The aim of our research was to investigate if oat is capable of extracting cadmium to such extent that it is usable in decontaminating polluted soils. We grew oat in a hydroponic culture during 28 days in a controlled environment and a total of 30 plants were used. The nutrient solutions were contaminated with cadmium of ten different concentrations after seven days. After harvesting the plants, the roots were separated from the shoots, placed in separate containers and then turned to ashes. The cadmium content was measured three times per sample in an atomic absorption spectrometer.

Our results indicate that the ability of oat to extract cadmium from a solution is linearly dependent of the cadmium concentration of the solution. We also noted that the resistivity to cadmium of oat is limited. When the concentration of accessible cadmium ions exceeded 0,06mM, a significant difference of the shoot growth appeared. The results we obtained from shoots and roots show cadmium amounts much higher in the roots than the shoots. Despite this difference there were sufficient amounts of cadmium in the shoots to call oat a hyper accumulator. This means that oat fulfills one of the criteria of a phytoextractor.

Evaluation of the wet etching properties of several different thin film oxidesgrown by physical vapour deposition was performed in this work. MgO, Al₂O₃,SiO₂, TiO₂, HfO₂ ZrO₂ and Y₂O₃ were coated on two types of substrates; Si andborosilicate glass and etching tests were performed in different etchingsolutions. MgF₂ thin films have also been evaluated.

Important aspects of the choice of the thin films was taken into account in orderto match to good optical properties such as refractive index (n), extinction coefficient (k) and optical thickness (TP) as well as good chemical properties in the wet etching process.

A description is made of the physics of optical filters and how a combination of different oxides stacked onto each other can create interference filters.

A description of the manufacturing process of the thin films where physical vapour deposition (PVD) was used is presented.

Thermal shift of the optical spectra caused by porous coatings was investigated and analyses of the thin films by ellipsometry, surface profilometry and transmission spectrophotometry have been performed.

The wet etching properties were evaluated by monitoring the transmission insituon transparent borosilicate glass substrates. A method of how to measure the wet etching rate for different thin films is described.

A computer software was used to calculate the Pourbaix diagrams in order to understand the chemical behaviour of the etching solutions. The pH can have a significant impact on the etching behaviour.

In case of TiO₂, it can be dissolved in an alkaline solution of H₂O₂. The catalytically process behind this is evaluated. Etching rate for both Y₂O₃ andSiO₂ were matched by adjusting the etchant concentration as a case example.

The group IVB oxides are difficult to etch. The catalytic etching of TiO₂ with peroxide is slow but detectable. Al₂O₃, Y₂O₃ and MgO are reasonably easy to etch but have too low refractive indices to be useful in multilayer optical filters. The In-situ etching instrument was found to be very useful for measuring etching rates.

The project was based on analyses of the sediments of Lake Munksjön in Jönköping, Sweden. Lake Munksjön is located in central Jönköping and has for many decades been surrounded by environmentally damaging enterprises. This has resulted in the lake being so strongly polluted that it is placed first on a list from The County Administrative Board over priority objects in the regional programme for inquiry, investigation and intervention of polluted areas in Jönköping County. The most heavily polluted part of the lake, the fibre bank, is situated outside Munksjö Inc. which has previously emitted large amounts of fibre and mercury with the process water from the paper mill’s manufacturing process.

The analyses have covered oxygen consumption rate and sulphur content. Sediment samples were taken from four sampling points in different areas andat different depths. The method for measuring oxygen consumption rate was developed through several tests to achieve a linear velocity that also corresponds to the natural condition of the lake. The final method was performed using E-flasks were the bottom was covered with sediment and the flask filled with Milli-Q-water and stopped with a rubber plug. Measurements were taken every weekday with an oxygen electrode for two weeks, with one extra measurement after another week. The method for analysing sulphur content included sodium hydroxide fusion and spectrophotometric analysis.

The result for oxygen consumption showed that the areas around the fibre bank have a higher oxygen consumption rate than the area in the southern, less polluted, part of the lake. The highest oxygen consumption rate, 4.07*10^-3 mg O₂ per gram dry substance and hour, was found in the sediment from the area closest to the fibre bank. The lowest rate, 1.61*10^-3 mg O₂ per gram dry substance and hour, was found in the sediments from the southern part of the lake. Oxygen consumption per cm² and hour was also determined.

