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In this paper, we present an overview of interdisciplinary research from Ph.D. students working at the Division of Environmental Technology and Management at Linköping University, Sweden. Each of the Ph.D. students addresses the overall challenge of sustainability transitions in their research, although the themes and content of research varies considerably between individuals, encompassing research on actors, networks, products, materials, services and systems from the public and private sector, operating locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. The scientific literature and methods used to frame and conduct studies varies considerably within the group, as does the individual focus on immediate issues of sustainability.

Fire dynamics in multi-room compartments are explored in this thesis and new methods to study conditions in rooms adjacent to the room of fire origin are presented. Simple and transparent engineering methods can create good possibilities for understanding different complex phenomena present in fire science. Such methods can also be used in the design process in order to perform rough estimates before more advanced and time-consuming analyses are performed. There are several methods available for studying conditions in the room of fire origin. However, there are few methods that can be used to study the conditions in adjacent spaces. This means that there is a need for developing new fire engineering methods for such spaces. In this thesis two such methods are presented and evaluated. A fire in a single room is complex and the problem increases in complexity when multiple rooms are studied. It can therefore be hard to control all influencing variables and to reproduce fire experiments in multi-room compartments. As a part of the exploration of multi-room compartment fires in this thesis, the reproducibility of a full-scale scenario in a typical apartment building is studied. The temperature varied between ±10-35% around the average temperature depending on scenario, location and time after ignition. An alternative to performing traditional experiments is to use numerical experiments. Numerical experimentation is considered to be a promising research method in fire science, and it is evaluated as a part of this thesis.

Several severe fires in structural elements, or so-called “structural fires”, have occurred in Sweden in recent years. In order to study this phenomenon, a dozen of real fires in structural elements have been studied in this report. The first objective in the report has been to define the term “structural fires”. The second objective was to describe how these severe fires start and developed. The report provides a representation of what a structural fire is and examples of how such events can be managed and limited. Constructional fire protection, rescue service response and fire development are the three main factors that control the outcome of structural fires. However, there are several underlying and more specific factors affecting the outcome and these have been identified for each studied fire. The factors and actions related to a successful managed structural fire are in not present in the studied fires were the outcome was an extensive damage

Stocks of finite resources in the technosphere continue to grow due to human activity, at the expense ofdecreasing in-ground deposits. Human activity, in other words, is changing the prerequisites for mineralextraction. For that reason, mining will probably have to adapt accordingly, with more emphasis on theexploitation of previously extracted minerals.This study reviews the prevailing concepts for mining the technosphere as well as actual efforts to doso, the objectives for mining, the scale of the initiatives, and what makes them different from other reuseand recycling concepts. Prevailing concepts such as “urban mining,” however, are inadequate guides tothe complexity of the technosphere, as these concepts are inconsistently defined and disorganized, oftenoverlapping when it comes to which stocks they address. This review of these efforts and their potentialis therefore organized around a new taxonomy based on the umbrella concept technospheric mining,defined as the extraction of technospheric stocks of minerals that have been excluded from ongoinganthropogenic material flows.An analysis on the basis of this taxonomy shows that the prevailing mining initiatives are generallyscattered and often driven by environmental factors, in which metal recovery is viewed as an additionalsource of revenue. However, development of technology, specialized actors and new business modelsand policy instruments, could lead to technospheric mining operations becoming a profit-drivenbusiness., Urban mining: laying the foundation for a new line of business

Our societies are reliant on metals to such an extent that the total amounts of some of them in the built environment are comparable in size to the remaining amounts in known mountain ores. Because of concerns about mineral scarcity, the United Nations has assessed alternative sources for metal extraction and targeted urban areas in general and infrastructure systems in particular, since these are large, spatially concentrated and rich in metals. Referring to the possibility of recovering these metal stocks, infrastructure systems constitute what material flow researchers has conceptually termed “urban mines.” While most urban infrastructure is in use, significant amounts of cables and pipes have been disconnected and remain in their subsurface locations; they are “hibernating.” In this article, we analyze the occurrence of such hibernation in the Swedish city of Norrköping's urban infrastructure mine where, we know from a previous study, that every fourth kilo of infrastructure is discarded. Our applied perspective is different from the logic of system expansion as a way to meet increased demand often found in the field of infrastructure studies since we are interested in how systems are disconnected and left behind. This enables us to offer a refined understanding of the concepts of infrastructure “decline” and infrastructure “cold spots.” We argue that to prevent the increase of dormant infrastructures and to engage in the urban mining of already dormant infrastructures, we must develop a sensibility to the materiality of derelict infrastructure components and the underlying causes for why they form different kinds of spatial patterns.

