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Artikeln beskriver ett studerandeaktivt undervisningsupplägg på en kurs för högskoleingenjörer i akademiskt skrivande. I kursen övar studenterna sina individuella skrivförmågor genom att de läser, skriver och diskuterar med sina kollegor. Via denna form av studerandeaktivt arbetssätt uppnås ett tryggt och hjälpsamt arbetsklimat, vilket bidrar till det kollegiala lärandet.Vi vill inspirera lärare och sänka tröskeln för att förändra undervisningen till att bli mer studerandeaktiv, då lärande inte bara sker utifrån lärares presentationer och föredrag, utan också i interaktionen mellan studenter och i diskussioner. Syftet är även att bidra med idéer om hur läraren kan stötta studerandeaktiva lärprocesser, där lärarens roll under de beskrivna verkstäderna är viktig.Insamling av data och information kring kursen har gjorts från kursupplägg, programansvarig, kursansvarig, jämförelse av exjobb, genomströmning, samt via kursutvärderingar.Utformningen av kursen har gjort att studenterna fått ett mer kritiskt förhållningssätt och bättre förmåga att skriva på ett vetenskapligt sätt än om de fått jobba enskilt. Även lärarensroll i undervisningssituationen spelar en viktig roll för studenternas aktivitetsnivå och därmed deras lärande.En intressant reflektion från kursen är att skrivande inte bara är skrivande. Utifrån ett lärarperspektiv så ser vi att studenterna också förstår att de lär sig att läsa och kritiskt analysera vetenskapliga texter parallellt med att deras skrivförmåga förbättras.

Innovation has become increasingly important for most industries to cope with rapid technological changes as well as changing societal needs. Even though there are many sectors with specific needs when it comes to supporting innovation, the medical technology sector is facing several unique challenges that both increases the lead-time from idea to finished product and decreases the number of innovations that are developed. This paper presents a proposed innovation guide that has been developed and evaluated as a support for the innovation process within medical technology research. The guide takes the unique characteristics of the medical technology sector into account and serves as a usable guide for the innovator. The complete guide contains both a structure for the process and a usable web application to support the journey from idea to finished products and services. The paper also includes a new readiness level, Sect. 4.2 to provide support both when developing and determining the readiness for clinical implementation of a medical technology innovation.

During handling and storage of conventional wood pellets, O2 depletion as well as CO and CO2 off-gassing can reach acutely hazardous levels and certain Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) may reach concerning levels from an occupational health and safety perspective. With new thermally pre-treated biomass commodities entering consumer markets, corresponding knowledge is needed on these assortments' off-gassing behaviour. In this study, relative concentrations of VOCs, CO, CO2, and O2 in the closed storage space of five different pilot-scale torrefied pine wood chip assortments were monitored over 12 days. The VOCs composition in the storage space differed between torrefaction treatment settings; terpenes decreased while furans and lignin degradation products peaked at narrow ranges with increased torrefaction severity, indicating that VOC off-gassing composition of individual compounds is highly specific. Generally, VOC amounts decreased with storage time, but for the mildest torrefied chips certain VOCs increased, predominantly compounds of higher volatility such as hexanal, acetone, and 2-pentylfuran. Also, the newly produced torrefied chips were cooled with two different post-process technologies: i) heat exchanging, and ii) heat exchanging with additional water spraying. Water spraying resulted in higher VOC concentrations, stronger O2 depletion, and factor four higher concentration of CO2 in the storage headspace.

A combined torrefaction and pelletization study was performed at industrially relevant settings using a factorial design. First, wood chips of Scots pine were torrefied at high temperatures (291-315 degrees C) and short residence times (6-12 min), facilitating high throughput in a continuous pilot-scale torrefaction process. Then the torrefied materials were pelletized, also in pilot-scale, using varying moisture contents (MCs) (10-14%), sieve sizes (4-6 mm), and press channel lengths (PCLs) (25 and 30 mm), in all 19 batches, each of 400 kg. The resulting so called black pellets exhibited bulk densities of 558-725 kg m(-3), durabilities of 46.3-86.5%, and fines contents of 3.8-85.8%. Through multiple linear regression modelling of all 11 responses, it was found that the parameter with the greatest influence on the responses was the torrefaction temperature, followed by torrefaction time, MC, and PCL. Longer PCL and higher MC resulted in higher pellet quality, with less fines and greater bulk density and durability. Furthermore, a low torrefaction degree decreased the amount of power required for pelletization. The energy required to grind pellets into a powder (<0.5 mm) decreased with increasing torrefaction degree as expected, but also with decreasing MC before pelletizing. Pyrolysis-GC/MS analysis of thermal degradation products from the pellets revealed correlations with the torrefaction temperature and time, but no correlations with the pelletization process. These results are useful for mapping chemical changes in torrefied materials and identifying complementary torrefaction and pelletization settings. Specifically of interest is adjustment of PCLs at low intervals to better match friction properties of torrefied materials.