The result for sulphur content showed that a sampling point by the deep area of the lake had the highest sulphur content, 15.2 g/kg dry substance. Due to the close proximity of the fibre bank the high sulphur content is good, as sulphides bind metals so they do not affect the living organisms in the lake.

We here report the first comparative proteomics of purified yeast post-Golgi vesicles (PGVs). Vesicle samples isolated from PGV-accumulating sec6-4 mutants were treated with isobaric tags (iTRAQ) for subsequent quantitative tandem mass spectrometric analysis of protein content. After background subtraction, a total of 66 vesicle-associated proteins were identified, including known or assumed vesicle residents as well as a fraction not previously known to be PGV associated. Vesicles isolated from cells lacking the polarity protein Sro7p contained essentially the same catalogue of proteins but showed a reduced content of a subset of cargo proteins, in agreement with a previously shown selective role for Sro7p in cargo sorting.

Examensarbetet har gjorts i samarbete med SP, Sveriges tekniska forskningsinstitut. De vill genom denna rapport börja få svar på frågan, om det är lönsamt att odla alger till biodieselframställning under svenska förhållanden, för att sedan möjligen påbörja en forskning inom området.

Rapporten granskar till en början, via informationssökning, vad som är gjort tidigare och vilka företag och forskare som arbetar inom området idag. Därefter undersöks de steg som algerna genomgår för att bli biodiesel, det vill säga odling, skördning, utvinnande av algolja och slutligen framställningen av biodiesel ifrån algoljan.

Olika alger, utrustningar och metoder studeras och ekonomiska siffror sammanställs vad gäller produktionen av alg-biodiesel. Slutligen undersöks vilket intresse området har hos olika svenska företag. Problemområden tillsammans med effektiviseringar diskuteras.

Resultatet är ett flödesschema över en önskemodell för svenska förhållanden. Flödesschemat innehåller de lösningar och metoder som förväntas ha stor potential, dock så fastslås det inte att det skulle vara den enda lösningen. Höjdpunkterna i denna modell är användandet av en mixotrof alg som odlas i slutna bioreaktorer. Algerna ska få en ökad tillförsel av koldioxid ifrån till exempel kraftvärmeverk tillsammans med glycerol, vilket gynnar tillväxten med möjligen upp till tretton gånger. Glycerol är en biprodukt vid biodieselframställning vilket därmed kommer att göra det till ett billigt näringsmedium vid mixotrof växt. Även värme är en restprodukt som tillförs algerna ifrån kraftverket. Denna metod kommer samtidigt fungera som koldioxidrening och kväveoxidrening för kraftvärmeverket.

Rapporten visar även på att övergött vatten, innehållande fosfor och kväve, kan renas med algerna och detta tillförs med fördel till de slutna bioreaktorerna.

Skördning av algerna görs genom flotation med löst syre eller genom att störa koldioxidflödet. Både syre och koldioxid kan tillföras ifrån andra steg i flödesschemat. Oljan extraheras fördelaktligen ifrån algerna med hjälp av produkten biodiesel och oljan omvandlas därefter till mer biodiesel genom transesterifiering med hjälp av mikrovågor.

Resultatet visar också att alg- biomassan kan användas till att framställa en rad olika restprodukter, där djurfoder, föda till tredje världen, bioplast och andra biobränslen är de mest intressanta.

Rapporten visar på ett stort intresse ifrån olika aktörer inom bland annat flygindustrin, kärnkraftverk, oljebolag och energibolag i Sverige.

This report is a degree paper made for the Engineering program in Technical Chemistry at the School of Engineering, Jönköping University.The intention of the project which is described, is to answer whether HV71 might become environmentally certified according to the criteria of "miljödiplomering". The project also included an investigation of which further steps and measures must be undertaken by the enterprise in order to achieve the certificate. The final part was to implement the necessary requirements for the certification.The report starts with a short background where the origin and function of environmental management is briefly explained.The report continues with how the practical work with the environmental certification was done according to requirements of Jönköping municipality. Motivations behind each part of the process are given as well as explanations of how each part of the process was carried out.The final result of the project was that HV71 took the measures needed to live up to the required demands. After a revision made by Miljöstrategen i Jönköping AB, HV71 passed the demands and became thereby an environmentally certified business.

