The digitization of a supply chain involves satisfying several functional and non-functional context specific requirements. The work presented herein builds on efforts to elicit trust and profit requirements from actors in the Swedish livestock supply chain, specifically the beef supply chain. Interviewees identified several benefits related to data sharing and traceability but also emphasized that these benefits could only be realized if concerns around data security and data privacy were adequately addressed. We developed a data sharing platform as a response to these requirements. Requirements around verifiability, traceability, secure data sharing of potentially large data objects, fine grained access control, and the ability to link together data objects was realized using distributed ledger technology and a distributed file system. This paper presents this data sharing platform together with an evaluation of its usefulness in the context of beef supply chain traceability. 

The biotechnological applications of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) continue to grow due to their sustainable nature, impressive mechanical, rheological, and emulsifying properties, upscaled production capacity, and compatibility with other materials, such as protein and polysaccharides. In this study, hydrogels from CNCs and pectin, a plant cell wall polysaccharide broadly used in food and pharma, were produced by calcium ion-mediated internal ionotropic gelation (IG). In the absence of pectin, a minimum of 4 wt% CNC was needed to produce self-supporting gels by internal IG, whereas the addition of pectin at 0.5 wt% enabled hydrogel formation at CNC contents as low as 0.5 wt%. Experimental data indicate that CNCs and pectin interact to give robust and self-supporting hydrogels at solid contents below 2.5 %. Potential applications of these gels could be as carriers for controlled release, scaffolds for cell growth, or wherever else distinct and porous network morphologies are required.

The agricultural sector in Sweden needs to cut GHG emissions and contribute to the climate goal of net-zero emissions by 2045. The GHG reduction goal for agricultural emissions is not quantified, but the Swedish climate policy framework states that ‘the Swedish food production shall increase as much as possible with as little climate impact as possible’ and multiple key actors within the sector of food and agriculture have developed roadmaps or industry specific goals for reducing GHG emissions from the sector. Consequently, requirements of transparent GHG accounting and reporting are increasing within the agricultural sector, both at national and international level. The purpose of the Agrosfär tool is to establish an automatic data driven climate calculator used to calculate GHG emissions from agricultural products and on farm enterprise level. The automation and automatic data collection will save time, increase accuracy of the calculations, and simplify updates of the tool to keep it aligned with the most recent climate data and climate reporting methodology. It will make it possible to continuously carry out follow-ups on climate performance indicators and measure improvements from climate measures taken. A working group consisting of Swedish agricultural life cycle assessment experts have developed the framework of the tool, e.g. setting system boundaries, selecting methodologies and input data. A technical team has developed algorithms, a digital interface and coupled the tool to other existing agricultural databases providing farm specific information on crop and animal production data, soil characteristics, carbon footprints and amounts of purchased inputs etc. The tool and user interface have been developed based on input from farmers through prototyping and in-depth interviews. For general guidelines on methodology the calculation model follows the Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR), the International Dairy Federation (IDF)’s approach for carbon footprint for the dairy sector and FAO Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance guidelines (FAO LEAP). Where standards have diverged or where assumptions have been required the working group has made expert judgements on which method/guideline to follow or what assumptions to make. A first version of the tool, a so called minimal viable product (MVP) has been developed which will be the basis for further development. The MVP contains an animal and crop module and can calculate the carbon footprint of crops, milk and beef. Future development possibilities of the tool and calculation model is described in chapter 7, such as enabling climate calculations on enterprise level, develop modules for more animal production types, deepen the integration between the crop and animal modules, expand sources for automatic data collection, develop a carbon sequestration module and other technical and methodological improvements to ensure alignment with important climate reporting standards. The report will be repeatedly updated as the tool develops, and new versions of the tool are released.

Syftet med denna studie har varit att beräkna miljöpåverkan från olika svenska uppfödningsmodeller för nöt- och lammkött i produktionsområdena Götalands norra slättbygder, Götalands skogsbygder, Nedre Norrland samt del av Götalands mellanbygd (Gotland). Inom nötköttsproduktion har mjölkrastjur, mjölkrasstut, köttrastjur, köttrasstut och köttraskviga studerats. För lammkött har vårlamm, höstlamm och vinterlamm undersökts. Miljöpåverkanskategorier som ingått i studien är klimatpåverkan, markanvändning, kväveutsläpp samt påverkan på biologisk mångfald.

Markanvändning och förändringar i markkol kan ha en stor påverkan på klimatpåverkan från livsmedelsproduktion. En vanlig metod för att beräkna klimatpåverkan av livsmedel är livscykelanalys (LCA). Här räknar man ihop alla utsläpp från produktionskedjan till ett tal.

Det finns idag dock ingen konsensus kring hur vi bör räkna med markkol i LCA vilket innebär att många studier helt enkelt inte tar med markkol eller gör väldigt olika val vilket försvårar tolkning av resultaten. Det finns också en begreppsförvirring som gör det svårt att kommunicera kring markkol och dess effekter.

I denna rapport ger vi en bakgrund till problemen, varför det är så svårt att räkna med markkol. Vi gör ett försök att reda ut begreppen, och att ge några råd för hur markkol kan inkluderas i LCA. Rapporten vänder sig till utförare av LCA men även till dig som vill veta mer om markkol i LCA på ett generellt plan och för att kunna tolka resultat.

I rapporten delar vi upp markkolsförändringar som kan ske på fyra principiellt olika nivåer:1. Ändring mellan olika kategorier av markanvändning, till exempel från skog till jordbruksmark.2. Odling av en mark som inte är i jämvikt, till exempel att bruka en torvmark eller mark som bytt kategori för länge sen men som fortfarande inte kommit i jämnvikt.3. Ändring i marknyttjande, till exempel byte av gröda från ettåriga till fleråriga grödor.4. Att ändra eller införa skötselåtgärder, till exempel tillförsel av organiskt material.

För att inkludera markkolsförändringar i LCA, behövs tre steg (1) uppskatta ändringen i markkol (2) fördela påverkan över tid och (3) beräkna klimatpåverkan. I rapporten går vi systematiskt igenom dessa tre steg och pekar ut vilka svårigheter som finns.Det är svårt att ge specifika råd kring markkol, då alla val är tätt kopplade till syftet med studien som ska utföras. Vi tycker att det viktigaste är, att LCA-utövaren är medveten om de olika alternativen i varje steg och tydligt beskriver och motiverar sina val, så att det för slutanvändaren av resultaten är tydligt vad som ligger grund för resultaten.

För att kunna producera tillräckligt med mat på ett hållbart sätt behöver vi hushålla med växtnäring, och se till att den näring som redan finns i omlopp används på ett klokt sätt. Nya direktiv kring slamanvändning, krav på återförsel av växtnäring och hårdare utsläppskrav på reningsverk innebär att nya system och tekniker behöver utvecklas. Det kan dock vara svårt att veta vilket system eller vilken teknik som ger den största nyttan. Systemanalytiska metoder kan hjälpa till att tydliggöra dessa komplexa frågor.

Målet med denna studie är att på ett övergripande sätt ge en insikt i hur arbetet kring hållbarhetsbedömningar kopplat till kommunal avloppsvattenrening och återföring av näringsämnen, med fokus på fosfor och kväve kan genomföras. Vidare har fokus legat på metodfrågor inom livscykelanalys (LCA), men en utblick kring andra hållbarhetsbedömningsmetoder ges även i en mindre omfattning. Mycket av det som behandlas inom LCA har dock bäring även för andra metoder för hållbarhetsbedömning.

Idag finns det olika typer av standarder och riktlinjer för hur LCA-studier bör utföras, dock saknas det specifika riktlinjer för LCA-studier kopplade till näringsåtervinning ur avlopp. Det finns flera skäl till att LCA-metodfrågor kopplade till näringsåterföring behöver utredas; LCA är en metod som framförallt inriktar sig på att bedöma miljöpåverkan av en produkt, medan avloppsvattenrening ofta sker i kommunal regi och i nuläget är inriktat på att rena avloppsvatten och inte fokuserar på att producera produkter. Avloppssystem är ofta integrerade med både vattenförsörjning, energisystemet och jordbruket på ett intrikat sätt. Avlopp är också en sektor som har utsläpp både till luft och vatten, och metoder för att korrekt kunna bedöma dessa utsläpps påverkan på miljö är viktiga att utreda. Användningsområdet för LCA är väldigt brett. LCA kan dock inte svara på om det system som utvärderas är hållbart, bara om systemet har mer eller mindre påverkan än ett annat. LCA kan alltså inte svara på frågeställningar som: Vad är en hållbar återvinningsgrad för växtnäringsämnen?

