy. The questions I followed to answer were: What are those main factors that induced by technology to form different kinds of warfare? And, can technology be altered as a tool to make a war more environmentally friendly? To answer these two main questions, we need to know reasons for shaping warfare a) Economy, b) Ideological/religious, and c) Power/pride/love which raise many theories such as Economic, Behavioural, Evolutionary, Demographic, Rational, and Political science theory. In 1990 members of the committee of environmental issue discussed development of technology in the future which should follow by consideration of global environmental issue. Therefore, new technology should bring solution to environmental problems. Nowadays technology creates some kind of competition, not only in combat, but also in cold war. According to reviews of many studies, the harshness of war increases and the aftermath becomes more severe on the environment and societies, consequently irreversible rehabilitation in short and long term. Applied technologies in some warfare have been considered by their impact on natural and human environment. As a case study I considered the recent war in Libya and its consequences, not only in the country, but also its impact on other nations and neighbours as well. Strict international laws is needed to explicit and declare the rights of each individual and nation to prevent and ban any activities in the term of war crime. Also groups of authentic authorities should set up to conduct an investigation into each activity in countries and survey on introduced technologies to ensure them about their result and consequences. Finally some reviews were released about how international committees and conventions, declarations and agreement has been set to prevent and prohibit crime in wars, and some international laws has been brought to guide nations about their rights and responsibility against each other.

Time-series of estimated monthly carbon dioxide emissions from consumption of coal, petroleum and natural gas in the United States from 1981 to 2002 have been derived from energy consumption data. The data series for coal and natural gas each reveal a consistent seasonal pattern, with a winter peak for gas and two peaks (summer and winter) for coal. The annual cycle of total emissions has an amplitude of about 20 Tg-C, and is dominated by CO2 released from consumption of natural gas. Summation of the monthly estimates to obtain annual values reveals good agreement with other estimates of CO2 emissions. The varying proportions of CO2 emitted from each fuel type over the course of a year lead to an annual cycle in the carbon isotope ratio (δ13C), with a range of about 2 ‰. These monthly carbon emissions estimates should be helpful in understanding the carbon cycle by providing (1) monthly/seasonal input for carbon cycle models, (2) estimates of the annual cycle of the 13C isotope ratio in fossil-fuel CO2 emissions and (3) data at fine enough time intervals to investigate effects of seasonal climate variations and changes in seasonally dependent use patterns of certain appliances (e.g. air conditioners) on fossil-fuel carbon emissions.

A previously described model for the evaluation of sustainability in waste management has been expanded and applied to biodegradable and other combustible household waste. The model was applied to a case-study focusing on the special conditions in a municipality in the sparsely populated region of northern Sweden. In this region it is usual that the collection distances are long, the volume of waste is low and treatment facilities are remote. Four scenarios for the management of municipal household waste were compared: incineration, anaerobic digestion, composting and landfilling. A system analysis was performed to ensure that each scenario fulfil all the functions that the waste could provide (heat, electricity, fuel, and soil with a high nutrient content) and a sensitivity analysis was carried out to test the reliability of the results. The results show that the evaluation model can be used to assess the sustainability aspects of different treatment scenarios for combustible household waste. The model also allows for an individual interpretation of the results presented, depending on the choice of priorities. The effects of varying the time horizons and the difference in impact depending on what fuels are ultimately replaced in energy production are discussed.

Extensive utilisation of logging residues, straw, and energy crops will lead to short transportation distances and thus low transportation costs. The average distance of transportation of biomass to a large-scale conversion slant. suitable for electricitv or methanol uroduction using 300 000 drv tonne biomass vearlv, will be about 30 km in Sweden, if the conversion plant is located at the centre of ihe biomass production area. The estimated Swedish biomass potential of 430 PJ/yr is based on production conditions around 2015, assuming that 30% of the available arable land is used for energy crop production. With present production conditions, resulting in a biomass potential of 220 PJ/yr, the transportation distance is about 42 km. The cost of transporting biomass 30-42 km will be equivalent to 20-25% of the total biomass cost. The total energy efficiency of biomass production and transportation will be 9597%, where the energy losses from transportation are about 20%. Biomass transportation will contribute less than 10% to the total NO,, CO, and HC emissions from biomass production, transportation, and conversion

The growth rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), the largest human contributor to human-induced climate change, is increasing rapidly. Three processes contribute to this rapid increase. Two of these processes concern emissions. Recent growth of the world economy combined with an increase in its carbon intensity have led to rapid growth in fossil fuel CO2 emissions since 2000: comparing the 1990s with 2000–2006, the emissions growth rate increased from 1.3% to 3.3% y −1. The third process is indicated by increasing evidence (P = 0.89) for a long-term (50-year) increase in the airborne fraction (AF) of CO2 emissions, implying a decline in the efficiency of CO2 sinks on land and oceans in absorbing anthropogenic emissions. Since 2000, the contributions of these three factors to the increase in the atmospheric CO2 growth rate have been ≈65 ± 16% from increasing global economic activity, 17 ± 6% from the increasing carbon intensity of the global economy, and 18 ± 15% from the increase in AF. An increasing AF is consistent with results of climate–carbon cycle models, but the magnitude of the observed signal appears larger than that estimated by models. All of these changes characterize a carbon cycle that is generating stronger-than-expected and sooner-than-expected climate forcing.

