Academic literature on the topic 'Industrial districts – Denmark'

The moss technique is widely used to monitor atmospheric deposition of heavy metals in many countries in Europe. State of the environmental and thus the health of the population largely depend on the state of the earth’s atmosphere. The atmosphere basically consists of a mixture of natural gases. In addition, the air can contain pollutant gases, as well as suspensions of liquid or solid particulates. The particulates pass into the air either from natural sources (soil, rocks, water bodies and living organisms) or as a result of anthropogenic activity (industry, transport, fuel, human waste, etc.). Essentially, atmosphere is an aerosol system where solid particulates are dispersed in a mixture gases. Data from existing surveys of heavy metals concentrations in mosses is an invaluable resource for international negotiations on heavy metal pollution. The data from moss surveys allow examination of both spatial and temporal trends in heavy metal deposition, and identification of areas where there is high deposition of heavy metals from long-range atmospheric transport and local sources. Mosses effectively concentrate most heavy metals and other microelements from the air and precipitation. Mosses are usually tolerant to even a high pollution level. The most commonly used moss species in air pollution biomonitoring are Hylocomium splendens, Pleurozium schreberi. It is easy to collect samples, and instrumental analysis of mosses is simpler than analysis of precipitation: the exposure period is easy to determine (3 year growth segments of mosses are usually taken for analysis) they can also be employed for studying temporal trends. The moss biomonitor method in combination with nuclear physics analysis techniques has been regularly used for the past three decades in Western Europe and in Asia as well. Thirty four countries signed the United Nations Convention for control of emissions of heavy metals in the air using biomonitoring (the Aarhus Protocol), Denmark in 1998 (as of 2004, it had 36 signatories). The United Nations Organization established a special economic Commission for Europe intended for shaping the scientific policy of the countries that signet the un Convention in the field of research on the critical ozone levels and evaluation of atmospheric heavy metal deposition in Europe by the method based on the collection and analysis of moss biomonitors. The industrial and agricultural sectors have a significant anthropogenic impact on the environment. Moss biomonitoring technique is the first attempt to study the precipitation of heavy metals in Azerbaijan, a country with different relief and climate, using NAA. The study determined the precipitation of heavy metal pollutants in the Goygol, Dashkasan and Gadabay districts. Moss samples (mainly Hylocomium splendens, Pleurozium schreberi) were collected from the studied areas. Concentrations of 44 elements were determined (Na, Mg, Al, Si, Cl, K, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Br, Rb, Sr, Mo, Ag, Cd, In, Sb, I, Cs, Ba, La, Ce, Nd, Sm, Eu, Tb, Tm, Yb, Hf, Ta, W, Au, Th, U). The mosses two types Pleurozium schreberi and Hylocomium splendens were taken for atmospheric deposition study of major and trace elements in Azerbaijan. Samples were collected at a distance of at least 300 m from main roads, at least 100 m from roads and at least 200 m from village, in forest glades or in open heath to reduce through-fall effects from the forest canopy. In order to make the moss samples representative for a reasonably large area, each sample was composed of four to six sub-samples collected within an area 10x10 m. Collected samples were stored in paper bags. A separate set of disposable polyethylene gloves was used for collection of each sample. The coordinates of the sampling sites were determined using GPS. The areas selected in the study (Goygol, Dashkasan, Gadabay districts) have long been subjected to intensive pollution by industry and various economic complexes. Especially in recent years, the elemental pollutants in these areas have not been fully investigated. At the same time, systematic information on environmental pollutants and sources of these pollutants, forecasting the levels of concentrations of heavy metals and other pollutants, as well as effective methods to reduce them have not been developed. For the first time, a database on the concentration of 44 elements in moss collected from the western part of Azerbaijan (Goygol, Dashkasan and Gadabay) was obtained. The higher pollution of Dashkasan and Gadabay areas compared to Goygol is due to the higher content of these elements in the rocks of these areas, as well as the presence of high levels of anthropogenic pollution from industrial wastes located in these areas. Multifunctional statistical analysis (FA) was used to identify and characterize various sources of pollution and to indicate the most polluted areas. FA is a very flexible technique for using orthogonal factor gaps and minimizing data matrices using predictions and / or transformations that give a known factor. Multidisciplinary statistical analysis of the obtained analytical results will allow to identify the main sources of pollution and assess the role of long-distance transport of pollutants. Keywords: biomonitor, moss, neutron activation, heavy metal

2021 3rd International Conference on Resources and Environmental Research (ICRER 2021) was originally scheduled to be held in Xiamen University of Technology, China during December 2-4, 2021, but it was switched to a virtual conference due to the unstable situation generated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the worldwide travel restrictions. The location of the organizer is No. 600, Ligong Road, Jimei District, Xiamen, China. This three-day conference focused on the research fields related to resources and environmental research and aimed to provide a forum for professors, researchers, scholars and industrial pioneers all over the world to share ideas, designs and experiments. ICRER 2021 attracted more than 45 participants from Thailand, Denmark, UK, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Portugal, Brazil, Indonesia, Spain, Australia, Republic of Kazakhstan, USA, Canada, and China. List of Committees are available in this pdf.