Arbetet har resulterat i en diskussion kring när LCA eller systemanalys lämpar sig och vad man bör tänka på när man genomför en LCA och vilka delar som bör ingå. Inom ramen för detta arbete anordnades även en workshop där berörda intressenter deltog från forskning, myndigheter och branschen. Syftet med workshopen var att få in synpunkter kring hur en systemanalys eller LCA bör läggas upp för att ge användbara resultat i beslutsfattande.

I första hand vänder sig rapporten till dem som arbetar med kommunal avloppsvattenrening, teknikutveckling och myndigheter inom detta område, som har en grundförståelse för systemanalys och vill veta mer.

The climate impact of food production has been lively debated over the last decades. It is e.g. well known that some products have a higher climate impact in comparison to other food products. The biodiversity impact of different food products is however less known. To steer the food production in a positive direction as well as to enable consumers, restaurants, public kitchens, and the food industry to make well-informed decisions, we need to address and measure this impact. The aim of this study has been to examine the biodiversity impact of Nordic and European food consumption. In this report we present (1) a brief summary of biodiversity indicators linked to food production and consumption, (2) different methods to evaluate biodiversity impact of food products and (3) a literature review of studies that assess biodiversity impacts of food products and diets. Based on the literature review, we identify food products suggested to have a higher respectively lower negative impact on biodiversity and discuss what changes that could promote a Nordic diet with lower negative impact on biodiversity. Finally, we highlight knowledge gaps and possibilities for future work. There are different methods to examine the biodiversity impact on food products, such as life cycle assessment, input-output-model, and mapping tools. Biodiversity footprints are often based on the land use (area and intensity) in combination with parameters linked to where the production takes place and thus what biodiversity values can be affected. The consumed amount of food is also often considered – a product with a low impact per kg can get a high impact when consumed to a high degree and vice versa. Our literature review shows a variety of food products with high negative biodiversity impact. Particularly, products that are known drivers of deforestation in tropical regions, such as palm oil, coffee, and cacao – as well as meat and/or animal products that have been fed with soybeans derived from tropical regions have a high negative impact on biodiversity. On the other hand, consumption of foods as vegetables, starchy roots, and pulses – ideally with domestic origin – are examples of foods indicated to have lower biodiversity impact which would be beneficial to eat more of in the Nordic diet. There are also examples of agricultural systems where human interference is crucial for maintaining a high level of biodiversity, for example keeping grazing animals on high-naturevalue-grasslands. If these lands are abandoned or planted with forest, numerous of species will be extinct. Thus, meat linked to these grasslands can also support biodiversity, especially in the Nordic countries where there are relatively many of these landscapes left (in comparison to the rest of Europe). As the studies reviewed varied in their scope, methods, and results, they are difficult to compare. More research is needed to confirm our conclusions. Furthermore, none of the methods are flawless and there are obvious difficulties with finding a transferable and scalable unit – like CO2-equivalents – since biodiversity impacts are highly dynamic and sitespecific. Additionally, most of the reviewed studies do not consider transformation of natural areas driven by food production, e.g., deforestation, and may therefore be underestimating the impacts. In future studies, the reference systems may also be discussed and further developed, and more taxonomic groups (e.g., arthropods such as insects) should preferably be included.

As life expectancy increases so do age related problems such as swallowing disorders, dysphagia, which affects 10%–30% of people over 65 years old. For dysphagia patients the texture and rheological properties of the food, and the bolus, is critical to avoid choking and pneumonia. Texture modified foods, timbals, are often served to these patients due to their ease of swallowing. The main concern with these foods is that they do not look visually alike the food they replace, which can decrease the patient’s appetite and lead to reduced food intake and frailty. This study aims to improve both the visual appearance of texturized food as well as the energy density and fiber content of the timbal formulation. 3D scanning and additive manufacturing (3D Printing) were used to produce meals more reminiscent of original food items, increasing their visual appeal. Rheology was used to ensure the original flow profile was maintained as the timbal was reformulated by reducing starch contents and partially replacing with dietary fibers. The amount of starch was reduced from 8.7 wt% in the original formulation to 3.5 wt% and partially replaced with 3 wt% citrus fiber, while maintaining properties suitable for both swallowing and 3D printing. The resulting formulation has improved nutritional properties, while remaining suitable for constructing visually appealing meals, as demonstrated by 3Dprinting a chicken drumstick from a model generated with 3D scanning.

The present study aimed to characterize wastewater fractions obtained after the wet extraction of proteins from legumes. In addition, the suitability of wastewater fractions for the potential recovery of high value-added compounds was also examined, and consequently, the prevention of the environmental impact of these wastes was explored. Similar to the industrial production of proteins, wet alkaline and acidic extractions of proteins from faba bean and pea flours were performed in two stages of extraction. The different wastewater fractions were characterized by measuring their organic matter content, total solids (TS), total dissolved solids (TDS), electrical conductivity (EC), pH, and turbidity. The value-added compounds from these wastewater fractions were quantified, which included the protein content, carbohydrate content, phenolic content, and antioxidant activity. In addition, the phenolic compounds in these factions were identified and quantified. It was observed that the fractions obtained in the first extraction stage had 60%–90% higher organic matter content, measured as the chemical oxygen demand (COD), compared to the second fractions, indicating a higher environmental impact of the former in case of disposal. The results obtained for COD, TS, TDS, EC, pH, and turbidity demonstrated that microfiltration reduced only the turbidity (85%), and consequently, a decrease was observed in the particulate matter, while there was a practically negligible reduction in the soluble matter. Wastewater from faba exhibited the highest polyphenol content and antioxidant activity, and was, therefore, considered the most valuable fraction for potential valorization.

Root vegetables have unique techno-functional and nutritional properties however, their use in processed foods is limited to a few species, partially due to a lack of knowledge related to the impact of thermal treatments on the sensory properties. This study investigated the effect of steaming and boiling on the microstructure, mechanical properties, and sensory profile of three model root vegetables with distinct carbohydrate composition: Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.), parsnip (Pastinaca sativa), and beetroot (Beta vulgaris). Thermally treated Jerusalem artichoke and parsnip showed higher content of cell wall polysaccharides, particularly β-glucans (e.g. cellulose) and pectic components, compared to raw. Steaming produced more cell shrinkage and loss of cell-cell adhesion than boiling, leading to softer vegetables. Processed beetroot showed loss of cell turgor and drastic softening but not clear changes in overall carbohydrate content. The scores for several flavour and in-mouth attributes were higher for steamed vegetables compared to boiled. Our results give insights on the processability of root vegetables towards products with enhanced sensory and nutritional properties.

Farmers operate in a turbulent environment that includes international competition, weather conditions and animal behaviour, for example, and is difficult for them to control. However, economy and productivity always have a high priority. As a consequence, farms have started to implement lean-inspired work systems. At the same time, health and safety are of urgent concern in the sector. This article explores how famers apply lean-inspired work processes. It identifies work environment changes during and after a lean implementation, as well as possible developments in the work environment following implementation of the lean philosophy. Data were collected from three groups: lean, lean-light and development-inclined reference farms (in total 54 farms), using a questionnaire and interviews. The results indicate that a majority of the lean farms were applying several lean principles and tools, and the lean philosophy. The lean-light farms applied parts of the lean concept, while the reference farms applied some of the more general tools, used in lean and elsewhere, such as visualisation in various forms and to various extents. The results showed positive effects of lean on the psychosocial work environment, better work structure and improved information, communication and co-operation. The physical work environment was improved to some extent by lean, where advantages such as a more structured and practical work environment with less physical movements and locomotion could be noticed. The lean concept provided a more structured and systematic approach to dealing with work and production environmental issues, for managers as well as for employees.

