Course syllabus

Course-PM

KBT135 KBT135 Waste management lp2 HT21 (7.5 hp)

Course is offered by the department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Contact details

  • examiner: Martina Petranikova,  teaching area: Hydrometallurgy, metallurgy, batteries, etc. Contact: martina.petranikova@chalmers.se
  • teachers:
  • Dr. Henrik Leion, teaching area: Ashes: Composition, treatment, and use/or disposal. Contact: henrik.leion@chalmers.se
  • Dr. Burcak Ebin, teaching area: Recycling of solar cells and materials in new vehicles. Contact: burcak@chalmers.se
  • Dr. Stefan Allard, teaching area: Handling of nuclear waste. Contact: stefane@chalmers.se
  • Dr. Stellan Holgersson, teaching area: Handling of nuclear waste. Contact: stehol@chalmers.se
  • Prof. Magdalena Svanström, teaching area: Waste flows in society and resource recovery from organic waste. Contact: magdalena.svanstrom@chalmers.se
  • Dr.Ulf Jäglid, teaching area: Reuse of cement and concrete. Contact: ulf@chalmers.se
  • Prof. Britt-Marie Wilén, teaching area: Treatment of sewage sludge. Contact: britt-marie.wilen@chalmers.se
  • Adjunct prof. Christer Forsgren, teaching area: Thermal treatment methods for waste. Contact: christer.forsgren@stenametall.se
  • Prof. Henrik Thunman, teaching area: Chemical recycling of plastics to virgin qualities via thermal processes. Contact: henrik.thunman@chalmers.se
  • Dr. Antal Boldizar, teaching area: Recycling of plastics,

 

Course purpose

The ultimate goal of resource management should be a zero-waste society, where no waste is formed in industry or in other sectors of society. However all industrial and societal activities are currently producers of waste, and it is likely that this situation will continue for the foreseeable future. The aim of this course is to give an understanding of the basic principles of waste management, recycling and reuse. Both municipal and industrial waste issues will be discussed, enabling the students to understand and evaluate different waste management and material recycling techniques and strategies. The course content is kept updated by including examples of new and emerging technologies for waste management and material recycling.

 

Schedule

See Files - for the detailed schedule for lectures, study visit and literature project presentation.

TimeEdit

Course literature

The course material consists of the lecture slides and other text files or links provided by the teachers. This material will be available in the section called Files and under the names of the separate teachers. At the course start you will find last years lecture slides, articles to read and other material. The teachers will probably update their slides but you can start reading to get an idea about what the lectures will be about. Updates of the course material will be announced here on the course webpage.

Course design

The course consists of a series of lectures, a literature project and a study visit. Relevant text material will be handed out during the course and references to e-books available at Chalmers and other e-resources will be given.


The course homepage on CANVAS will be used extensively to provide relevant up-to-date information and material important for the course.
Mandatory tasks: Please note that the project, including all project presentations, as well as the study visit are mandatory. Should you not be able to attend the study visit, you will be assigned an additional task.

 

Projects (In groups of 6-7)
The aim of these projects is that the students should be familiar with different information sources dealing with waste management. Knowledge of some specific waste treatment issues will also be gained. Furthermore, the project will train the students in report writing and oral presentation.
The groups (6-7 students) will perform a literature research about a specific topic and summarize their findings in a written report of approximately 10 pages that should be handed in to the topic supervisor no later than December 1st.

The topic supervisor will review your report for minor corrections, allowing for a secondary and final hand-in December 13th.

The report should include headings such as Background, Technical Problems and Solutions (present and future); as well as a mandatory contribution report.

During the last week of the course one occasion is allotted for presentations of the projects (See schedule). The groups will present their findings in an oral presentation of approximately 10 minutes and all group members have to contribute within the presentation. Depending on the quality of the written report and the presentation of the project, a maximum of 6 points will be added to the result of the written exam.


A list of available projects will be available in the course webpage section "People/Projects 2021" and on the course CANVAS page, which is also where you sign up for your project.

Topic supervisors contacts:

Ioanna Teknetzi: ioanna.teknetzi@chalmers.se

Nils Zachmann: zachmann@chalmers.se

Mariane Vigoureux: marvigo@chalmers.se

Stellan Holgersson: stehol@chalmers.se

Nathália Vieceli: nathalia.vieceli@chalmers.se

Thomas Ottink: ottink@chalmers.se

Martina Petranikova: martina.petranikova@chalmers.se

Changes made since the last occasion

A summary of changes made since the last occasion.

Learning objectives and syllabus

Learning objectives:

Be able to describe and discuss the waste management area including definitions. To be able to describe and discuss waste management practices as well as utilization and recycling alternatives for the following material areas:

--Metals, metallic waste

--Polymeric material

--Treatment of liquid waste streams - mechanical, biological and chemical methods; industrial and municipal cases; anaerobic digestion; production of bio-gas; de-watering and drying

--Solid waste - separation, incineration, composting and land-filling; treatment and use of ash-products

--Radioactive waste

--Emerging technologies - e.g. solar panel recycling

Link to the syllabus on Studieportalen.

Study plan

If the course is a joint course (Chalmers and Göteborgs Universitet) you should link to both syllabus (Chalmers and Göteborgs Universitet).

Examination form

The course examination includes

- A written exam (max. 50 points) which will take place January 10th 2022 at 8:30 on the Johanneberg campus/on the web. The location of the exam room will be published on the student portal of Chalmers. More details to be found at Studieportalen.

Students have to sign up for the written exam. Please get updated information from Studieportalen about this!

- The project report and presentation that can give max 6 points to be added to the exam points

- Your presence at the mandatory activities - see schedule. If you happen to miss the study visit you should contact the course examiner (martina.petranikova@chalmers.se) to get an extra assignment as replacement