When cylinders for motor saws are manufactured there are high demands on the cylinders strength and wearing qualities. Aluminum is a material with low density and is used by Husqvarna AB for their motor saw cylinders. The aluminum is strengthening with nickel that is attached to the cylinders through electrolysis. When aluminum is in contact with oxygen a film of oxide is formed. To eliminate the oxide and to prevent formation of new oxide zinc is used. The cylinders are dipped into a bath of zinc before they pass on to a pre-nickel process, which purpose is to remove the excess of zinc so the “real” nickel process won’t be contaminated. In the process there is a selective bath where zinc is precipitated on sheet-metals through electrolysis. The problem is that while zinc is precipitated so is nickel and in a much greater extend, about 1 % zinc and 99 % nickel.

Husqvarna AB needs a technique to increase precipitation of zinc and reduce the precipitation of nickel. A small copy of the selective bath was constructed where adjustments of different parameters were possible. In the bath there was an anode of nickel, a cathode, process liquid, a pump for stirring and a plant installation from an aquarium for the temperature. In the bath different voltages, distance between anode – cathode and different sheets of metal were tested. Every test were in progress for about three days and then pieces of sheet-metals were cut and sent for analysis of zinc/nickel percentage.

A couple of the tested sheet-metals didn’t work and the ones that did work showed no special difference in zinc/nickel percentage. An increase in distance between the anode and cathode showed a small difference but not much. The alteration that showed to be most effective was to decrease the voltage. The normal voltage is 2, 8 V but when it was decreased to 2, 0 V it gave a much better result. The layer on the sheet-metal showed to contain 12 % zinc and 88 % nickel. A couple of other tests were performed with decreased voltage but no one gave as good result as 2, 0 V. If Husqvarna AB shall be able to use a lower voltage they need a greater cathode surface then they have today. That is because of the lower reaction rate. The lower reaction rate conducts an increasing amount of zinc in the bath and an electrolysis that doesn’t work completely.

Other methods for precipitation could have been tested e.g. change of anode, precipitation of zinc as a salt or a powder that could have been filtrated or a process that reduces the excess of zinc. To test any of these methods big changes in the process structure would be needed which costs both time and money. The authors therefore concluded that the best thing for Husqvarna AB to do is to increase the cathode surface by connecting another bath next to the existent.

The following project has been made in collaboration with, Denator AB, a biotechnology enterprise. One-dimensional electrophoreses have been used to analyze protein contents of tissue samples. Tissue samples have been either treated according to the company´s newly developed tissue treatment technique or not treated at all and comparisons between these samples have been made. In order to see differences in protein patterns between samples more clearly, a conversion method has been developed where electrophoresis gel visual patterns are used to produce curves, similar to densitometer curves.

Denator AB would like to know if the proteins in their treated samples will change visibly over 48 h when incubated at room temperature. This has been investigated using the above mentioned method. A comparison has also been made using untreated samples incubated in the same way.

The analyses have been made at two gel densities, 10% and 12%. The series of samples consisted of both treated and untreated samples. Incubations were made for different time intervals in room temperature, up to 48 h. Gels were scanned and the files were used for producing curves where the colour intensity along a track was used for ordinate and the protein travel distance was used for abscissa.

Using this method, no change in patterns of Denator treated samples could be seen, strongly indicating efficient conservation of the samples. The untreated samples, however, show visible changes with time, indicating that the sample proteins were

partly decomposed into smaller fragments with time. A striking result of the analyses is a clearly visible difference in the original patterns of untreated and treated samples before incubation. This indicate that non treated samples undergo a very quick process of decay.

This paper is a part of my education in Chemical engineering at School of Engineering, Jonkoping University. The tasks were to examine the reasons behind the origin of hydrogen sulphide at the neutralisation of process water at Sapa Profiler AB and during storage of the aluminium sludge at Eka Chemicals AB, and to find out the actions to take to prevent these problems. This has mainly been done by experiments. The things that have been examined is whether it is bacteria that cause the problems, their ability to grow aerobically and anaerobically, ability to nitrate reduction, how the water content affect their ability to survive in the sludge, how Enzym Clean affect them, how they react on different temperatures, their morphology, if they are gram positive or negative and what their colonies look like. Water, sulphur and gluconate content in the sludge have also been examined. The experiments are mainly performed on sludge from Brogårdsfabriken (Bro. 26/1) but also on sludge from Vetlandafabriken (Vet. 26/1).