Bouillon cubes are a staple ingredient used in Sub-saharan African countries providing flavor enhancement to savory foods. Bouillon has been identified as a vehicle for fortification to overcome micronutrient deficiencies in Sub-saharan Africa. However, bouillon has a high sodium content (and in addition with other foods) contributes to dietary sodium intake above recommended guidelines. High dietary sodium intake is a key risk factor for hypertension and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Africa has the highest rates of hypertension and CVD globally with nearly half the adult population above 25 years affected. This review presents current state of research on sodium reduction strategies in bouillon. The key challenge is to reduce sodium levels while maintaining optimal flavor at the lowest possible production cost to ensure bouillon continues to be affordable in Sub-saharan Africa. To produce lower sodium bouillon with acceptable flavor at low cost will likely involve multiple sodium reduction strategies; direct reduction in sodium, sodium replacement and saltiness boosting flavor technologies. Efforts to reduce the sodium content of bouillon in Sub-saharan Africa is a worthwhile strategy to: (i) lower the overall sodium consumption across the population, and (ii) deliver population-wide health benefits in a region with high rates of hypertension and CVD. Copyright © 2022 Archer, Cochet-Broch, Mihnea, Garrido-Bañuelos, Lopez-Sanchez, Lundin and Frank.

This study investigated manure loads in outdoor paddocks for laying hens and the capacity of two phosphorus (P) retaining materials for reducing leaching from manure in areas with high hen density. Inventories on two commercial farms during 2 years (2017 and 2018) of the impact of hens (groups of 3000 hens) on vegetation, as a proxy for land use by hens, showed that 16–21% of outdoor area in grassland paddocks and 22–39% of area in a forest paddock were used by the hens. Sand and limestone were tested as P retention materials in areas with high manure load in a field study during the outdoor season for laying hens (May 1 to October 31 in 2018). The materials were placed on the ground (0.2 m deep bed, 3.3 m wide) outside the pop-hole in paddocks with 76 hens. The average numbers of hens outdoors were recorded at 9 am and 3 pm daily. There was no significant difference between the materials concerning distribution of hens, and they seemed not to prefer any material more than the other. When cylinders containing the spent materials were exposed to simulated rainfalls in a laboratory study, the P concentrations in drainage water were high for all materials, including a control with gravel (58–136 mg PO4-P L−1 and 130–197 mg total-P L−1). On average, 14% of manure P retained in the sand and limestone materials was leached after 100 mm of simulated rainfall. Thus, these materials may act as physical filters for P in manure, but to reduce the risk of P losses to waters during the following winter, they need to be removed from the paddocks and preferably used as potential P fertilizers on arable land. © 2021, The Author(s).

Method for calculation of Swedish seafood consumption

Robust statistics on how much and which seafood is consumed in Sweden are important for calculations of intake of both desired and undesired substances through seafood, as well as for mapping and forecasting the environmental footprint generated by consumption. Based on three previous reviews summarizing production and trade statistics to estimate Swedish seafood consumption per species and production method (fishing/ aquaculture), a method has been developed for calculating seafood consumption. Previous reports have provided valuable insights, since the Swedish Board of Agriculture does no longer publish data on Swedish seafood consumption in the same way as for other foods. Focusing on the most recent review, which represents the current state of knowledge and the latest statistics, the purpose of this report is to describe in detail, step by step, the method used for calculating Swedish seafood consumption. The calculation is based on public statistics on the volume of imports, exports and production in aquaculture and fisheries, which when needed was complemented with information from other sources. The method description includes where data is found, how it is downloaded, processed, categorized and how the different datasets were later combined to provide an overall picture of Swedish seafood consumption. Finally, knowledge gaps and the need for supplementary data collection is described. The work on this report has revealed that there are still considerable deficiencies and data gaps in the public production and trade statistics. For instance, landings by foreign commercial fishing boats as well as landings of certain species in recreational fishing are not presented. Production data of certain species in aquaculture may also be lacking, due to confidentiality, and requires alternative strategies to be obtained. In addition, available statistics on herring and sprat are uncertain and difficult to interpret, which is why the calculation of these species requires special treatment. Due to its great importance in both production and consumption, the uncertainties surrounding these species represent an important source of error in the estimation of total consumption. Improvements in production and trade statistics of seafood are important for several reasons and it is important that a future method for public consumption statistics is harmonized with that used for other foods, to enable comparisons. Using alternative and varied ways to fill data gaps from year to year obstructs reliable calculations and comparisons – over time and with other product groups. To ensure a sustainable increase in seafood production and consumption, improved transparency through the whole value chain is of considerable importance – not the least to understand which seafood species that could increase in a sustainable way.

The Gothenburg model for less food waste - a model forreducing food waste in municipal kitchensThe Swedish law states that all school children shall be served a nutritious, free schoollunch every day meaning that about 3 million meals are served per day in the municipalsector in Sweden. By developing efficient working models aimed for decreasing the foodwaste climate impact and costs can be significantly reduced.“The Gothenburg model for less food waste” is a practical tool describing simple andappropriate working routines aimed for reducing food waste in municipal kitchens. Thetool is designed to be used by the staff working in the kitchens. This report elucidatesdata and experiences from the implementation of “The Gothenburg model for less foodwaste”.Gothenburg City has a large meal organization with about 520 kitchens covering preschools,schools and elderly care settings. Through the “Gothenburg model for less foodwaste”, the City of Gothenburg reduced its food waste (serving and kitchen waste) in itskitchens by 50%, from about 30 g/serving to 15 g/serving, in two years, from January2017 to December 2018. At the end of the project, 95% of the kitchens measured theirfood waste. Together, these kitchens served over 80,000 lunches a day. Based on themeasurements in 2017–2018, serving waste accounted for about 80% of food waste,while 20% was kitchen waste.Based on the collected data on food waste targets for different categories of kitchenscould be formulated for serving and kitchen waste. The values suggested for schools were8 - 10 g/serving for production kitchens, 10-15 g/serving for reception kitchens and 30 -35 g/serving for serving kitchens. The corresponding values for pre-schools were 5 - 8g/serving for production kitchens, 10 - 15 g/serving for reception kitchens and 25 - 30g/serving for serving kitchens.The project has contributed to long-term effects by introducing a systematic approachfor reducing food waste in municipal kitchens. By  working according to the model, thekitchens have established procedures for reducing kitchen and serving waste as well asidentified structural problems that must be addressed in  the future for decreasing thefood waste further.Collected data for a time span up to 5 years  show that it takes time establish routines andlong-lasting changes. Generally, food waste levels decrease quite fast in the beginningdue to the easy wins and then level off gradually.

Within a few weeks the world has changed, at the time this text is written (May 2020) more than 3.5 million people have been confirmed cases of COVID-19 and estimations propose up to a hundred times the number of actually infected. A third of the global population is on lockdown and a large part of our global economic activity has stopped. Food and access to food has played a visual role in portraying the impact of the outbreak on our society, with images of empty supermarket shelves appearing in mainstream media. In some countries closed schools resulted in many children not having access to free meals and mobilised a number of charities. While parts of the world are now exiting lockdown and measures start relaxing the near future remains uncertain with more waves of the pandemic expected. Given that there is currently no evidence to show that transmission of COVID-19 could occur through food or food packaging there has been limited discussion on the issue, implications and potential future scenarios within the wider food science community.

Within the food research community, up to the pandemic crisis the discourse has been dominated with design and manufacture of healthy and safe foods. The main issues are relevant to sustainability, circular economy, energy and water efficiency, climate friendly practices of products and processes. Efficiency has been the focus, but resilience has not been a significant issue so far. The term food system resilience has been defined by Tendalla (Tendalla et al., 2015) as ‘capacity over time of a food system and its units at multiple levels, to provide sufficient, appropriate and accessible food to all, in the face of various and even unforeseen disturbances’. We believe that in the future we will continue to see similar pressures in the food system, e.g., comparable pandemics, effects of climate change on food production, and that resilience will become of major importance.

