Course syllabus

Course-PM

KBT135 Waste management lp2 HT19 (7.5 hp)

Course is offered by the department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Contact details

• examiner: Prof. Britt-Marie Steenari,  teaching area: Ash chemistry and recovery of materials from ashes. Contact: bms@chalmers.se
• teachers:
• Assist. Prof. Martina Petranikova, teaching area: Rules for recycling of waste electronics, methods for recycling of metals and batteries. Contact: martina.petranikova@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
• Associate prof. Maria Ljunggren-Söderman, teaching area: Waste flows in society. Contact: maria.ljunggren@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

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 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 report writing and oral presentation.
The groups (3-4 students) will perform a literature research about a specific issue and summarize their findings in a written report of approximately 10 pages that should be handed in to the supervisor no later than December 1st. The supervisor will review your report for minor corrections, allowing for a secondary and final hand-in December 6th. The report should include headings such as Background, Technical Problems and Solutions (present and future); as well as a mandatory contribution report. There will be one primary
supervisor knowledgeable in the project assignment. Once the primary supervisor accepts your report, the report is submitted via e-mail to the examiner Britt-Marie Steenari for a secondary review. 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 – one presenter from each group will be randomly selected at the time of 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 "Files" and on the course homepage, which is also
where you sign up for your project.

Special for this year: Martina Petranikova and Burcak Ebin will offer a few students to take part in a special project called Bizmet within the EIT Raw Materials program (see link below). More information will appear here...

https://eitrawmaterials.eu/course/bizmet/

Study visits

There will be a study visit to one facility related to waste management. The study visit will take place at 12-17 Dec 5th and you will go to Borås to see the "Sobacken" waste treatment factility. More information is given in the file "Course PM" in Files.

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, batteries and other waste electronic equipment

--Polymeric material, i.e. waste plastics

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

--Solid waste - separation, incineration and gasification

--Radioactive waste

--Emerging technologies

Link to the syllabus on Studieportalen.

Study plan

 

Examination form

The course examination includes

- A written exam which will take place January 13th 2020 at 8:30 on the Johanneberg campus. The exam is a closed book exam; calculator with emptied memory is permitted. 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 (bms@chalmers.se) to get an extra assignment as replacement