Ecological sustainability presupposes that a global human population acts in such ways, that their total impact on the biosphere, together with nature's reactions, keeps the biosphere sufficient for sustaining generations to come. Human conduct is ultimately controlled by means of law. The problem can be summed up as:

Controlling system - Population - Sustainable ecosystems

This paper discusses two interlinked issues: a) the social scientific need for systems theory in the context of achieving and maintaining sustainable development and b) how theory of anticipatory modelling and computing can be applied when constructing and applying societal controlling systems for ecological sustainability with as much local democracy and economic efficiency as possible.

The Resource Management Act 1991 was drafted for sustainability and probably still reflects the state of the art as regards environmental legislation for sustainable development. Modern theory of environmental law methodology has to a high extent focused on implementation deficits based on the significance of law in rule of law countries and consequently on the concept of legal operationalisation of environmental goals (ultimately ecological sustainability). This not only puts, inter alia, balancing in a new light but also calls for systemic thinking and reconsideration of bottom-up approaches. What, then, is to be legally operationalised under the RMA and are there counterproductive functions, explicit or implicit, in it? This is discussed in depth, putting the RMA planning system at the centre and observing the lack of far-reaching substantive standards and obscurities as regards goals and means. The discussion reflects theory of environmental law methodology, systems theory, and the issue of non-linearity of ecosystems, also when the role of courts is elaborated.

This article confronts present main stream planning approaches against the perspective of ecological sustainability, as relevant for Rule of Law countries and based on a modern environmental law approach. It discusses the setting and implementation of environmental goals against the general experience of massive implementation deficits regarding environmental policies all over the world. In this confrontation, environmental planning, with at least some principles picked up from New Zealand's Resource Management Act, and much more taken from modern environmental law theory on legal operationalisation, is compared to adaptive management approaches which also allow for modifying the environment related goal if implementation fails or seems very difficult. The concept of adaptive environmental planning (AEP) is suggested as a possible road to choose for planning for sustainability, while maximizing development within the framework legally defined by means of environmental limits. This article presents five criteria, all of which must be met by AEP planning. One of these relates to a planning hierarchy which, among other things, leads to the conclusion that coastal planning, if it is intended to aim at sustainability, can not be dealt with in isolation, although such planning might have to meet very complex problems at the regional level.

Biomass co-firing with coal is a near-term option to displace fossil fuels and can facilitate the development of biomass conversion and the build-out of biomass supply infrastructure. A GIS-based modeling framework (EU-28, Norway, and Switzerland) is used to quantify and localize biomass demand for co-firing in coal power plants and agricultural and forest residue supply potentials; supply and demand are then matched based on minimizing the total biomass transport costs (field to gate). Key datasets (e.g., land cover, land use, and wood production) are available at 1,000m or higher resolution, while some data (e.g., simulated yields) and assumptions (e.g., crop harvest index) have lower resolution and were resampled to allow modeling at 1,000m resolution. Biomass demand for co-firing is estimated at 184 PJ in 2020, corresponding to an emission reduction of 18Mt CO2. In all countries except Italy and Spain, the sum of the forest and agricultural residues available at less than 300km from a co-firing plant exceeds the assessed biomass demand. The total cost of transporting residues to these plants is reduced if agricultural residues can be used, as transport distances are shorter. The total volume of forest residues less than 300km from a co-firing plant corresponds to about half of the assessed biomass demand. Almost 70% of the total biomass demand for co-firing is found in Germany and Poland. The volumes of domestic forest residues in Germany (Poland) available within the cost range 2-5 (1.5-3.5) Euro/GJ biomass correspond to about 30% (70%) of the biomass demand. The volumes of domestic forest and agricultural residues in Germany (Poland) within the cost range 2-4 (below 2) Euro/GJ biomass exceed the biomass demand for co-firing. Half of the biomass demand is located within 50km from ports, indicating that long-distance biomass transport by sea is in many instances an option.