This commentary aims to present a reflection from the past, considering the present situation to provide thoughts on the actions needed to ensure resilient food systems.

Currently Swedish healthcare uses large amounts of disposable products, many of which are made from plastic. For example, Region Uppsala annually uses 3,2 million disposable plastic aprons. Currently these aprons are manufactured from fossil based polyethene plastic. This causes emissions of 270 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents over their life cycle from extraction of raw material to end of life through incineration. If substituting the fossil polyethene with plastic manufactured from renewable material, there is a potential to reduce the climate impact from disposable plastic aprons. Current study has compared disposable plastic aprons made from fossil polyethene with aprons made from renewable raw materials. Two renewable plastics were evaluated, disposable apron made of polyethene manufactured from bioethanol from Brazilian sugar cane and disposable aprons made of the renewable plastic polylactide (PLA) origination from sugar cane grown in Thailand. The result is that using biopolyethene reduces climate impact with 60 % and PLA aprons with 40 % compared to fossil polyethene. PLA has a component that currently is of fossil origin. If in the future this component is substituted with a renewable component there is a potential to reduce the PLA climate impact with as much as 20 % compared to current reduction in comparison to fossil polyethene.

Large amounts of domestic raw material will be needed for future biofuel production in Sweden. Various grasses and straw are interesting alternatives for ethanol production. In the ethanol production, hydrolysis lignin residual is produced, which does not yet have a well-formulated end-use.

HTL is a liquefaction process that can be used to produce bio-oil. In this project we have studied whether hydrolysis lignin residue from ethanol production could be used as raw material in the HTL process. The produced bio-oil can be upgraded together with fossil oil in a conventional refinery and converted into biofuel components.

In this system study, biofuel production based on straw and ley grass as raw material have been studied in terms of climate impact, mass flows and economy. Four scenarios were investigated, two with straw as raw material and two with ley grass as raw materi-al. In all scenarios, the raw material was assumed to be used for ethanol production. In two scenarios, lignin residue from ethanol production was sent for incineration. In the other two scenarios, the lignin residue is further processed bio-oil via the HTL process.

In all scenarios the climate impact was reduced compared to fossil fuels. Ethanol gives a reduction of 72 – 92% and biofuels from bio-oil a reduction of 64 – 81% compared to the fossil reference. Considering soil carbon however has a large effect on the climate impact; removing straw is a loss of carbon while cultivation of ley grass add carbon to the soil.

The cost of producing ethanol was calculated to be between SEK 3 200 – 4 800 per metric ton ethanol. The fuels produced via HTL were estimated to have a production cost between SEK 11 600 – 15 100 per metric ton of fuel. Thus, biofuels from hydrolysis lignin were calculated to be much more expensive than ethanol. This is mainly due to the costs associated with the upgrade of bio-oil. However, results should be carefully interpreted as there is a lack of input data and major uncertainties in the estimations.

Automatic milking systems (AMS), also called milking robots, have become more common and in 2018 one third of all dairy cows in Sweden was milked in AMS. Advantages with AMS is that it improves the physical working environment, it allows for more flexible working hours and it collects individual data of milk production, milk quality and animal health. The milking robot works day and night, and it is common with one robot serving the total herd. Since downtime in the robot can result in reduced production and animal welfare, the system is more vulnerable compared to a manual milking system. Therefore, there is an alarm system connected to the milking robot that informs the farmer whenever there is a stoppage in the robot. Previous studies on work environment in AMS have shown that the farmers experienced that psychological work environment had deteriorated due to the need for constant readiness to solve any stoppage. Furthermore, they also experienced an overflow of information from the robot that made it hard to overview. The aim of this study was to investigate how Swedish farmers and service technicians experience stress related to alarms and data from the milking robot and how the stress is prevented. In this study, interviews were performed with farmers that had AMS (n=6), farmers that have had AMS but changed over to manual milking (n=3) and service technicians. Beside the interviews the farmers also filled a questionnaire where they graded the experience of stress. The results show that the farmers that had AMS experienced little stress related to alarm and data, while farmers that had given up AMS experienced more stress. The farmers experienced that stress related to alarms could partly be prevented by having a lower number of cows per AMS and by having access to more than one milking unit. Stress related to being on call could be prevented by having access to a network of persons that could relief the farmer from the alarm, especially if the farmer easily gets stressed, experience a high alarm frequency, or have great need of time off work in periods. Farmers that have had AMS experienced more stress related to data compared to farmers that had AMS. However, the interviews did not result in concrete solution in how to prevent stress. The service technicians were in general content with their work, but the on-call service was a negative part of the work. It takes long time to get into the job and it is therefore necessary to have a functioning system where more experienced colleagues can support the less experienced.

Pore geometry characterization-methods are important tools for understanding how pore structure influences properties such as transport through a porous material. Bottlenecks can have a large influence on transport and related properties. However, existing methods only catch certain types of bottleneck effects caused by variations in pore size. We here introduce a new measure, geodesic channel strength, which captures a different type of bottleneck effect caused by many paths coinciding in the same pore. We further develop new variants of pore size measures and propose a new way of visualizing 3-D characterization results using layered images. The new measures together with existing measures were used to characterize and visualize properties of 3-D FIB-SEM images of three leached ethyl-cellulose/hydroxypropyl-cellulose films. All films were shown to be anisotropic, and the strongest anisotropy was found in the film with lowest porosity. This film had very tortuous paths and strong geodesic channel-bottlenecks, while the paths through the other two films were relatively straight with well-connected pore networks. The geodesic channel strength was shown to give important new visual and quantitative insights about connectivity, and the new pore size measures provided useful information about anisotropies and inhomogeneities in the pore structures. The methods have been implemented in the freely available software MIST. 

Understanding the drivers of greenhouse gas emissions in food production systems is becoming urgent. For wild capture fisheries, fuel use during the fishing phase generally dominates emissions and is highly variable between fisheries. Fuel use is also essential for the economy of the fisheries, but fuel-intensive fisheries can still be profitable due to fuel subsidies, in particular, if the target species is of high value. Developing an innovative bottom-up approach based on detailed catch and spatial fishing effort data, in the absence of direct fuel data, we analysed the fuel use intensity (fuel use per kg landed) and economic efficiency (landing value per litre fuel used) of Danish capture fisheries for the period 2005-2019. An overall decline in fishing effort did not significantly affect the overall fuel use intensity and efficiency, which was stable for most of the fleet segments and marine species. Robust differences in fuel use intensity among individual fisheries, reflected differential spatial accessibility and vulnerability of target species to fishing. In addition, different fishing techniques targeting the same set of species showed differences in fuel use per unit landed. Danish seining and gillnets had a lower fuel use intensity and higher economic efficiency than demersal trawling; and purse seining than pelagic trawling. The variability between stocks and fleets also indicates that there is generally potential for improvement in overall efficiency from improved stock status. Short-term management actions to promote the best available fuel-efficient fishing techniques combined with additional long-term actions to secure the recovery of stocks have the potential to reduce fishery greenhouse gas emissions. Sustainable fisheries and normative environmental management are crucial to developing incentives towards reducing fuel use whenever the fishing sector industry and science work jointly at implementing solutions, as incentives for the industry to reduce fuel use are limited as long as the fishing activity is profitable. Copyright © 2022 Bastardie, Hornborg, Ziegler, Gislason and Eigaard.