This paper reviews landfill mining research. By applying industrial ecology and transition perspectives, it aims to address two research questions: (i) Why should we learn how to mine the landfills? and (ii) Why don’t we mine the landfills? Emphasis is on how institutional conditions influence feasibility and further dissemination of this strategy. While benefits of landfill mining mainly materialise on the societal level, it is concluded that current policy, legislative and market conditions provide minor incentives for private actors to engage in such activities. Facilitating realisation is therefore not just a matter of knowledge production and technology but will rely on knowledge dissemination and strong actor networks that engage in politics, influence public opinion and advocate landfill mining as a way to solve wider societal concerns.

Numerical experiments, constituting of 90 simulations in FDS, were used in this paper for two purposes. Firstly an evaluation of previously derived correlations for ceiling jet excess temperatures and velocities was performed. Secondly the numerical experiments were used to demonstrate how computer simulations could be used as a complement to actual fire experiments in fire science research. The evaluation indicates that the existing correlations will give a good estimate of the average temperature in a ceiling jet. However, it seams like the correlations will not give a good estimate of the maximum excess temperature or velocity. Consequently, a new correlation to estimate the maximum temperature was developed. The novelty of this research is primarily the method that includes an outline of how numerical experiments can be used in fire science research.

Fires outside school buildings caused by arson are a major problem in Sweden. The initial fire source can involve rubbish or other types of combustibles that can be found at or sometimes brought to the school. As the external fire develops the flames will extend along the façade. If the building is a one-story building, which is a common construction in Swedish school buildings, the fire can spread to the attic and further on to the rest of the building. A large research project was initiated in 2008 by the Swedish Fire Research Board in order to reduce the number and consequences of arson fires in school buildings. In this paper an evaluation of some technical systems that can be used to mitigate consequences of exterior fires is presented. The evaluation includes a literature review, experimental studies and a cost-benefit analysis. The study showed that some systems have clear cost-benefit advantages for the protection of school buildings in places where a high fire frequency can be expected.

Previous studies have indicated that the expansion of fire seals and fire stoppers will be dependent on the heat exposure. Standardized methods for classification includes exposure to a rapid heat exposure of the product that is tested, but this might not always be the worst case scenario for the product. In this paper a series of tests are presented in order to study how a graphite based intumescing system, intended for cavities, reacts when subjected to fire conditions different form that in the standardised method EN 1366-4. Two different experimental setups, a cone calorimeter at Lund University and a small-scale furnace at SP Fire Technology, were used in the tests. The start of expansion reaction in the tested fire stopper was around 180°C. The start of reaction temperature is rather independent of the incident heat flux, while expansion rate is clearly dependent on the incident heat flux. Furthermore, the studied fire stopper performed well in the small-scale furnace because the graphite expanded enough to give the same protection, although it is preheated or wet, as when subjected to a heat exposure similar to ISO 834. These results are good but they are only considered valid for the studied system and for the given situation. Future research is needed in order to study how other types of intumescing fire protection systems work when subjected to realistic fire environments.

The project “Arson - a societal problem” has been running with funding from a number of players since 2008. The project consists of a number of sub-projects and the work presented in this report was conducted within the sub-project: "Technical- and risk-based methods to prevent and mitigate the consequences of arson". In this report a cost-benefit analysis of several different technical systems are performed on two reference buildings. The analysis shows that the technical systems are beneficial in areas where there is high risk of arson. However, none of the studied systems can be justified on a national level, because there are big differences between different schools and cities. For example there are differences in fire frequency and potential damage on a specific school.

