Stig Olsen

Engineers have the potential to significantly influence the sustainability of technological solutions. At DTU we aim to address sustainability to all engineering students at DTU. One of the means to address students throughout DTU is the establishment of a course aimed at bachelor students from all of the university G ÇÖs study lines. The objectives of the course, which is named G Ç£Sustainability in engineering solutions G ÇØ, is for the participants to acquire an understanding of the basic concept of sustainability and its three dimensions (people, profit, planet), as well as to get an overview of a number of tools for the analysis of problems and the synthesis of solutions that are sustainable throughout their life cycle. The course ensures that the participants acquire the skills to use the most central of the tools introduced. Furthermore, the participants should understand the engineer G ÇÖs role and responsibility in the development of sustainable solutions. Examples of learn...

ABSTRACT Purpose The area of oil palm plantations in Malaysia is expanding by approximately 0.14 million hectare per year, and with the increasing demand for palm oil worldwide, there is no sign of the expansions slowing down. This study aims to identify the greenhouse gas emissions associated with land conversion to oil palm, in a life cycle perspective. Methods LCA methodology is applied to existing land use change data. The assessment includes the issue of temporary carbon storage in the plantations. Through quantification of emissions from state forest reserve and rubber plantation conversions, the average Malaysian palm oil-related land use changes are calculated. Results and discussion The results show that there are high emissions associated with the conversion of Malaysian state forest reserve to oil palm, whereas the conversion of rubber leaves a less significant carbon debt when indirect land use change is not included. Looking at the average Malaysian land use changes associated with oil palm shows that land use change emissions are responsible for approximately half of the total conventional biodiesel production emissions. The sensitivity analysis shows that the results could be significantly influenced by data variations in indirect land use changes, peat soils, and state forest reserve carbon stock. Conclusions The relatively extensive conversions of the state forest reserve must be reversed and preferably with a shift toward conversion of degraded land in order for the average Malaysian land use changes to have less impact on the production life cycle of palm oil and biodiesel.

ABSTRACT Micro manufacturing is an extremely demanding technological field where very special materials are used, extreme production condition like clean room, super high temperature, toxic chemicals, etc. are employed. Due to these facts, micro products can be environmentally damaging even after their smaller dimensional scale. So performing of LCA for micro products is equally important as it is for macro products. Keeping this motivation in mind, current paper systematically performs the LCA of a micro Socket used in hearing aids. The analysis makes a guide line about how to use the conventional knowledge about LCA and tools for the efficient LCA analysis of the micro parts. A comparative study is made in the paper by comparing two different sockets of hearing aid and it shows well how to make a comparative study for LCA when the manufacturer makes a new product to replace an old one. Another comparative study is made in the paper for micro and macro which shows that scaled up effect of the micro product compared to macro counterpart. The critical finding of this comparative study shows that the relative environmental damage done by micro product is higher than the macro product and that is confirmed by the net impact analysis. Finally, the LCA procedure presented in the paper, and the knowledge documented can be a valuable source of information for the researchers and scientists who work with the LCA of micro and macro products.

Page 1. LCIA OF IMPACTS ON HUMAN HEALTH AND ECOSYSTEMS • METHODOLOGY Gone…but not away—addressing the problem of long-term impacts from landfills in LCA Michael Hauschild & Stig Irving Olsen & Erik Hansen & Anders Schmidt ...