Sustainable technical solutions

In general it is not possible to develop a complete treatment scenario that is optimal technically, financially and also with respect to environmental sustainability. A solution has to be found which is economically and technically feasible and also satisfies the criteria of environmental sustainability to the greatest possible extent. An additional criterion for the selection of a complete closed loop water system can be obtained if the net environmental benefits are compared with the extra costs of the closed loop system. In this way the extra environmental benefits per unit investment costs or operating costs can be calculated. In the final selection of a closed loop water system aspects dealing with acceptability and public environmental awareness also play an important role. 

Technical solutions may well tackle the problem. But in terms of global equity, forcing high-end technologies as first choice to combat the adverse environmental impacts of transport will be in favour of the industries in the developed countries. The analysis of world patent applications and global trade flows on behalf of the German Environment Ministry (Edler et al., 2007) demonstrates that developing and transition economies only play a very minor role in the developement and trade of new vehicles and propulsion systems. In the field of sustainable propulsion systems, non-OECD countries participate in world trade with 13% of imports and exports, but contributed only 2% of patent applications in 2005. 

The general opinion about the aforementioned problems and the ad hoc technical solutions is that they are by no means sufficient. The essential concept when thinking about these subjects nowadays is sustainability. It was greatly helped by the description and definition by the Brundtland report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), Our Common Future (11) ... 

Thus, it is possible to choose nontoxic, nonpersistent nanomaterials with little projected health effects that serve a technical solution with benefit to society. Such nanomaterials will likely prove beneficial in the overall balance, prove themselves sustainable, and have an acceptable real cost for society. From a different point of... 

Sustainable growth must therefore encompass environmental, social, and economic factors and maintain a balance between them. This implies consideration of a wide range of factors in determining solutions to environmental problems. Although the public eye is often focused only on waste management and recycling, rigorous and correct technical solutions require that the overall, much broader, picture be studied. 

Required attributes with regard to Innovation Technical solution Integration Risk management Sustainability Management Not specified... 

The rapid pace of development of our world over the last century has heen largely based on easy access to fossil fuels. These resources are, however, limited, while their demand is growing rapidly. It is also becoming clear that the scale of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions following the use of fossil fuels is threatening the climate of the Earth. This makes the development of sustainable production and energy solutions in industry, transportation, and households the most important scientific and technical challenge of our time. 

Proponents of continuous hypothermic perfusion using colloidal solutions such as cryoprecipitated plasma (Belzer et td., 1972) claim that it provides better immediate life-sustaining function after transplantation. This is probably trae and it oflFers more potential for storage periods of 4 days or more. However, it is technically more diflicult to maintain sterility over such long periods, and its exprense and complexity makes it dependent on the availability of very skilled staff. 

The development that has taken place is the result of 100-150 years of enormous investments. All over the world, this has left us with a sewer and treatment plant infrastructure that will be in use for an unknown future. We will still see developments in terms of technical improvements and sustainable solutions. However, we will not, as a general trend, see the wastewater collection and treatment concept replaced by, e.g., centralized collection of solid human excreta or on-site solutions. This could have been a realistic option for further development 150 years ago — not now ... 

Planners, designers and operators have a tremendous task to find both nonstructural and technical sustainable solutions to the future development of sewer networks. It is the author s opinion that an extended integrated performance of the urban wastewater infrastructure — internally as well as with the surroundings — is fundamental for improved sustainability. The concept of the... 

The main risk lies in the potential failure of permanent underground storage of C02. This requires that special attention be paid to demonstrate the economic and technical feasibility of such processes and the availability of sites to sequester all C02 produced (see also Chapter 6). The CCS technologies currently under development could extend the time available to develop a full and durable solution for a sustainable power and fuel provision based on renewable sources. 

The transportation sector is clearly the sector where a transition to sustainable energy sources is most difficult. For the past several decades, hopes were placed in battery-based electric vehicles, but it has taken long time to reach the technical goals for battery performance, and the economic goals that would make a purely battery-operated vehicle with suitable range become economically acceptable have not yet been reached. As a consequence, automobile manufacturers have lowered the expectations to battery-driven vehicles and instead hope that fuel cell vehicles will be able to meet both technical and cost goals. The analysis in Chapter 4 indicates that this may not be the best approach, because fuel cell-battery hybrids may well turn out to be a better solution, due to the complementary advantages of the two sys-... 

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