Since the demand for more sustainable products is growing, the pressure on material developers to improve the sustainability performance of the products that they are developing is increasing. As a consequence, the need to move away from a narrow understanding of “product” and “environment” is becoming more apparent. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach has been used to find rough estimates of how much process energy, raw materials etc. are used in the process of transforming a biomass feedstock into a new material. A reference product with a fossil based material intended to be replaced is used as a benchmark for the new product. The new product must perform at least as well as this benchmark and preferably better. We illustrate this LCA based methodology using the example of replacing petroleum-based polymeric material with wood-based material in a disposable consumer product.

This study examines possible causes for variations in specific final energy use in new apartment buildings. The analysis is based on case studies of 22 new apartment buildings that were constructed as part of the ’Stockholm program for environmentally adapted buildings’. The buildings in the study were chosen because they share similar construction characteristics and similar energy systems but display unexpected large variations in specific energy use. Three causes were found to contribute to variations in monitored specific final energy use in the studied apartment buildings: (1) the time interval between the completion of construction work and the actual energy measurements, (2) the shape factor of the building and (3) the relative size of the common area. In addition, the buildings that participated in the Stockholm program failed to achieve the requirements for the specific final energy use, to a large extent, because of expectations based on the simulated values. The simulated specific final energy use predicted by the energy simulations were on average 19% lower than the monitored values, giving the impression that the buildings would fulfill the program’s energy requirements. The reasons for the low simulated values were determined to be large uncertainties in the input data. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

In this study we investigate the effects of post-use material management on the life cycle carbon balance of buildings, and compare the carbon balance of a concrete-frame building to that of a wood-frame building. The demolished concrete is either landfilled, or is crushed into aggregate followed by exposure to air for periods ranging from 4 months to 30 years to increase carbonation uptake of CO2. The demolished wood is assumed to be used for energy to replace fossil fuels. We calculate the carbon flows associated with fossil fuel used for material production, calcination emission from cement manufacture, carbonation of concrete during and after its service life, substitution of fossil fuels by recovered wood residues, recycling of steel, and fossil fuel used for post-use material management. We find that carbonation of crushed concrete results in significant uptake of CO2. However, the CO2 emission from fossil fuel used to crush the concrete significantly reduces the carbon benefits obtained from the increased carbonation due to crushing. Stockpiling crushed concrete for a longer time will increase the carbonation uptake, but may not be practical due to space constraints. Overall, the effect of carbonation of post-use concrete is small. The post-use energy recovery of wood and the recycling of reinforcing steel both give higher carbon benefit than the post-use carbonation. We conclude that carbonation of concrete in the post-use phase does not affect the validity of earlier studies reporting that wood-frame buildings have substantially lower carbon emission than concrete-frame buildings.

The energy flows associated with the materials comprising a building can be a significant part of the total energy used in a building's life cycle. Buildings have finite life spans, and the materials from demolished buildings can be either a burden that must be disposed, or a resource that can be used. In this paper we analyse the end-of-life energy impacts of concrete, steel and wood. End-of-life options considered include reuse; recycling; downcycling; energy recovery; and disposal in landfill. We follow the life cycles of the building materials from the acquisition of natural resources through to the end of the product's life cycle. We identify possibilities and constraints for integrating more effective end-of-life material processing options into existing industrial systems.

Here we analyze the life cycle primary energy implication of retrofitting a four-storey wood-frame apartment building to the energy use of a passive house. The initial building has an annual final energy use of 110 kWh/m(2) for space and tap water heating. We model improved thermal envelope insulation, ventilation heat recovery, and efficient hot water taps. We follow the building life cycle to analyze the primary energy reduction achieved by the retrofitting, considering different energy supply systems. Significantly greater life cycle primary energy reduction is achieved when an electric resistance heated building is retrofitted than when a district heated building is retrofitted. The primary energy use for material production increases when the operating energy is reduced but this increase is more than offset by greater primary energy reduction during the operation phase of the building, resulting in significant life cycle primary energy savings. Still, the type of heat supply system has greater impact on primary energy use than the final heat reduction measures.

This study evaluates the possible influences of a large-scale introduction of biomass material and energy systems and their market volumes on land, material and energy market prices and their feedback to greenhouse gas (GHG) emission mitigation costs. GHG emission mitigation supply curves for large-scale biomass use were compiled using a methodology that combines a bottom-up analysis of biomass applications, biomass cost supply curves and market prices of land, biornaterials and bioenergy carriers. These market prices depend on the scale of biomass use and the market volume of materials and energy carriers and were estimated using own-price elasticities of demand. The methodology was demonstrated for a case study of Poland in the year 2015 applying different scenarios on economic development and trade in Europe. For the key technologies considered, i.e. medium density fibreboard, poly lactic acid, electricity and methanol production, GHG emission mitigation costs increase strongly with the scale of biomass production. Large-scale introduction of biomass use decreases the GHG emission reduction potential at costs below 50EURO/Mg CO2eq with about 13-70% depending on the scenario. Biomaterial production accounts for only a small part of this GHG emission reduction potential due to relatively small material markets and the subsequent strong decrease of biomaterial market prices at large scale of production. GHG emission mitigation costs depend strongly on biomass supply curves, own-price elasticity of land and market volumes of bioenergy carriers. The analysis shows that these influences should be taken into account for developing biomass implementations strategies.

