A novel laboratory methodology for analysing hot asphalt fumes from various paving materials is presented and evaluated. This method facilitates comparative assessments, aiming to enhance occupational safety for asphalt workers and ensure safe implementation of new paving materials. Comparative analyses of emissions to air were conducted on standard asphalt and rubber-modified asphalt at different temperatures. The temperature significantly influences PAH emissions. Rubber-modified asphalt demonstrated higher PAH emissions at equivalent temperatures compared to standard asphalt, predominantly naphthalene. Even heavier PAHs as benzo(a)pyrene were occasionally high. Notably, at recommended working temperatures the standard asphalt resulted in higher emissions, comprising heavier PAHs compared to rubber asphalt. © 2024 The Authors

Non-exhaust emissions from road transport are an important PM10 source, causing negative health effects. Measures to reduce particulate pollution from roads include dust suppression using hygroscopic solutions and road sweeping. This study investigates if porous pavements, generally used for their better noise reduction and water drainage capacity, can also improve air quality. Atmospheric measurements of NOx and PM10 were performed for 7 months along a road stretch containing two different surfaces, one porous and one dense. The PM10 concentration was significantly lower at the porous pavement during all meteorological conditions. Particle emissions measured behind the wheel of a moving car were also lower at the porous pavement. The reasons for the improved air quality are suggested to be the removal of road dust from the surface into the pores of the pavement, the reduction of the air-pumping suspension forces of the tyres, and the prolonged drying of the surface.

How does health and environment affect electrification of working sites? Electrification of construction sites mainly relates to climate emissions, but the local environment is also affected through reduced emissions of exhaust gases and engine noise. This work presents a way to take into account both noise and air pollution in the choice of which work machines should be electrified in the first place. The work is based on interviews and literature about emissions from different types of work machines, about how decisions about which work machines are used in different types of contracts are made, as well as current legislation about noise and air pollution and the exposure that people are at risk of being exposed to in different situations. The project also presents a first draft of a model to be able to compare different working equipment, but does not go into how noise and exhaust gases should be valued between each other, nor on emission factors for the combustion engines that the electric work machines are expected to replace. Instead, the focus is on identifying the decision-making paths and aligning the various expert areas of noise and air in the choice of which work machine should be prioritized for electrification.

Multifunctional climate adaptation measures – Responsibilities, cooperation and challenges Climate adaptation measures within already built-up urban environments is complex, due to several factors. A large number of actors are required for success, but both the responsibility of each actor and the distribution of responsibility between these actors are unclear. Success depends to a large extent on the ability to cooperate between the various actors operating in an area. This project uses interviews, co-production and literature studies to describe the challenges, identify blockages and support the collaboration between the various parties. The project identified uncertainties regarding the laws required to manage climate adaptation measures in built-up urban environments that we needed to address. This resulted in an expansion of the project with a focus on the law around climate risks regarding socially important activities which is presented in Climate adaptation of socially important activities – legal challenges, RISE report 2024:14, ISBN 978-91- 89896-59-8 written by Jenny Lundahl (2024). A newly created collaboration model is presented here focusing on the startup phase. It is supplemented with tips on methods and tools that can facilitate the work, and a description of different ways to sort how to single out responsibilities and where the cost for the measures taken will be localized.

Norms, gender and collaboration in proptech Here, an engineering approach to norm criticism is used to study a male-dominated interdisciplinary digitization project in the area of prop tech. In property automation (prop tech) the participants are in principle exclusively men, and thus the platforms and program development that will be the basis for all prop tech development are coded in a male context. There are also major challenges, as in most interdisciplinary groups, where the balance of power is often skewed through different norms. The project has mainly addressed challenges due to the interdisciplinary groups, while the gender perspective has been given less focus. The focus on norms has been assigned a full work package, with a similar budget as the other work packages focused on other areas and the norm work package has interacted very closely with all parts of the project, including the more technical ones. In this way, the norm critics has created a platform of its own in the project, based on how a norm critical analysis could be offered to help other work packages in their tasks. Based on the work on norms; discussions, workshops and surveys have been supplemented with interviews, in close collaboration with other work packages. Through the norm-critical analysis, different groups, both within the project and in the industry around prop tech, have been identified. Differences between these groups relate to understanding of different types of technology, priorities, communication and balance of power. Norm criticism has been a way of supporting the entire project in both the expansion of business models and interaction between the various scientific areas that are part of the project. The norm criticism has been well received by the project group and many are aware that the industry is facing a change that requires new ways of thinking, new business models and new collaboration models. There is a new awareness in both the conversations within the project and the surveys and interviews based on the understanded need to see multiple perspectives. This awareness has also been used to broaden the business model. The understanding that it is more difficult to see the order of power for those who belong to the prioritized group has also increased. At the same time, we see a large effect of personal, or corporate, interest in norm criticism, which strongly influences how respondents react to the questions about norm criticism. The project shows that the method of using norm criticism in collaborative processes between different groups has been successful.

