Course syllabus

KBT135 KBT135 Waste management lp2 HT23 (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. Pavleta Knutsson, teaching area: Ashes: Composition, treatment, and use/or disposal. Contact: pavleta.knutsson@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
• Prof. Magdalena Svanström, teaching area: Waste flows in society and 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. Karin Karlfeldt Fedje, teaching area: Thermal treatment methods for waste. Contact: karin.karlfeldt@chalmers.se
• Prof. Henrik Thunman, teaching area: Chemical recycling of plastics to virgin qualities via thermal processes. Contact: henrik.thunman@chalmers.se
• Angelica Avella, teaching area: Recycling of plastics. Contact: avella@chalmers.se
• Dr. Hanna de la Motte, competence area: Recycling of Textiles. Contact: hanna.delamotte@treetotextile.com

   

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 the 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

TimeEdit

Links to an external site.

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 3-4)
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 writing, oral presentation and acting as opponents.
The groups (3-4 students) will perform a literature research about a specific topic and summarize their findings in one A4 page abstract and PowerPoint presentation (maximum 15 slides),  that should be handed in to the topic supervisor no later than December 5th.

The topic supervisor will review your document and the presentation, allowing for a secondary and final hand-in December 12th.

The presentation should include headings such as Background, Technical Problems and Solutions.

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 presentation of the project, a maximum of 3 points will be added to the result of the written exam.

Every presenting group will have another group as the opponents. Their role will be to get familiar with the topic, and then prepare the set of questions for the presenting group. The quality of the opponent work will be evaluated by the teachers and maximum 3 points can be awarded. 

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

Topic supervisors contacts:

Daniel Hoffmann (danhof@chalmers.se)

Andrea Locati (andrea.locati@chalmers.se)

Thomas Ottink (ottink@chalmers.se)

Léa Rouquette (malea@chalmers.se)

Simon Duda (simond@chalmers.se)

Ioanna Teknetzi (ioanna.teknetzi@chalmers.se)

Nils Zachmann (zachmann@chalmers.se)

Martina Petranikova (martina.petranikova@chalmers.se)

Yigit Akbas (yigita@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 utilisation and recycling alternatives for the following material areas:

--Metals

--Polymeric material

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

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

--Radioactive waste

--Emerging technologies

 

Link to the syllabus on Studieportalen.

Study plan

Links to an external site.

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 the 13th of January 2025 in 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 presentation and opponent work 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