The treatment and utilisation of biomass residues and waste for energy and recycling can contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emission reduction. Therefore, a waste treatment structure should be designed for an efficient saving of fossil primary energy in terms of maximal primary energy savings or minimal costs per unit of primary energy savings. However, this is a complex task, given the large number of technologies, recycling options and their logistic consequences, that necessitate an integrated analysis. Also, on longer term various new and improved technologies become available which can affect performances for options from an economic and/or energy point of view. For that reason, an optimisation tool, that optimises a biomass and waste treatment system for a given amount of biomass and waste, is developed in this study. This optimal biomass and waste treatment system is composed of several treatment installations, that are characterised by scale, location and kind of technology. Important aspects that are taken into account in the analysis are heat distribution, biomass and waste transport and economies of scale. A broad variety of technologies for material recycling, conversion of biomass and/or waste to heat, electricity or transportation fuel are included in the optimisation tool. Performance data of these technologies are based on an extensive review. Examples of included technologies comprise: integrated gasification with combined cycle, waste incineration, pyrolysis, digestion, co-firing in fossil power plants, biomass incineration, hydro-thermal upgrading, paper recycling and chipboard production. A comparison of the different technologies in relation to scale shows that primary energy savings and costs per unit of primary energy savings diverge significantly. In general, the optimisation tool developed here is suitable for analyses of optimal biomass and waste treatment structures in different regions with regard to primary energy savings and their costs. By means of scenario analysis, robust optimal solutions in terms of primary energy savings and their costs can be identified and the influence of important parameters can be analysed. A case study of the Dutch biomass and waste treatment systems has been carried out with the optimisation tool and is presented in part two of this article.

An important option in the Swedish context to reduce its net emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) is the increased use of biomass for energy and material substitution. On fallow agricultural land additional production of biomass would be possible. We analyse biomass production systems based on Norway spruce, hybrid poplar and willow hybrids and the use of this biomass to replace fossil energy and energy intensive material systems. The highest biomass production potential is for willow in southern Sweden. Fertilisation management of spruce could shorten the rotation lengths by about 17%. The fertilised production of Norway spruce with use of harvested timber for construction and use of remaining woody biomass for heat and power production gives the largest reductions of carbon emissions per hectare under the assumptions made. The use of willow for heat and power and of fertilised spruce for a wood product mix lead to the highest fossil primary energy savings in our scenarios. Spruce cultivations can achieve considerable carbon emission reductions in the long term, but willow and poplar might be a good option when fossil energy savings and carbon emission reductions should be achieved in the short term.

Material recycling as well as energetic production of biomass residues and other solid wastes could significantly contribute to fossil primary energy savings. Waste treatment should, therefore, aim to combine pollution abatement with the efficient saving of fossil primary energy. This article identifies optimal waste treatment strategies in The Netherlands. Here, an optimal strategy is one that either maximises the fossil primary energy savings or minimises the costs per unit of fossil primary energy savings that are achieved by the utilisation of available biomass residues and wastes. Also, the influence of different factors - for example, the availability of wastes or technological developments - on the robustness of technological options and on the variation of costs and fossil primary energy savings is studied. With a specially developed optimisation tool (described in Part I of this article series) several variants of Dutch waste treatment systems ('scenarios') are analysed by back casting to the year 2020. This tool allows for quick analyses of complete waste treatment infrastructures. The results show that the objective of the Dutch government to supply 120PJ of primary energy demand in 2020 from biomass and waste seems more than feasible, while in 2000 about 43 PJ were realised. Including material recycling up to 437 PJ primary energy could be saved with an optimised waste treatment infrastructure. Choices made about alternative waste treatment strategies influence the costs strongly. Total costs for the Dutch waste treatment system - not considering revenues from waste treatment tariffs - vary from revenues of 230EUEO million/year to costs of 820EURO million/year. The contributions of material and energy recycling to avoid primary energy use change significantly under different preconditions. In the 11 different scenarios considered, of the primary energy savings achieved 25-76% resulted from material recycling, 20-80% from heat and electricity production, and a more modest 0-21% from the production of transport fuel. (Biomass) integrated gasification with combined cycle, hydro-thermal upgrading and waste separation emerge as key technologies from this study, while for example, waste incineration and biomass co-firing in coal power plants do not come out as most attractive options for the longer term. Generally, large-scale conversion units seem favourable to achieve better economies and energy recovery.