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In our latest newsletter, you can read about biogas, food waste, fossil-free plastic materials, and carbon capture and utilization. Don't miss out on this opportunity to stay up to date on some of our latest research results.
The project "Se min brukte kjole" (See my used dress) is a research project whose main purpose is to generate knowledge that can be used to promote and actually increase the rate of reuse of textiles in the Oslo area.
However, there is a lack of data concerning the available products and their volumes, data on environmental effects and knowledge on business models for reuse. More specifically, there is no overview of how much of the collected textiles are suitable for reuse in Norway, there is a lack of environmental data and documentation that can support reuse, and barriers and opportunities in the Norwegian market for textile reuse are not known. Actors in the field of reuse thus have little to rely on when creating new business models.
The project will gather data that can be used by actors in the reuse market, to inform consumers about the environmental footprint of reused products and motivate them to change their purchasing habits. Furthermore, the project will provide data and knowledge that can be used to influence the authorities for facilitation and incentives for increased reuse.
The project is financed by RFF Oslo, was initiated in March 2023 and will run until the first trimester of 2025. The project is led by NF&TA, and the consortium consists of a wide range of actors in the textile industry that cover production, collection and reuse activities.
NORSUS leads the first three work packages in the project, which deal with the data on available product and their volumes, with life cycle data for environmental assessments and with creating a market for used clothing.
There is broad consensus about the importance of moving from linear to more circular food systems. But can we find good indicators to measure the effect of this? In a new article NORSUS researcher Hanne Møller and colleagues discuss circularity indicators using examples of environmental actions in pig production and testing various circularity indicators in comparison with LCA results.
The following measures were assessed: Treatment of livestock manure in biogas plants and use of digestate as fertiliser, biogas treatment of bread waste and use of digestate as fertiliser, precision fertilization, use of cover crops in feed production, and use of bread waste as pig feed. The functional unit was 1 kg carcass weight of pork, and treatment of 1.1 kg of bread waste. Based on this, the functionality and suitability of these circularity indicators were discussed.
Four of the circularity indicators were based on nitrogen (N) or phosphorus (P): N recycling index, partial N balance, consumption of fossil P fertilizers and emissions of P to water. Although the indicators do not show the effect of emissions of N and P in the form of eutrophication, they provide a useful indication of the circularity of agricultural production.
The three other circularity indicators that were production of renewable energy, soil organic carbon and arealeffektivitetsindikator. The renewable energy production indicator is easy to understand and communicate and provides unique information. Soil organic carbon is closely linked to greenhouse gas emissions because carbon sequestration in the soil captures CO2 from the atmosphere. However, this indicator must be reported separately from greenhouse gas emissions because there is still no agreement on methodology and to show the difference between actual emissions and carbon storage that may not be permanent.
The land use ratio is an indicator that measures the efficiency of land use in livestock production. The indicator is based on the same data as land use but includes the amount of plant protein from the area for feed to produce 1 kg of digestible animal protein. The indicator thus provides an assessment of whether the area for fodder production would have yielded more protein if it had been used for the cultivation of food crops directly.
Circularity indicators provide valuable information about the circularity of an agricultural product system and can be used either separately or together with LCA impact categories. Which indicators should be chosen depends on the questions being asked, i.e. goals and scope, and it is therefore important to have a number of circular indicators to choose from in order to achieve a holistic assessment.
See the full article here.
Prosjektet «Se min brukte kjole» er et forskningsprosjekt som har som viktigste formål å fremskaffe kunnskap som kan benyttes for å promotere samt faktisk økegjenbruksgraden av tekstiler i Oslo området.
However, there is a lack of data concerning the available products and their volumes, data on environmental effects and knowledge on business models for reuse. More specifically, there is no overview of how much of the collected textiles are suitable for reuse in Norway, there is a lack of environmental data and documentation that can support reuse, and barriers and opportunities in the Norwegian market for textile reuse are not known. Actors in the field of reuse thus have little to rely on when creating new business models.
The project will gather data that can be used by actors in the reuse market, to inform consumers about the environmental footprint of reused products and motivate them to change their purchasing habits. Furthermore, the project will provide data and knowledge that can be used to influence the authorities for facilitation and incentives for increased reuse.
The project is financed by RFF Oslo, was initiated in March 2023 and will run until the first trimester of 2025. The project is led by NF&TA, and the consortium consists of a wide range of actors in the textile industry that cover production, collection and reuse activities.
NORSUS leads the first three work packages in the project, which deal with the data on available product and their volumes, with life cycle data for environmental assessments and with creating a market for used clothing.
Thursday 9th of March a new Norwegian report Mulighetsrommet for produksjon av biogass i Norge: Potensialstudie av aktuelle råstoff, nye teknologier og klimanytte about opportunities for biogas production in Norway was launched at a breakfast meeting in Oslo, followed by appeals and political debate. The report is written by the NORSUS researchers Kari-Anne Lyng and Ina Charlotte Berntsen, and was commissioned by Energigass Norge, Avfall Norge, Norges Bondelag, Biogass Oslofjord and Norsk Vann.
