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Publications

NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.

2015

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Abstract

In the context of reducing CO2 emissions to the atmosphere, chemical absorption with amines is emerging as the most advanced technology for post-combustion CO2 capture from exhaust gases of fossil fuel power plants. Despite amine solvent recycling during the capture process, degradation products are formed and released into the environment, among them aliphatic nitramines, for which the environmental impact is unknown. In this study, we determined the acute and chronic toxicity of two nitramines identified as important transformation products of amine-based carbon capture, dimethylnitramine and ethanolnitramine, using a multi-trophic suite of bioassays. The results were then used to produce the first environmental risk assessment for the marine ecosystem. In addition, the in vivo genotoxicity of nitramines was studied by adapting the comet assay to cells from experimentally exposed fish. Overall, based on the whole organism bioassays, the toxicity of both nitramines was considered to be low. The most sensitive response to both compounds was found in oysters, and dimethylnitramine was consistently more toxic than ethanolnitramine in all bioassays. The Predicted No Effect Concentrations for dimethylnitramine and ethanolnitramine were 0.08 and 0.18 mg/L, respectively. The genotoxicity assessment revealed contrasting results to the whole organism bioassays, with ethanolnitramine found to be more genotoxic than dimethylnitramine by three orders of magnitude. At the lowest ethanolnitramine concentration (1 mg/L), 84% DNA damage was observed, whereas 100 mg/L dimethylnitramine was required to cause 37% DNA damage. The mechanisms of genotoxicity were also shown to differ between the two compounds, with oxidation of the DNA bases responsible for over 90% of the genotoxicity of dimethylnitramine, whereas DNA strand breaks and alkali-labile sites were responsible for over 90% of the genotoxicity of ethanolnitramine. Fish exposed to > 3 mg/L ethanolnitramine had virtually no DNA left in their red blood cells.

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Abstract

An assessment of the benefits of a fully integrated yarder-processor was made against the alternative of splitting the yarding and processing functions onto two base machines. The effect of productivity rates, specific costs, and crew sizes on the relative performance of each working configuration was investigated. The systems analysis showed that for the integrated yarder machine, a two-man crew was considerably cheaper than a three-man crew at all yarding distances, although the difference became less pronounced with increasing mean tree volumes. The single integrated machine with a 2-man crew was cheaper than the modelled 2-machine system at medium and longer extraction distances, as the processor base machine in the 2-machine systems incurred a considerable cost penalty in waiting idly for the yarder. At shorter distances (75 m) the 2-machine system was cheapest, but became less competitive with increasing mean tree volume. For mid-sized trees (0.38 m3) on a medium corridor length of 150 m, overall system productivity rates ranged from 5.2 m3 per productive system hour (PSH) for the single machine system to 9.4 PSH−1 for the 2-machine system, although the specific net costs were almost identical at 31.5 € m−3. A sensitivity analysis showed that reduced labour costs would promote use of the 2-machine system, suggesting that the optimum system configuration would be country specific. Despite being marginally more costly in small trees at short corridor lengths (75 m), the single fully-integrated machine was considered the working configuration of choice under Norwegian conditions.

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Abstract

This case study examines the performance of the Igland Hauler employed in small diameter Eucalyptus clear-cut operations in Guangxi, China. A yarding crew of eight persons was monitored by a snap back elemental time study for 19.23 SMH (scheduled machine hours), with 159 yarding cycles and a yarded log volume at landing of 49.4 m³ solid over bark. A gross-productivity of 2.50 m³/SMH and net-productivity of 5.06 m³/PMH0 (productive machine hours excluding delay times) was achieved, leading to a machine utilization rate of 49.5%. The costs of the yarder and associated overhead as well as the personnel costs of a large crew with eight people sum up to extraction costs of 50.24 USD/m³. The high costs make it difficult to compete economically with the locally common manual extraction system as long as abundant labor at a low hourly rate is available in the region. Further performance improvement through skill development, but also technical and organizational system modification in conjunction with rising wages and decreasing labor force in rural primary production will determine the justification of employing such yarding systems. However, new silvicultural regimes with extended rotations and supply requirements of the forest products industry in China demand new operational systems.

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Abstract

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