This article discusses the transformation of landfills from dumps toan alchemist’s dream – gold mines – by highlighting five Swedishcase studies where the landfill has been extracted. It is shown thatlandfills are embedded in broader socio-technical systems, includingtechnology, policies, culture, norms, markets, and networks.These artifacts have aligned into mutual dependencies under thenotion that landfills are garbage dumps, which has entrapped thelandfill in the prevailing “dump regime”. At the present time there isa window of opportunity to escape the “dump regime.” Dumps arebeing challenged by the circular economy, which has establishedinstability in the regime. However, for landfills to transform into“gold mines” creative entrepreneurs with the capacity to understandthe emergent properties of deposition – i.e. giving rise to aresource base – will be key. For further transformation, specializedmining actors, collaboration and further exogenous changes suchas higher metal prices are necessary., Landfill mining for integrated remediation and resource recovery: economic and environmental potentials in Sweden

Fires in school buildings caused by arson are a major problem in Sweden. The costs of these fires are disproportionately high compared to the costs of fires in buildings in general, and it has been shown that fires that start outside of the building in connection with an exterior wall, so called exterior fires are especially problematic. However, technical systems can be used to mitigate the consequences of arson fires in school buildings. In this paper a cost-benefit analysis is used to calculate cost-benefit ratios for four technical systems used to detect these types of fires.

This project aims to develop knowledge about factors that lead to that some fires develop into large fires and investigate whether there are specific characteristics of large fires in different types of objects. The project has resulted in three reports dealing with three different types of objects (buildings). The first report deals with fires in school buildings, the second deals with attic fires in apartment buildings and the third deals with fires at nuclear power plants. These three reports are summarized in this final report. In addition to the findings related to the three studied objects, the project has resulted in a methodology on how statistics and case studies can be combined in a systematic way to present, analyse and draw common conclusions of different but similar events. The methodology can be used to find factors that contribute or lead to a specific injury or event.

There are a large number of fire scenarios at nuclear power plants that must be analysed to obtain a picture of the fire risk. This report presents a schematic method that can be useful when identifying areas where deeper analysis is necessary. The methodology is based on four possible scenarios. Accepted and generally used calculations methods are available for three of these scenarios. As for the fourth scenario, smoke layer temperature in an adjacent room, there are no general and useful correlations available. For this reason is a large part of this report devoted to describing how such a correlation has been developed. The smaller validation study of the correlation made in the report is promising, but further validation are considered necessary The presented methodology presented provides a rough idea of the fire risks and can be used as a support for decisions on further analysis.

Much information has been gathered through the years from fires in fire investigation reports or as statistics. The information might have been collected centrally by an agency, an insurance company or locally by the local fire service. The information can be used to learn from these events and to improve the fire safety in buildings. In this paper a methodology to find technical deficiencies in fire safety in buildings are presented. The methodology offers a systematic way of presenting several events to be able to draw cross-event conclusions that can represent a systematic problem in the studied system. The methodology is demonstrated in the article with a study of severe school fires in Sweden, with the purpose to find underlying factors that causes some fires to grow large. The methodology is believed to be a useful tool to find underlying factors or causes to fires.

Results from interviews with representatives from 13 Swedish municipalities and studies of fire protection documentation are presented in this report. The results provide an overview of the typical fire protection systems used to prevent deliberately lit fires in schools and kindergartens. There is great variety of which fire protection systems that is used in the municipalities. The measures mentioned most frequently in the interviews are different type of detection systems and increased illumination. The most common type of detector is fire detectors placed indoors and which are connected to an automatic fire alarm.

Landfills have historically been seen as the ultimate solution for storing waste at minimum cost. It is now a well-established fact however that such deposits have related implications such as long-term methane emissions, local pollution concerns and limitations on urban development. Landfill mining has been suggested as a strategy to address such resource and pollution problems and in principle means the excavation, processing, treatment and/or recycling of deposited materials. This study involves a literature review on landfill mining covering an analysis of trends, objectives and research topics in 39 papers published during the period 1988–2008. The results show that so far landfill mining has primarily been seen as a way to solve traditional waste management issues such as lack of landfill space or facilitation of final closure and remediation of waste deposits. Although most initiatives also have involved some effort to recover deposited resources (primarily cover soil material), such constituents have been largely secondary. Typically, simple soil excavation and screening equipment have therefore been applied, often demonstrating moderate performance in obtaining marketable recyclables. Several worldwide changes and recent research findings however indicate the emergence of a new perspective on landfills as future reservoirs for resource extraction. Although the potential of this approach appears gigantic, it is argued that facilitating implementation also involves a number of challenges in terms of technology innovation, concepts for realization and frameworks for evaluating economic and environmental performance.