The project has included three main aspects: the theoretical biogas potential from current and possible future feedstock base for the current biogas technology, theoretical biogas potential of a possible future technology development, and climate benefits associated with increased utilization of the theoretical potential. The feedstocks included in the study are organic waste and residual resources, and do not include energy crops.
The results from the study show that there are large opportunities for producing considerably more biogas in Norway. If a larger share of the theoretical potential is exploited, biogas can constitute and important part of the future energy and fuel mix in Norway.
Biogas production based on waste and residual resources can contribute to reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in several areas, such as: reduced emissions from use of fossil fuels, reduced emissions from the use of CO2 from biogas and reduced emissions from storage when using livestock manure for biogas production. The magnitude of the emissions reductions is dependent on how large proportion of the theoretical potential which is utilized.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by capturing and subsequently storing carbon dioxide (CO2). CCU (carbon capture and utilization), on the other hand, represents a way of recycling the carbon in the captured CO2 by converting it to fuels or other products. The acronym CCUS describes systems including both utilization and storage of captured CO2.
This report gives an overview of the three potential CO2 emissions sources to be captured: direct air capture, geothermal power generation and industrial point sources, and it shows whether the CO2 can be considered fossil or non-fossil. Furthermore, the main pathways for utilising captured CO2 are presented.
CCU systems connect two (or more) product systems; the first being the source of the CO2 and the second being the production system which uses CO2 as feedstock. Hence, CCU systems are multifunctional, and CO2 has a double role, representing both emission and feedstock.
The report presents Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology in general with a deeper focus on how to solve multifunctionality. The recommendation is to apply system expansion without substitution and to compare the CCU system with a reference system. It is crucial to establish relevant system boundaries for the compared systems to ensure that all systems provide the same functions to society. The report includes a practical LCA guideline for CCU value chains to help avoiding methodological pitfalls.
Denne rapporten er skrevet av NORSUS på oppdrag for Energigass Norge, Avfall Norge, Norges Bondelag, Biogass Oslofjord og Norsk Vann. Hensikten med arbeidet har vært å gi et bilde av mulighetsrommet for produksjon av biogass i Norge med tanke på aktuelle råstoff, teknologiutvikling og klimanytte.
Rapporten er delt inn i tre hoveddeler: teoretisk biogasspotensial fra nåværende og fremtidig råstoffbase med utgangspunkt i dagensteknologi, teoretisk biogasspotensial knyttet til mulig fremtidig teknologiutvikling og klimanytte knyttet til en høyere utnyttelse av biogasspotensialet enn i dag.
I denne rapporten er biogass definert som gasser av biogent opphav som inneholder metan. Energipotensialet fra metan betegnes dermed som biogasspotensial, uavhengig av produksjonsteknologi.
Videre er det lagt som en forutsetning at råstoff som skal brukes til biogassproduksjon er organiske avfallsog sidestrømmer. Energivekster er dermed ikke inklud
Norway is a special case compared to many other European countries. The amount of available agricultural land is low, the population density is also low, and the distances are large. From Oslo to the northern border is the same distance as Oslo to Rome. Self-sufficiency of animal-based food is high but low for vegetables it is low (46 %) and for fruits and berries extremely low (6 %). The consumption of fruits and vegetables also need to increase with more than 30% to reach the the recommended minimum of five servings of a day. The government has agreed on a commitment to innovation and growth in the vegetable and fruit sector, with the aim of increasing the Norwegian share of the market and meeting demand with as many Norwegian-produced goods as possible.
In the GreenRoad project, funded by the Norwegian Research Council and coordinated by NIBIO, inter-disciplinary research is being done to identify present status, opportunities, bottlenecks and possible transformation paths for fruit and vegetable production systems towards increased and long-term economic, social and environmental sustainability for the whole sector.
NORSUS is responsible for evaluating the current environmental, economic and social sustainability of horticultural production using carrot and apple production as cases. Options to improve sustainability for these production systems will be identified and the impacts of increased production will also be assessed. The goal is to ensure that the growth of Norwegian fruit and vegetable production will be as sustainable as possible.
The project involves a variety of disciplines (whereof biology, geography, economy and sociology) that will collaborate in different work packages. There is a strong involvement of business and national and international research partners. Partners and stakeholders will be involved throughout the project in focus groups and other forms of participatory research, and their feedback will contribute to develop innovation platforms and pathways towards GS35.
Plastic releases to nature have a high risk of causing impacts on ecosystems and humans. The potential replacement of traditional fossil-based plastics with PHA is 100 % for mulch film, 100% for control-release fertilizer, approximately 50% for geotextiles and 100% for dolly ropes. Microplastics from PHA are degraded by bacteria, fungi and other biological processes and thus the risk of damage to organisms over time is much lower than for traditional plastics.
The aim of this project is to understand where recycled plastic should be used. The project will analyze the environmental impact from using recycled plastics in product applications with different lifetimes. For example, how beneficial is it to recycle packaging material (short lifetime) in furniture products (longer lifetime). The project will also study the impact of different recycling systems on these results. Which type of products should be recycled in closed loops rather than open loops? Or are reuse solutions preferred? A better understanding of these dynamics will help policy makers and companies to make well-informed decisions when designing new circular systems.
NORSUS AS | Postal address: Stadion 4, N-1671 Kråkerøy, Norway | Email: post@norsus.no