Jordbruks-, skogsbruks- och annan markanvändningssektor står för 25 % av de globala antropogena växthusgasutsläppen. För att kunna nå målet om högst 1,5 graders uppvärmning uppskattar IPCC att det, utöver emissionsreduktioner, kommer krävas upptag i skalan 100 miljarder till 1 biljon ton CO2 under 2000-talet. Här spelar jordbruket en viktig roll och Europeiska kommissionen föreslår ett mål om ett nettoupptag av 310 miljoner ton CO2-ekvivalenter i terrestra ekosystem till och med 2030, genom bland annat kolinlagrande jordbruk. Koldioxidavlägsnande genom kolinlagrande jordbruk skiljer sig från andra industriella metoder då det rör sig om processer som är svåra att kontrollera och som påverkas av flera naturgivna faktorer. Det saknas ekonomiskt genomförbara metoder för storskalig och frekvent kvantifiering och verifiering av kolinlagring. I dagsläget finns ett stort antal aktörer på den frivilliga koldioxidmarknaden för krediter skapade genom kolinlagring i jordbruksmark. Dessa aktörer följer många gånger olika program och tillhandahåller olika typer av krediter, exempelvis krediter för klimatkompensation (offset credits) eller krediter för att uppnå nationella eller globala klimatmål (contributional credits). Krediterna kan säljas under olika permanenskriterier, vanligast är att krediten ska ha en garanterad livslängd på 100 år. Då kolinlagring i marken är en reversibel process och kolet riskerar att återgå till atmosfären är det förknippat med stora osäkerheter att garantera en 100-årig livslängd för denna typ av krediter. En stigande global medeltemperatur utgör en risk, då nedbrytningen av markens organiska material sker snabbare under högre temperaturer och redan idag syns tecken på att kolinlagringen i matjorden försvagats i Finland till följd av stigande medeltemperaturer. Att kvantifiera och verifiera kolinlagring i jordbruksmark kommer med en rad svårigheter. De förändringar i markens kolhalt som sker är små och kan ta flera år innan de går att uppmäta. Att mäta små förändringar i markens kolhalt (% C) är kostsamt och svårt att säkerställa statistiskt. För att kvantifiera markens kolförråd (ton C/ha) behöver dessutom markens densitet mätas vilket är en ytterligare komplicerande faktor. Detta är inte samstämmigt med krav på regelbundna jordprover och årliga kvantifieringar av kolförrådet i marken. När teknologi så som fjärranalys och modellering kombinerat med få datapunkter blir tillräckligt mogen kommer det underlätta verifieringen och övervakning, dock går denna utveckling långsammare än vad klimatmålen kräver. Svårigheten i att garantera permanens samt kvantifiera och verifiera kolinlagring är några av skälen till att köpare av krediter inte är villiga att betala det pris som säljarna förväntar sig för att täcka åtgärdskostnaderna av en växtföljd där huvudfokus är kolinlagring. Åtgärdskostnaden för olika kolinlagrande åtgärder ligger mellan 200 – 4400 kr per ton CO2, där fånggröda har den lägsta åtgärdskostnaden medan vallodling/skyddszoner har den högsta. Per genererad kolkredit (motsvarande 1 ton CO2) kan lantbrukarna få en ersättning mellan 150–1000 kronor, beroende på program och certifiering. För att öka kolpoolens permanens är det möjligt att använda sig av biokol, vars kolsänka kan certifieras genom European Certificate C-sink. Kolinlagrande jordbruk har potential att bidra till fler mervärden, utöver koldioxidupptag, så som minskad övergödning, resiliens mot torka och översvämningar, This work is licensed under CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ bördig åkermark, biologisk mångfald och minskad vind-och vattenerosion. För att öka incitament för lantbrukare att tillämpa kolinlagrande jordbruk, och för att öka betalningsvilja hos potentiella kreditköpare, kommer det vara viktigt att lyfta fram och integrera dessa mervärden. Utöver de ekonomiska hindren, finns också hinder i form av naturgivna förutsättningar, t.ex. skiljer sig kolinlagringspotentialen mellan olika jordarter och initial mullhalt. Det kan även finnas odlingspraktiska hinder så som att mellangrödor kan bli ett ogräsproblem, eller uppföröka växtföljdssjukdomar. Vilka prioriteringar anser intressenter att en lantbrukare bör prioritera? Ökad livsmedelsproduktion eller satsa på åtgärder som framför allt maximerar kolinlagringen? En svårighet är också hur lantbrukare som redan har en hög kolhalt ska belönas för tidigare utförda åtgärder och för upprätthållandet av denna kolhalt. Det finns även miljörisker med kolinlagrande jordbruk, så som ökade lustgasutsläpp när kvävehalten i marken ökar. Samtliga aspekter behöver beaktas i utformningen av det kolinlagrande jordbruket.

Preparation of a bolus is a complex process with both food comminution and degree of lubrication with saliva playing an important role in a safe swallow. Swallowing disorders i.e. dysphagia, are especially present among the elderly population and often lead to choking and further health complications. The aim of this research was to investigate the relationship between the perception of ease of swallowing in the elderly and the rheological parameters of particulated foods, using broccoli purees as a model system. Particulated foods can be described as a concentrated dispersion of plant particles in a fluid phase. The effect of the fluid phase (Newtonian vs. shear thinning) and dispersed phase (plant particles with different size distribution and morphology) on the rheological properties of simulated boli was studied by characterising shear viscosity, viscoelasticity, yield stress, extensional viscosity and cohesiveness. Ease of swallowing and mouthfeel were evaluated by a semi trained healthy elderly panel (n = 19, aged 61 to 81). Ease of swallowing was correlated with the presence of yield stress and extensional viscosity in the bolus, characteristic of boli with xanthan gum as the fluid phase. Although the properties of the fluid phase played a dominant role in the ease of swallowing, compared to the dispersed phase, both components played a role in the rheological properties of the bolus and the perception of ease of swallowing by the elderly panel. These results provide insights into the design of personalised foods for populations with specific needs such as those suffering from swallowing disorders.

Background and purpose The equine sector has grown strongly in recent years in Sweden as well as in many European countries. The Swedish equine sector includes a wide variety of activities, e.g. businesses related to breeding, competition, tourism and training, and more non-profit activities such as association-run riding schools and leisure. Work environment issues are a major concern for the sector since it is labor-intensive, and a majority of the work tasks are still performed manually leading to high workloads and physical strain. Furthermore, working with and handling horses is hazardous, and the sector has a relatively high occupational injury rate. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety climate at riding schools and trotting stables through the validated Nordic questionnaire on safety climate (NOSACQ-50). Methods The questionnaire, consisting of 50 statements across 7 safety climate dimensions, was handed out to employees at 11 workplaces, six riding schools and five trotting stables. Results and discussion The results are based on data from 62 employees. The analysis of all the participants’ responses showed that one of the seven dimensions, “workers’ safety priority and risk non-acceptance”, needs to be developed in comparison to the other six. Furthermore, the preliminary results indicate that there are differences in the perceived safety climate dependent on working experience of the employee. Some significant differences were also found between riding schools and trotting stables in the dimension “workers trust in the efficacy of safety systems”. Conclusions Understanding the safety climate in the equine sector is a first step to find approaches to enhance safety and in the longer-term increase sustainability in horse-related occupations. The study is part of two joint projects with the aim to improve the work environment in the Swedish equine sector, funded by AFA Insurance and The Swedish-Norwegian Foundation for Equine Research.

The equine industry faces problems in terms of recruitment and retention of employees when it comes to fostering decent working conditions and sustainable employments, despite the obvious advantage of offering a lifestyle-oriented work with the privilege of personal leisure interests. The overall aim is to gain knowledge of how employees in the equine industry – here including riding schools and trotting stables – experience their work and work environment. The study is part of two larger research projects, financed by the Swedish-Norwegian Foundation for Equine Research and AFA Insurance, where the purpose is to, in close collaboration with the equine industry, identify and implement methods and tools for a systematic work environment management. The study includes data from a questionnaire, individual interviews and observations. The results showed that the employees considered their work as one of the most important things in life, that they primarily worked for self-realization and good quality of life and that they perceived their current work both attractive and meaningful. Love of horses, passion for the sport, practical work in an outdoor setting, significant, stimulating and varied tasks as well as workplace relations, are the most important factors for the attractiveness and meaningfulness of the work. Nevertheless, imbalance between work and leisure time as well as high physical workload and lack of adequate equipment challenges the experience of an attractive, meaningful and sustainable work. The experiences differed somewhat between the two groups examined, i.e. employees in riding schools and trotting stables.

