Sustainability Aspects of Bioenergy and Nutrient Recovery from Marine Biomass : Baltic Sea case studies

• Main Author: Risén, Emma
• Format: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: KTH, Industriell ekologi 2014
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-156377; http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:isbn:978-91-7595-365-6

Coastal areas around the world are experiencing environmental problems such as climate change and eutrophication. These, in turn, lead to emerging challenges with excessive amounts of biomass that impact coastal communities. Developing utilisation strategies for marine biomass is therefore highly relevant and forms part of the blue growth research field. In response to environmental concerns, as a waste management strategy and as part of blue growth research initiatives, several Baltic Sea coastal projects have been initiated in recent years to study utilisation of maritime biomass. However, the sustainability of these utilisation strategies has not been critically appraised. Therefore, the work presented in this thesis explored some key sustainability aspects of two Baltic Sea case studies utilising common reed (Kalmar, Sweden) and mass-occurring filamentous macroalgae (Trelleborg, Sweden) for biogas and biofertiliser recovery. Energy analyses suggested that both case studies could provide a positive energy balance and have the potential to achieve nutrient recovery. Moreover, a contingent valuation study in Trelleborg demonstrated considerable welfare benefits of biomass utilisation. These findings indicate that marine biomass utilisation strategies highlight potential to contribute to environmental and welfare benefits of these coastal communities. === <p>QC 20141126</p>