The chemical effects of torrefaction and the possibility to combine torrefaction with biochemical conversion were explored in experiments with five preparations of wood of Norway spruce that had been torrefied using different degrees of severity. Compositional analysis and analyses using solid-state CP/MAS C-13 NMR, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and Py-GC/MS showed small gradual changes, such as decreased hemicellulosic content and increased Klason lignin value, for torrefaction conditions in the range from 260 A degrees C and 8 min up to 310 A degrees C and 8 min. The most severe torrefaction conditions (310 A degrees C, 25 min) resulted in substantial loss of glucan and further increase of the Klason lignin value, which was attributed to conversion of carbohydrate to pseudo-lignin. Even mild torrefaction conditions led to decreased susceptibility to enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose, a state which was not changed by pretreatment with sulfuric acid. Pretreatment with the ionic liquid (IL) 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate overcame the additional recalcitrance caused by torrefaction, and the glucose yields after 72 h of enzymatic hydrolysis of wood torrefied at 260 A degrees C for 8 min and at 285 A degrees C for 16.5 min were as high as that of IL-pretreated non-torrefied spruce wood. Compared to IL-pretreated non-torrefied reference wood, the glucose production rates after 2 h of enzymatic hydrolysis of IL-pretreated wood torrefied at 260 A degrees C for 8 min and at 285 A degrees C for 16.5 min were 63 and 40 % higher, respectively. The findings offer increased understanding of the effects of torrefaction and indicate that mild torrefaction is compatible with biochemical conversion after pretreatment with alternative solvents that disrupt pseudo-lignin-containing lignocellulose.

An extensive evaluation program was carried out within the European SECTOR project to evaluate the feasibility of torrefied and densified biomass in available entrained flow gasifiers. Different entrained flow reactors (both atmospheric and pressurized) in different scales, from lab scale to a 240 MW industrial gasifier were used for evaluation of torrefied materials as feedstock. Total behaviours of the new fuel throughout the whole supply chains and the EFG systems were evaluated and documented, including process behaviours in terms of operation, gas quality, products of incomplete gasification, etc. Results showed a significant improvement in fuel properties in terms of storage, logistics, milling and feeding behaviour by torrefaction and densification. Entrained flow gasification of the torrefied biomass was also shown to be feasible without any major showstoppers, even improving the gasification processes. Production of tars and other products of incomplete gasification were often found significantly reduced during gasification of torrefied material.

As a solid energy carrier, biomass generally has a few disadvantages, which limits its use for coal replacement and as a feedstock for entrained flow gasification. The hydrophilic and fibrous nature, the low calorific value and low bulk energy content imply high accumulated costs in the whole supply chain and severe challenges in more advanced conversion systems. By thermally pretreating the biomass by torrefaction, these properties may be significantly improved. A continuous torrefaction rotary drum reactor was designed, constructed and evaluated to enable an accurate process control and allow a homogeneous well-defined high quality product to be produced. The combined effects of torrefaction temperature (260–310 °C) and residence time (8–25 min) on a large number of product properties (&gt; 25) were determined for Norway spruce. The resulting mass and energy yields were 46–97% and 62–99%, respectively. Exothermic reactions were evident both at low (260 °C) and high temperatures (310 °C) but with no thermal runaway observed. Increased torrefaction severity resulted in decreased milling energy consumption, angle of repose, mass and energy yield, content of volatile matter, hydrogen, cellulose and hemicellulose. Hydrophobicity, heating value, carbon and fixed carbon contents increased. For all responses, the effect of torrefaction temperature was larger than the effect of residence time. Substantial interaction effects were present for mass and energy yields, volatile matter and hydrogen content. Another correlation found was the relationship of hemicellulose degradation and the brittleness of the torrefied product. Data also suggest secondary char forming reactions during the torrefaction process, resulting in higher fixed carbon content in the torrefied material than expected. The results also suggest torrefaction temperature and residence time not to be totally interchangeable.

Biomass torrefaction for sustainable energy production has gained an increasing interest. However, there is a lack of information on the thermal formation of persistent organic pollutants such as dioxins in the torrefied solid product. In this paper, we investigated the applicability of pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) for simultaneous extraction of a number of polychlorinated planar aromatic compounds from torrefied wood. The targeted compounds included polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), dibenzofurans (PCDFs), naphthalenes (PCNs), benzenes (PCBz), phenols (PCPhs) and PAHs. PLE tests were conducted on torrefied and non-torrefied (i.e. raw) eucalyptus wood chips using 5 single solvents (n-hexane, toluene, dichloromethane, acetone and methanol) and a mixture of n-hexane/toluene (1:1, v/v). The performance of each solvent was evaluated in terms of recoveries of spiked internal standards and the amount of co-extracted sample matrix. High polarity solvents such as methanol and acetone resulted in poor recoveries from torrefied wood for most of the target compounds, probably due to the high co-extraction of thermally degraded lignocellulosic compounds. Raw wood was less solvent-dependent and comparable results were obtained for polar and non-polar solvents. Toluene showed the best performance of the investigated solvents, with average recoveries of 79 +/- 14% and 66 +/- 9% for raw and torrefied wood, respectively. The method was validated using pentachlorophenol-tainted spruce wood chips. The proposed PLE method was compared to the traditional Soxhlet method. Results show that PLE gave equivalent or better extraction for all target compounds.

For small- to medium-sized streams of biogas (methane) produced at a biorefinery site where cost-efficient reforming by traditional methods are unavailable, combined biomass gasification and methane reforming could facilitate co-conversion and increase the H-2/CO ratio in the syngas from the gasification plant. In the present work, co-gasification of biomass with CH4 was evaluated by means of a parametric chemical equilibrium study for both wood/CH4 and black liquor/CH4 feedstocks and bench-scale fluidized-bed gasification experiments for a wood/peat/CH4 fuel mixture. The parametric study indicated that high-temperature, and steam and oxygen addition all facilitate a high conversion rate, i.e., methane reforming. Evaluating the influence of the gasification temperature on CH4 reforming and increasing the H-2/CO ratio experimentally demonstrated that high temperatures are required for efficient co-conversion.