A well-functioning systematic occupational safety and health management is beneficial for both individuals and organizations, and employee motivation seems to be crucial for positive outcomes. Occupational safety and health issues are a major concern for the Swedish equine sector since the work environment in horse stables is known to be characterized by low mechanization, high physical workloads, and high injury risks. The purpose of this study was to gain an increased understanding of how systematic occupational safety and health management is performed and which factors that influence motivation for occupational safety and health improvements in the Swedish equine sector. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods study, based on quantitative data from questionnaires and qualitative data from semi-structured interviews, was conducted. Various statistical analyses were performed to obtain quantitative data and an abductive applied thematic analysis was applied for the qualitative data. The results indicate that both intrinsic motivators, i.e. attitudes, values, and influence, as well as contextual factors such as motivational management, occupational culture, and workplace resources, influence compliance in systematic occupational safety and health management and participation in occupational safety and health improvements, which in turn affect workplace outcomes regarding safety and health. The positive relationship found between an implemented and functioning systematic occupational safety and health management and employee motivation for occupational safety and health improvements indicate the importance of employee involvement and participation. Understanding the motivational factors for occupational safety and health improvements from an employee perspective is an important step to creating healthy and sustainable workplaces.

Tidigare studier har visat att det finns både utmaningar och brister gällande arbetsmiljö och arbetsförhållanden inom hästnäringen. Syftet med den här artikeln är att identifiera hur anställda i hästnäringen upplever sitt nuvarande arbete och vilka faktorer de anser vara viktiga för att ett arbete ska upplevas som attraktivt, samt att undersöka skillnader mellan det nuvarande arbetet och anställdas idealbild av ett attraktivt arbete. Studien baseras på en enkätundersökning med sammantaget 150 svar från anställda i travstall och ridskolor. I artikeln diskuteras utmaningar och möjligheter för att skapa attraktiva arbeten i hästnäringen.

Seafood is seen as promising for more sustainable diets. The increasing production in land-based closed Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RASs) has overcome many local environmental challenges with traditional open net-pen systems such as eutrophication. The energy needed to maintain suitable water quality, with associated emissions, has however been seen as challenging from a global perspective. This study uses Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to investigate the environmental performance and improvement potentials of a commercial RAS farm of tilapia and Clarias in Sweden. The environmental impact categories and indicators considered were freshwater eutrophication, climate change, energy demand, land use, and dependency on animal-source feed inputs per kg of fillet. We found that feed production contributed most to all environmental impacts (between 67 and 98%) except for energy demand for tilapia, contradicting previous findings that farm-level energy use is a driver of environmental pressures. The main improvement potentials include improved by-product utilization and use of a larger proportion of plant-based feed ingredients. Together with further smaller improvement potential identified, this suggests that RASs may play a more important role in a future, environmentally sustainable food system.

Seafood has an important role to play to achieve a sustainable food system that provides healthy food to a growing world population. Future seafood production will be increasingly reliant on aquaculture where feed innovation is essential to reduce environmental impacts and minimize feed and food competition. This study aimed to investigate whether a novel single cell protein feed ingredient based on Paecilomyces variotii grown on a side stream from the forest industry could improve environmental sustainability of farmed rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) by replacing the soy protein concentrate used today. A Life Cycle Assessment including commonly addressed impacts but also the rarely assessed biodiversity impacts was performed. Furthermore, feeding trials were included for potential effects on fish growth, i.e., an assessment of the environmental impacts for the functional unit ‘kg feed required to produce 1 kg live-weight rainbow trout’. Results showed that the best experimental diet containing P. variotii performed 16–73 % better than the control diet containing soy protein concentrate in all impact categories except for energy demand (21 % higher impact). The largest environmental benefits from replacing soy protein with P. variotii in rainbow trout diets was a 73 % reduction of impact on biodiversity and halved greenhouse gas emissions. The findings have high relevance for the aquaculture industry as the production scale and feed composition was comparable to commercial operations and because the effect on fish growth from inclusion of the novel ingredient in a complete diet was evaluated. The results on biodiversity loss from land use change and exploitation through fishing suggest that fishery can dominate impacts and exclusion thereof can greatly underestimate biodiversity impact. Finally, a novel feed ingredient grown on side streams from the forest industry has potential to add to food security through decreasing the dependence on increasingly scarce agricultural land resources. 

Seafood holds promise for helping meet nutritional needs at a low climate impact. Here, we assess the nutrient density and greenhouse gas emissions, weighted by production method, that result from fishing and farming of globally important species. The highest nutrient benefit at the lowest emissions is achieved by consuming wild-caught small pelagic and salmonid species, and farmed bivalves like mussels and oysters. Many but not all seafood species provide more nutrition at lower emissions than land animal proteins, especially red meat, but large differences exist, even within species groups and species, depending on production method. Which nutrients contribute to nutrient density differs between seafoods, as do the nutrient needs of population groups within and between countries or regions. Based on the patterns found in nutritional attributes and climate impact, we recommend refocusing and tailoring production and consumption patterns towards species and production methods with improved nutrition and climate performance, taking into account specific nutritional needs and emission reduction goals. © 2022, The Author(s).

Expressing the environmental impact of foods in relation to the nutritional quality is a promising approach in the search for methods integrating interdisciplinary sustainability perspectives. However, the lack of standardized methods regarding how to include nutrient metrics can lead to unharmonized results difficult to interpret. We evaluated nutrient density indexes by systematically assessing the role of methodological variables with the purpose of identifying the index able to rank foods with the highest coherence with the Swedish dietary guidelines. Among 45 variants of the nutrient density index NRF (Nutrient Rich Food), a Sweden-tailored NRF11.3 index, including 11 desirable nutrients and 3 undesirable nutrients, calculated per portion size or 100 kcal with the application of weighting, ranked foods most coherently with the guidelines. This index is suggested to be suitable as complementary functional unit (FU) in comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) studies across food categories. The results clarify implications of methodological choices when calculating nutrient density of foods and offer guidance to LCA researchers on which nutrition metric to use when integrating nutritional aspects in food LCA. © 2020 by the authors.

This report aims to map the largest groundbased solar farms in Sweden to better understand how they are usually designed; on what type of land they are built and how they can interact with other types of activities such as agriculture and measures to improve conditions for biodiversity. Mid-2021, the typical solar farm with at least 1 MW installed power is built on arable land, can be restored and, as a rule, avoids protected and designated natural areas according to this study, which is mainly based on survey responses. Solar panels are typically directed to the south with a 30-35 degree tilt and are anchored with piles. Generally, the distance between the rows is greater than 3 meters. The most common factors determining the location of the park are the costs for land purchases/leases and proximity to electricity grid. About half of the facilities surveyed are combined with some measure intended to benefit biodiversity. Combining the photovoltaic system with grazing (25%) or cultivation (10%) is still relatively uncommon. The results show that there is an awareness of issues related to biodiversity and opportunities to combine photovoltaic installations with other activities. The increasing pace of expansion of photovoltaic capacity suggests that a deeper understanding of how photovoltaic systems are best adapted to their surroundings will increase in importance.

Food appearance is an important determinant for expected and actual liking, but some food is not even available for purchase due to visual imperfections. In two studies conducted with 130 participants in Sweden, we measured consumers’ expected and actual liking for different apples with three types of visual imperfection (color, shape and damage). We investigated the effects of apples’ visual characteristics on expected liking and whether or not this relationship is mediated by emotions and attitudes. Secondly, we investigated how actual liking differed between the groups of apples, and how it differed from expected liking. Results indicated that attitudes are the strongest mediator between visual characteristics of apples and expected liking. Moreover, participants indicated higher expected liking for color and shape imperfections relative to damaged apples. Results from the second study indicated a significant difference between expected and actual liking, and less variability in actual liking between the apple groups relative to the variability in expected liking. It can be concluded that the visual characteristics of apples influence both expected and actual liking, the practical implication for retailers being a need to carefully distinguish between the different types of visual sub-optimality and to keep the products that have a higher chance to be chosen (sub-optimal in shape and colour). Thus, these results generate a clearer understanding of visual sub-optimality, and can be incorporated in strategies for reducing food waste in stores. 