The problem in the neutralisation process is caused by a chemical process affected by redoxpotential and pH. Through use of SIM-agar is the conclusion drawn that the problems with H₂S in the sludge are caused by bacteria. The bacteria have the ability to grow both aerobically and anaerobically and in the later case they use first nitrate and then sulphate as electron acceptor. It has also been shown that there are at least three strains of bacteria living in the sludge with a bit different features like their ability to reduce nitrate.

The sludge got water content of about 75 %. The sulphate content, which were examined spectrophotometerically, showed that the content in Bro. 26/1 is 15 w/w% and in Vet 26/1 is 9 w/w%. The gluconate content in Vet. 26/1 were determined by addition of Ce(IV) and titration with Fe(II) to about 3 w/w%. A higher gluconate content have been shown to increase the bacterial activity. It has been shown that when the sludge is heated to 50°C or higher the ability of the bacteria to survive in the sludge is dramatically lowered. But it haven't been able to determine how the water content affect the ability of the bacteria to survive in the sludge, the results were to unreliable. No conclusion could be drawn from the experiment with addition of Enzym Clean.

The conclusion is that it is bacteria that cause the problem of H₂S in the sludge. They grow both aerobically and anaerobically and the problems arise in the later case. The action to be taken is to hinder big areas of the sludge to become anaerobe, for example by turning the sludge mechanically.

A fast ultrafiltration method is described for quantitative studying of protein-ligand interactions at equilibrium. This protocol is aimed for student studies in the laboratory.

Bovine serum albumin is allowed to complex with phenol red dye at various concentration ratios in a series of tests. These equilibrium mixtures are then subject to quick ultrafiltration steps using centrifugal ultrafiltration filters. The dye concentrations in the filtrates are determined by spectrophotometry, thus establishing the concentrations of free dye in equilibrium with protein bound dye in each case. In combination with knowledge of the protein concentration and the total amount of dye in each case, it is possible to evaluate the number of bound phenol red molecules per protein molecule.

In a typical experiment a saturation curve, and a Scatchard plot were constructed using results from 10 different equilibrium mixtures. The results typically show that a total of 13-14 phenol red molecules bind to serumalbumin by two interacting sites with different binding constants.

The paper mills have two paper machines, the PM 4, producing tissue from the RCF and the PM 13, producing paper for transformers and cables from the unbleached softwood craft pulp. Excess water from PM4, PM13 and RCF factory, together with the storm water, leads on to the external wastewater treatment. When any of the paper mills has downtime, unequal outcomes are obtained, primarily with respect to pH and COD.

The aim of the project is to identify the individual steps in the processes PM 4, PM 13 and wastewater treatment re to the pH and COD changes.

Intensive sampling was carried out from twelve sampling points during thirty-two days. These samples were analyzed on the same day re to the pH, conductivity, alkalinity, COD, suspended solids, and inorganic residue. In addition, precipitation tests were carried out on the incoming wastewater with controlled doses of the ferrous sulphate, ferric chloride and aluminium sulphate. In addition methodological validation, calcium determination, and experiments with the mixed wastewater samples were carried out.

The results show that the process line PM 4 has generally higher pH, conductivity, alkalinity, COD and concentration inorganic residues, but has a lower content of suspended solids than PM 13. But the biggest difference in the two processes takes place just before and after the paper machine. After the paper machine, the water that goes on to the external wastewater treatment, where a 70% COD reduction and a pH increase of 0,75 pH equivalents for PM 13, and 30% COD reduction and a pH decrease of 1,27 pH equivalents for the PM 4 are obtained. The results suggest that the greatest pH change occurs in wastewater treatment, with 22.06%. From precipitation experiments it was found that the best pH values and lowest COD values where obtained for precipitation chemicals, ferric chloride and ferrous sulphate at the lowest dose levels, i.e. 97 g/m³ and 101 g/m³, without pH adjustment. Results from the correlation between wastewater- and mixed wastewater samples, which excludes impact of storm water, indicates that pH values are 0.01 to 0.86 pH equivalents higher in those mixed wastewater samples. Thus, there is a hint that the storm water contributes to pH reduction of the input wastewater.

To address these concerns ferric chloride should be tested at lower dose levels combined with reduced sulphuric acid addition. Eventually ferric chloride may be replaced by the iron sulphate. In addition, there should be measuring devices for pH and COD installed on the process wastewater and outgoing water, in the external wastewater treatment in order to allow for accurate dosing of chemicals precipitate from these values. Storm water should be separated from wastewater treatment and instead be diverted directly to the municipal sewage system.