The transport sector, including maritime transport, is facing accelerating electrification, where it is important that charging infrastructure is developed in parallel with electrified vessels. In today's few examples, charging technology is adapted to specific vessels and conditions. The possibility of using standards and standardisation to increase the efficiency of introducing electrified vessels has been the focus of the SeaCharging project. The middle segment of ships, such as waterborne public transport, is facing a rapid increase in electrification.

The project begins with an exploratory analysis of the current situation with charging stations in Sweden. This analysis covers the obstacles, needs and opportunities in different shipping segments and geographical areas. This results in an informative review providing input to standardisation committees, but also ports and shipping companies. Dissemination of the project’s results was achieved via a workshop, a number of seminars and this final report directed at the maritime, energy, technology, and standardisation communities. Together with Lighthouse, we will in early 2023, do a broad workshop for the whole sector, presenting the final project results and putting them into a wider context.

Pavement choice - effects on noise, road dust and rolling resistance.

A literature review of environmental effects related to the choice of road pavement is presented here, starting from noise-reduced pavements, and with a focus on non-exhaust particles, as a great deal of research is being performed in the area of road dust. A simple description of pavements based on the Swedish Transport Administration's requirements introduces the description of the relationship between pavements and the three areas of noise, road dust and rolling resistance. The conclusions are that environmental aspects are important to address already when choosing the pavement. There is great potential to limit the negative environmental effects through pavement choices, especially if simpler connections can be made, e.g. using the ideas we present in this report. We recommend further research on functional relationships, especially in the particle domain where the relationships between pavement and emissions of non-exhaust particles is seldom quantified. The relationships between pavement and each of the parameters; noise; non-exhaust particles; and rolling resistance, need to be modelled to be able to understand the processes fully, preferably including friction. Road dust also creates a risk of reducing the acoustic life of porous pavements, i.e. a type of pavement reducing noise emissions. Including the resuspension of road dust in the emissions is of great importance to increase the possibilities of using pavement choices to limit road dust emissions. A first detailed description is published in this report.

En litteraturgenomgång av miljöeffekter relaterade till val av vägbeläggning redovisas utgående från bullerreducerade beläggningar, och med fokus på slitagepartiklar, då det inom området pågår stor inhämtning av ny kunskap. En enkel beskrivning av beläggningar med utgångspunkt från Trafikverkets krav och råd har kompletterats med relationen till de tre områdena buller, partiklar och rullmotstånd. Slutsatserna är att miljöaspekter är viktiga att tas omhand redan vid beläggningsvalet. Det finns stor potential att begränsa de negativa miljöeffekterna genom beläggningsval, särskilt om enklare samband kan tas fram t.ex. med hjälp av de tankar vi presenterar i denna rapport. Vi rekommenderar ytterligare forskning om funktionssamband, särskilt inom partikelområdet där kvantifieringen av relationerna är begränsad. Relationerna mellan de variabler som beskriver vägytan behöver i en modell relateras till alla miljövariablerna, gärna inkluderande friktion. Att inkludera uppvirvlingen i emissionerna av vägdamm är av stor vikt för att öka möjligheterna att använda beläggningsval för att begränsa vägdammsemissionerna. En första ingående beskrivning publiceras i denna rapport. Vägdamm riskerar också att minska den akustiska livslängden hos de dränerande beläggningarna.