Defence date: 03 June 2008
Examining Board: Colin Crouch (Univ. Warwick) (Supervisor), Peer Hull Kristensen (Copenhagen Business School), Michael Keating (EUI), Carlo Trigilia (Univ. Firenze)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
This thesis investigates work and industrial relations in the Herning-Ikast and Prato textile and clothing industrial districts (IDs). It offers a multilevel, empirical investigation of employee working conditions and industrial relations comparing ID and non-ID firms. The study includes employers and employees in 78 firms. Three main work-related elements are examined. First, the antecedents of employees’ positive perception of unions and union membership are explored. Second, central aspects related to employee functional flexibility (i.e. changing tasks and positions within the firm) are investigated. Finally, elements determining the degree of employees’ positive evaluation of their job in terms of opportunities for learning and development and general contentment are investigated. All three elements are analysed by comparing ID/non-ID firms and Danish/Italian firms. Questions related to work in family firms are also raised. The findings reveal that employees in family firms to a lesser extent were members of unions and reported being less functionally flexible. Moreover, the number of family member employees in a firm was negatively related to employees’ positive job evaluation. A trend toward better social relations in ID firms is seen. Findings show a lower degree of functional flexibility exerted by ID employees, suggesting the importance of alternative flexibility types in ID firms. Important national differences are seen, possibly reflecting the different ways in which the textile and clothing sector has developed as well as a more longstanding Danish tradition of focusing on the improvement of employees’ psychosocial working conditions. Findings also indicate that the degree to which the ID industrial relations vary from the national industrial relations models is dissimilar for Herning-Ikast and Prato. In view of the findings of this thesis the generalisability, transferability and future of the phenomenon of industrial districts is discussed.

The current and predicted global massive dependency on fossil fuels calls for the exploration of new options to limit the future carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. One such option that has been studied within the IEA Greenhouse Gas Implementing Agreement, is the capture and disposal of CO2 from combustion gases. Such options for Sweden have been examined in a system study financed by NUTEK (The Swedish National Board for Industrial and Technical Development). Aquifers that should be suitable for disposal of CO2, exist in the South of Sweden - Denmark and in the Baltic Sea close to Lithuania. Based on commercially available technologies, CO2 can be captured from NGCC (natural gas combined cycle) and coal based IGCC (integrated gasification combined cycle) power plants. Most of the energy needed for the CO2 capture could then be recovered as district heating, thus maintaining the total energy efficiencies. At approximately 300 MW power production capacities, the heat quantities produced (55–85 MW heat) are likely to be suitable for a reasonable number of the Swedish district heating networks. CO2 neutral production and utilisation of methanol as an automative fuel for the transport sector integrated with production of electric power and district heat, could be achieved with biomass combined with natural gas or coal as a raw material. An amount of CO2 corresponding to the carbon in the fossil fuel then has to be captured and disposed. Examples of possible process concepts have been examined. The resulting estimated total costs for capture, transport and disposal of CO2, are in the same order of magnitude as the current Swedish carbon dioxide tax (365 SEK/ton CO2). Plant owners have to be credited for the captured and disposed CO2 in order to make this option economically justifiable and interesting for them. It will be important for the total economy to find favourable combinations of energy conversion, CO2 capture and recovery, transport and disposal. There is also a need to reduce todays uncertainties in the available basis for estimation of costs for large scale transport, injection and disposal of CO2 into aquifers.

Abstract Denmark has a well-developed natural gas distribution grid and during the last decade a large number of decentralised CHP-plants (> 2000 MW total capacity) have been built around the country for industrial applications and district heating. The largest small scale CHP has an installed electrical capacity of 99 MW, while most of the plants have capacities from some hundred kW to 10 MW. The larger plants are all based on gas turbines while the smaller plants predominantly use lean-burn reciprocating engines. On the whole this development has been very successful and is supported by tax incitements for small power producers. Lean-burn engines have, however, some problems, e.g. with regard to UHC, so the emergence of small and micro-gas turbines from a number of producers offers an interesting possibility to extend the use of gas turbines down to the smaller plant sizes. Two cases have been investigated involving smaller industries with a process steam demand. The energy systems investigated are based on a 100 kW recuperated gas turbine (Turbec T100) and a 600 kW simple cycle gas turbine (Volvo Aero VT600). The steam and hot water is produced in a Waste Heat Recovery boiler (WHR). To obtain the sufficient steam production and sufficient steam quality it is necessary to use supplementary firing. The analysis shows that a recuperated gas turbine has no particular advantages for industrial steam production plants. The low exhaust temperature after the recuperator is not sufficient to produce steam of proper quality. When comparing a CHP plant with a natural gas fired steam boiler, it is found that a simple cycle gas turbine is more suitable for steam producing industrial energy supply systems. Even if the net electric efficiency is lower for a simple cycle gas turbine, one can get a quite high, marginal net electric efficiency of about 60% (LHV) when replacing a gas fired boiler with a steam producing industrial CHP-plant. The marginal net electric efficiency is based on comparing the actual CHP plant with an existing gas fired steam producing boiler with an efficiency of 90% (LHV). This is a very high net electric efficiency compared to a centralised power plant. The study shows that there is little doubt that CHP systems based on gas turbines are functional, efficient and environmentally friendly, but it is very difficult to achieve a satisfactory economy with the present relations between gas costs, electricity prices and gas turbine prices.