Nutritional quality of 142 plant-based meat analogues (PBMAs) on the Swedish market were assessed by nutritional contribution (NC) to recommended nutrient intake, three labelling systems (Keyhole, Nutri-Score, nutrition claims) and comparisons to meat references. Based on median (min-max) NC for macronutrients, PBMAs in general appeared as healthy options to meat due to higher NC per 100 g for fibre [PBMAs: 15% (1-33%) vs meat: 0% (0-2%)] and lower NC for saturated fat [PBMAs: 4% (0-59%) vs meat: 15% (1-51%)]. The NC per 100 g for salt was substantial for both PBMAs [25% (5-52%)] and meat [24% (2-55%)]. Limited data for micronutrients indicated that PBMAs are higher in iron compared to meat. Nutrition quality varied both between and within product categories. Mince, bite/fillet and nugget analogues were the main healthier categories, according to labelling systems. Bioavailability of iron, protein quality and effects of processing are important future aspects to consider. © 2022 The Author(s).

The global food system is facing the challenge of producing sufficient nutrients to accommodate future demands within planetary boundaries, while reducing malnutrition. Although nutrient-rich seafood can play a prominent role in resolving this challenge, seafood from capture fisheries is currently partly wasted. Here we quantified the nutrient contribution from capture fisheries through a hypothetical scenario that assumed all captured seafood and byproducts from seafood processing would be used for human consumption. Our simulations show that available seafood per capita can be doubled without increasing the pressure on global fisheries when all reported, illegal, and discarded capture is used as food, complemented with processing byproducts. In such a scenario, seafood contributes greatly to daily nutrient requirements – e.g., omega-3 can be fully met. Although uncertainty should be considered, these results indicate that putting the whole fish on the table can increase nutrient availability from capture fisheries substantially and sustainably. 

Porous phase-separated ethylcellulose/hydroxypropylcellulose (EC/HPC) films are used to control drug transport out of pharmaceutical pellets. Water-soluble HPC leaches out and forms a porous structure that controls the drug transport. Industrially, the pellets are coated using a fluidized bed spraying device, and a layered film exhibiting varying porosity and structure after leaching is obtained. A detailed understanding of the formation of the multilayered, phase-separated structure during production is lacking. Here, we have investigated multilayered EC/HPC films produced by sequential spin-coating, which was used to mimic the industrial process. The effects of EC/HPC ratio and spin speed on the multilayer film formation and structure were investigated using advanced microscopy techniques and image analysis. Cahn-Hilliard simulations were performed to analyze the mixing behavior. A gradient with larger structures close to the substrate surface and smaller structures close to the air surface was formed due to coarsening of the layers already coated during successive deposition cycles. The porosity of the multilayer film was found to vary with both EC/HPC ratio and spin speed. Simulation of the mixing behavior and in situ characterization of the structure evolution showed that the origin of the discontinuities and multilayer structure can be explained by the non-mixing of the layers.

Porous phase-separated films made of ethylcellulose (EC) and hydroxypropylcellulose (HPC) are commonly used for controlled drug release. The structure of these thin films is controlling the drug transport from the core to the surrounding liquids in the stomach or intestine. However, detailed understanding of the time evolution of these porous structures as they are formed remains elusive. In this work, spin-coating, a widely applied technique for making thin uniform polymer films, was used to mimic the industrial manufacturing process. The focus of this work was on understanding the structure evolution of phase-separated spin-coated EC/HPC films. The structure evolution was determined using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and image analysis. In particular, we determined the influence of spin-coating parameters and EC : HPC ratio on the final phase-separated structure and the film thickness. The film thickness was determined by profilometry and it influences the ethanol solvent evaporation rate and thereby the phase separation kinetics. The spin speed was varied between 1000 and 10 000 rpm and the ratio of EC : HPC in the polymer blend was varied between 78 : 22 wt% and 40 : 60 wt%. The obtained CLSM micrographs showed phase separated structures, typical for the spinodal decomposition phase separation mechanism. By using confocal laser scanning microscopy combined with Fourier image analysis, we could extract the characteristic length scale of the phase-separated final structure. Varying spin speed and EC : HPC ratio gave us precise control over the characteristic length scale and the thickness of the film. The results showed that the characteristic length scale increases with decreasing spin speed and with increasing HPC ratio. The thickness of the spin-coated film decreases with increasing spin speed. It was found that the relation between film thickness and spin speed followed the Meyerhofer equation with an exponent close to 0.5. Furthermore, good correlations between thickness and spin speed were found for the compositions 22 wt% HPC, 30 wt% HPC and 45 wt% HPC. These findings give a good basis for understanding the mechanisms responsible for the morphology development and increase the possibilities to tailor thin EC/HPC film structures. 

Porous phase-separated ethylcellulose/hydroxypropylcellulose (EC/HPC) films are used to control drug transport from pharmaceutical pellets. The drug transport rate is determined by the structure of the porous films that are formed as water-soluble HPC leaches out. However, a detailed understanding of the evolution of the phase-separated structure in the films is lacking. In this work, we have investigated EC/HPC films produced by spin-coating, mimicking the industrial fluidized bed spraying. The aim was to investigate film structure evolution and coarsening kinetics during solvent evaporation. The structure evolution was characterized using confocal laser scanning microscopy and image analysis. The effect of the EC:HPC ratio (15 to 85 wt% HPC) on the structure evolution was determined. Bicontinuous structures were found for 30 to 40 wt% HPC. The growth of the characteristic length scale followed a power law, L(t) ∼ t(n), with n ∼ 1 for bicontinuous structures, and n ∼ 0.45-0.75 for discontinuous structures. The characteristic length scale after kinetic trapping ranged between 3.0 and 6.0 μm for bicontinuous and between 0.6 and 1.6 μm for discontinuous structures. Two main coarsening mechanisms could be identified: interfacial tension-driven hydrodynamic growth for bicontinuous structures and diffusion-driven coalescence for discontinuous structures. The 2D in-plane interface curvature analysis showed that the mean curvature decreased as a function of time for bicontinuous structures, confirming that interfacial tension is driving the growth. The findings of this work provide a good understanding of the mechanisms responsible for morphology development and open for further tailoring of thin EC/HPC film structures for controlled drug release. © 2022 The Royal Society of Chemistry

Porous phase-separated ethylcellulose/hydroxypropylcellulose (EC/HPC) films are used to control drug transport out of pharmaceutical pellets. The films are applied on the pellets using fluidized bed spraying. The drug transport rate is determined by the structure of the porous films that are formed as the water-soluble HPC leaches out. However, a detailed understanding of the evolution of the phase-separated structure during production is lacking. Here, we have investigated EC/HPC films produced by spin-coating, which mimics the industrial manufacturing process. This work aimed to understand the structure formation and film shrinkage during solvent evaporation. The cross-sectional structure evolution was characterized using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), profilometry and image analysis. The effect of the EC/HPC ratio on the cross-sectional structure evolution was investigated. During shrinkage of the film, the phase-separated structure undergoes a transition from 3D to nearly 2D structure evolution along the surface. This transition appears when the typical length scale of the phase-separated structure is on the order of the thickness of the film. This was particularly pronounced for the bicontinuous systems. The shrinkage rate was found to be independent of the EC/HPC ratio, while the initial and final film thickness increased with increasing HPC fraction. A new method to estimate part of the binodal curve in the ternary phase diagram for EC/HPC in ethanol has been developed. The findings of this work provide a good understanding of the mechanisms responsible for the morphology development and allow tailoring of thin EC/HPC films structure for controlled drug release. 

This report presents results from the EU project AGROinLOG (Grant Agreement 727921) and especially focuses on the results from a survey looking at the current practices with straw use in Sweden as well as the farmer’s opinion on supplying straw for the production of second-generation biofuel. The survey was developed as a collaboration between LRF (Federation of Swedish farmers) RISE and Lantmännen.The reader can first read about the context within which the survey was developed and analysed. The questions and the methodology are then presented. The main part of the report presents the questionnaire results before drawing conclusions in line with the project’s objectives.The survey shows that about 60% of the straw from farmers participating in the survey, remains in the field while 40% is harvested mostly for animal production. The county of Skåne, the “ÖSÖ” region (Östergötland, Södermanland, and Örebro counties), the region including Uppsala, Stockholm and Västmanland counties, and the county of Västra Götaland have the largest potential for collection of straw for industrial processes in Sweden. However, farmers from these regions are the most concerned about the decrease of soil quality due to straw removal. The current common practices for straw handling in Sweden, including baling, collection, transport, storage and sale, are highlighted.Some interesting conclusions are drawn concerning the logistics needed for the handling of straw for the biobased industry. Moreover, the answers from the survey give some insights concerning a potential “straw contract” between Lantmännen and the farmers. The report also highlights the aspects to be further researched.More information concerning the Swedish contribution to the AGROinLOG project can be found in the public report AGROinLOG (2020a).