An experimentally based prediction model of road abrasion wear due to studded tyres is available in Sweden and has been found to work well. However, it has not been validated since 2007, and since then road surfaces and tyre design have developed, and the question has arisen regarding the model’s current validity. The abrasion wear model is used in the NORTRIP emission model (NOn-exhaust Road Traffic Induced Particle emission modelling), and the effect of a recalibrated abrasion wear model on the emission model is shown. In this paper, the abrasion wear model is compared to full-scale field measurements at several recently constructed roads in Sweden to investigate its validity, while also proposing changes to allow for continued use. It is concluded that the model overestimates the wear and an update is suggested. In addition, the impact on NORTRIP emission predictions is briefly investigated. There were also indications that NORTRIP is affected by the abrasion model overestimating the contribution of pavement wear to the particle emissions.

An innovative and simple method based on dilution, named as the dilution chamber (DC), allowing the measurement of solid and condensable fractions of particulate matter emitted by residential wood combustion appliances has been developed, and its performances have been evaluated. The DC method was then tested by five European institutes (Ineris, ISSI/ENEA, DTI, and RISE) on advanced residential wood log/pellet stoves, under nominal output and low output combustion conditions and using different fuel types. The aim of the study was to evaluate the capability of the DC method to collect the condensable fraction. The DC method was compared with another manual method used to collect the solid and condensable fractions at the same time, the dilution tunnel (DT), on four sampling platforms. A third method, a combining heated filter and impinger filled in with isopropanol collection (SPC-IPA), was also used by Ineris only for comparison with the DC method. PM measurements based on the DC method globally showed a linear correlation with PM measurements based on DT (R2 ranged between 0.81 and 0.99, p < 0.05) specifically for the residential wood stoves under low output conditions when the condensable fraction contributes the most. An analysis and quantification of PAHs related to the total mass of PM of samples taken by the DC method and performed by ENEA/ISSI showed that it produces a condensation effect of semivolatile species comparable or even greater than the DT method. PM emission factors calculated from PM measurements based on the DC method were (i) about 2- to 20-fold higher for the residential wood stoves (EF ranged between 201 to 2420 g GJ-1) compared to those obtained for the residential pellet stoves (EF ranged between 108 to 556 g GJ-1) and (ii) of the same magnitude of PM emission factors from the literature or the EMEP/EEA air pollutant emission inventory guidebook.

Nanocomposites, formed by incorporating nanoparticles into a matrix of standard materials, are increasing on the market. Little focus has been directed towards safe disposal and recycling of these new materials even though the disposal has been identified as a phase of the products' life cycle with a high risk of uncontrolled emissions of nanomaterials. In this study, we investigate if the carbon nanotubes (CNTs), when used as a filler in two types of polymers, are fully destructed in a pilot-scale combustion unit designed to mimic the combustion under waste incineration. The two polymer nanocomposites studied, polycarbonate (PC) with CNT and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) with CNT, were incinerated at two temperatures where the lower temperature just about fulfilled the European waste incineration directive while the upper was chosen to be on the safe side of fulfilling the directive. Particles in the flue gas were sampled and analysed with online and offline instrumentation along with samples of the bottom ash. CNTs could be identified in the flue gas in all experiments, although present to a greater extent when the CNTs were introduced in PC as compared to in HDPE. In the case of using PC as polymer matrix, CNTs were identified in 3–10% of the analysed SEM images while for HDPE in only ~0.5% of the images. In the case of PC, the presence of CNTs decreased with increasing bed temperature (from 10% to 3% of the images). The CNTs identified were always in bundles, often coated with remnants of the polymer, forming particles of ~1–4 μm in diameter. No CNTs were identified in the bottom ash, likely explained by the difference in time when the bottom ash and fly ash are exposed to high temperatures (~hours compared to seconds) in the pilot facility. The results suggest that the residence time of the fly ash in the combustion zone is not long enough to allow full oxidation of the CNTs. Thus, the current regulation on waste incineration (requiring a residence time of the flue gas >850 °C during at least 2 s) may not be enough to obtain complete destruction of CNTs in polymer composites. Since several types of CNTs are known to be toxic, we stress the need for further investigation of the fate and toxicity of CNTs in waste treatment processes.