Almost every day a school fire occurs in Sweden. In most cases arson is the cause of the fire. The losses for these arson fires are considerable. In this report a number of cases studies have been conducted on school fires in Sweden. The project envisages obtaining more knowledge on the technical factors that influence the spread of fires with arson in schools. Solutions to mitigate the fire spread in these cases are also proposed. As methods we used case studies on almost 60 fires, a specific case study in one town and an enquiry to all fire investigators in the network of MSB. The study resulted in the identification of a number of technical deficiency and solution to these. Some of the deficiencies are lack of detection systems and automatic alarm systems, bad construction of roof and voids and insufficient fire barriers. Solutions for these deficiencies can be automatic alarm systems with efficient location of different type of detectors (smoke and heat detector cables), good illumination, surveillance cameras and sprinklers. In these areas it will be necessary to conduct a cost-benefit analysis. The areas which need innovations are fire protection system for roof eaves nearby the connection between facades and roofs, sprinklers and rescues tactics for voids. Three possible fire scenarios were identified as important: one outside fire with waste nearby the façade and two fires inside, with debris inside the school facilities and arson fire by throwing in flammable liquids. These scenarios are important for the further development of technical solutions. Even that this study focused on technical requirements a number of organisational deficiencies became apparent. The systematic fire protection work as described in Sweden (SBA) does not always work as well as it should. Moreover it is important to create a good environment around the schools which is not the case now in many locations. Also involvement of school personnel is important. Finally it is important tha

The Swedish Board of Fire Research has initiated a pre-study to investigate the possibility to setup a larger research project that would deal with residential fires. Through interviews, literature studies and an initial statistical study, it is clear that there is a need for an umbrella project that focuses on residential fires. The major reason for doing this it that the costs of residential fires are high and that most fire fatalities happen in residential fires. A special effort is needed to be able to reduce the number of fatal fires and the total number of residential fires. The project defines two themes as very important. The first theme deals with fire safety for people with reduced capacity for action in case of fire and the other theme deals with fire safety in the future living environments. There is a need for funding from several contributors in addition to the Swedish Fire Research Board, i.e. from the responsible authorities, other public and private research funders and industry. Two different ways to carry out the project are proposed. Either a form analogous with the special initiative regarding arson fires initiated by the Fire Research Board or through a center of competence; "BIB - Fires in Housing environment" that would include all major stakeholders and anchored within the organization of the Fire Research Board. The direct benefit of this pre-study is the compilation of the current knowledge within the area and the research presented.

This report provides a detailed study of attic fires that have occurred in Swedish apartment buildings in order to determine if there are specific technical or organizational factors that influence them. The study has been carried out by a combined analysis of rescue service statistics with case studies based on detailed fire investigations. In the case study a total of 27 fire investigations were studied. The analysis of statistics and fire investigations are complementary since conclusions can be drawn that cannot be found when only one of the sources are used. The analysis of statistics provides general pattern for a greater number of fires with varying degrees while the fire investigations, provide more detailed information on specific cases. From the analysis several conclusions can be drawn on why the attic fires become more extensive than fires in other spaces. A couple of measures to avoid severe attic fires have also been identified. Although there are gaps in the statistics and the fire investigations they still constitute a good base to gather experience from past events. It is not sure that statistics is appropriate to use for anything more than to see trends in individual factors such as fire causes or first item of ignition. To obtain a deeper understanding of fire development and the function of fire protection measures, it is necessary to study fire investigations as well as statistics.

This masters thesis deals with smoke spread via ventilation systems. One aim of the thesis is to investigate and explain the differences in efforts to prevent smoke spread via ventilation systems in different countries. A second aim of this thesis is to investigate how frequently occurring smoke spread via ventilation systems in Swedish buildings are. A third aim is to investigate how uncertainties in input variables to smoke spread calculations will affect the result of calculation. To be able to do this the most important input variables are identified and analysed. A calculation example is also conducted in the end of the thesis where a supply and exhaust system is analysed with an event tree and the computer program PFS.