This report presents the results from the EU project AGROinLOG (Grant Agreement 727921) and focuses on the development of a roadmap for the grain processing industry to develop Integrated Biomass Logistic Centres in Skåne. More information concerning the Swedish contribution can be found in the public report AGROinLOG (2020a).The Swedish partners of the AGROinLOG project have been interacting with different stakeholders from the grain processing industry in Skåne (South of Sweden) to investigate the existing hinders and drivers for the development of Integrated Biomass Logistic Centres (IBLC) in the region. This report focuses in particular into the milling industry in Skåne in regard to its potential, the utilization of the by-product bran and limitation for the implementation of IBLC. The objective of this reports is to propose a roadmap for the transformation of the current milling sector into an IBLC.The reader will first get a brief introduction to the IBLC concept and a detailed status of the cereal production and milling industry in Skåne. The process for data collection included many interactions with the industry and other relevant stakeholders. The results are then presented.The roadmap uses a backcasting approach starting with the development of a desired sustainable vision of the future. The vision foreseen that mills have developed into IBLCs and collaborate with many actors to produce a wider range of products and add values to other by-products than the mills’ own by-products. This new activity is profitable for the mills but also for other processing industries. The products developed are highly demanded by the consumers.The authors then mapped the current situation looking in particular at hinders, potential conflict of interest, and policy support. The hinders could be clustered into six categories: supply, communication, regulation, economy, market, and logistic. The conflict of interest for the valorisation of bran is low as it is used for human consumption to a low extent. It could however conflict with the animal feeding industry. Different kind of supports are needed at the different stage of the innovation development. Skåne, and Sweden in general have good access to supporting schemes. More technical data concerning the current status of the milling sector is included in the background chapter.Finally, concrete measures for moving from the current situation to the vision are discussed. The most important measure to implement would be to develop a market for the new bio-based products. To support this, a number of measures should be implemented in a joint effort. These measures include technical development, collaboration, and communication. Moreover, sustainability must be a red thread in this transformation, and new legislation should provide a supportive framework.

Trafikverket bekämpar regelbundet ogräsen på banvallen för att säkra en god bankvalitet. Ett återkommande problem är svårigheten att veta hur stort behovet av bekämpning är, vilka bansträckor som skall prioriteras och vilken teknik som skall användas för bekämpningen. Ogräsbekämpningen sker idag främst kemiskt med glyfosatpreparat. Det är dock av flera anledningar osäkert hur länge glyfosat kommer att finnas tillgängligt för Trafikverket och bekämpningsbehovet måste i alla händelser lösas även för så kallade restriktionsytor dvs. sträckor som ej får bekämpas kemiskt, som finns bl.a. vid vattenskyddsområden och vattendrag. Trots att ett flertal metoder för icke-kemisk vegetationsbekämpning studerats de senast 25 åren finns det fortfarande få etablerade metoder och tekniska lösningar som kommit till större användning. Det finns således ett fortsatt behov av att prova icke-kemiska metoder i praktisk drift i samarbete med Trafikverket och entreprenörer samt ta fram bättre underlag – handböcker – för att de icke-kemiska metoderna ska komma till praktisk användning. Inom projektet har två redskap – en uppryckningsgrip och en kratta/skrapa – utvecklats och provats i spår. En nygammal metod för rensning och profilering av banketten - ballastplogning – har testats med äldre utrustning. Demonstrationsytor där de olika metoderna utvärderas i full skala, har anlagts på bandel 371 MoraÄlvdalen. I samma fältförsök utvärderas också ett system för gröna spärrzoner som syftar till att minska sannolikheten att aggressiv vegetation växer in i spår från angränsande ytor. Inledande försök och teknikutveckling för användning av ånga och hetvatten har också påbörjats. Det finns också ett allt större behov av bättre metoder för att styra och utvärdera bekämpningsinsatserna (oavsett metod) samt att kunna bedöma hur den utförda bekämpningen långsiktigt påverkar såväl ogräsen som banan. Inom projektet utnyttjas högupplöst data över ogräsförekomster på järnvägen och data över utförda kemiska bekämpningar som samlats in under de senaste åren för att undersöka hur tillståndet utvecklas långsiktigt, undersöka effektsamband och ta fram bättre planeringsverktyg för ogräsbekämpningen. Vindavdrift från ogräsbekämpningståget har uppmätts i 4 olika fältförsök utförda på 3 olika bandelar. Resultaten visar att på 1 m avstånd från det besprutade områdets gräns så har den deponerade mängden minskat till i genomsnitt 0,3  0,2 % av den använda dosen, motsvarande 5  4 g/ha med den föreskrivna dosen på 1800 g glyfosat/ha. Resultaten kommer att användas för att göra en uppdaterad riskkarakterisering. Projektet löper även under 2021 och planering för fortsatt verksamhet därefter har inletts.

Trafikverket bekämpar regelbundet ogräsen på banvallen för att säkra en god bankvalitet. Ett återkommande problem är svårigheten att veta hur stort behovet av bekämpning är, vilka bansträckor som skall prioriteras och vilken teknik som skall användas för bekämpningen. Ogräsbekämpningen sker idag främst kemiskt med glyfosatpreparat. Det är dock av flera anledningar osäkert hur länge glyfosat kommer att finnas tillgängligt för Trafikverket och bekämpningsbehovet måste i alla händelser lösas även för så kallade restriktionsytor dvs. sträckor som ej får bekämpas kemiskt, som finns bl.a. vid vattenskyddsområden och vattendrag. Trots att ett flertal metoder för icke-kemisk vegetationsbekämpning studerats de senast 25 åren finns det fortfarande få etablerade metoder och tekniska lösningar som kommit till större användning. Det finns således ett fortsatt behov av att prova icke-kemiska metoder i praktisk drift i samarbete med Trafikverket och entreprenörer samt ta fram bättre underlag – handböcker – för att de icke-kemiska metoderna ska komma till praktisk användning. Inom projektet har två redskap – en uppryckningsgrip och en kratta/skrapa – utvecklats och provats i spår. En nygammal metod för rensning och profilering av banketten - ballastplogning – har testats med äldre utrustning. Demonstrationsytor där de olika metoderna utvärderas i full skala, har anlagts på bandel 371 MoraÄlvdalen. I samma fältförsök utvärderas också ett system för gröna spärrzoner som syftar till att minska sannolikheten att aggressiv vegetation växer in i spår från angränsande ytor. Inledande försök och teknikutveckling för användning av ånga och hetvatten har också påbörjats. Det finns också ett allt större behov av bättre metoder för att styra och utvärdera bekämpningsinsatserna (oavsett metod) samt att kunna bedöma hur den utförda bekämpningen långsiktigt påverkar såväl ogräsen som banan. Inom projektet utnyttjas högupplöst data över ogräsförekomster på järnvägen och data över utförda kemiska bekämpningar som samlats in under de senaste åren för att undersöka hur tillståndet utvecklas långsiktigt, undersöka effektsamband och ta fram bättre planeringsverktyg för ogräsbekämpningen. Vindavdrift från ogräsbekämpningståget har uppmätts i 4 olika fältförsök utförda på 3 olika bandelar. Resultaten visar att på 1 m avstånd från det besprutade områdets gräns så har den deponerade mängden minskat till i genomsnitt 0,3  0,2 % av den använda dosen, motsvarande 5  4 g/ha med den föreskrivna dosen på 1800 g glyfosat/ha. Resultaten kommer att användas för att göra en uppdaterad riskkarakterisering. Projektet löper även under 2021 och planering för fortsatt verksamhet därefter har inletts.