IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute

The aim of this study is to provide a nuanced understanding of the evolving trends in hydrogen technology, focusing on innovation both globally and within Sweden, and to assess Sweden's competitive position in this landscape. The primary focus is on analysing patents to evaluate the current state-of-the-art in hydrogen technology.The study reveals a significant increase in hydrogen technology patents worldwide after 2020, paralleling the rise in national hydrogen strategies and global investments. Fuel cell patents notably dominate this sector.

The United States, Japan, South Korea, Germany, and France emerge as the top countries in hydrogen technology. Assessing China's position is challenging due to distinct challenges associated with analysing Chinese patents related to patent standards and national strategies.Sweden shares a patent distribution profile similar to Japan and South Korea across hydrogen production, storage & distribution, and application domains, with a strong presence in the application domain (fuel cells). While the application domain remains dominant in terms of absolute patent numbers in Sweden, there has been a relative increase in patents within the production domain. This suggests a growing focus, possibly linked to Sweden's ambitions for carbon-free steel production that is based on hydrogen. Despite holding a modest share of global hydrogen technology patents relative to its economic size compared to leading countries, Sweden exhibits a competitive edge comparable to France in fuel cell technology. To sustain and enhance this advantage in the expanding hydrogen economy, Sweden must maintain its leadership in fuel cell technology while striving to strengthen capabili-ties in electrolysis and hydrogen production from biomass.

These efforts are aligned with ambitious plans for investing in hydrogen production infrastructure.Unlike some leading countries where larger industry leaders dominate, Sweden's hydrogen technology sector has traditionally been supported by smaller, specialized actors. However, there has been a noticeable shift in recent years. This shift has to be sustained. To drive significant advancements, Sweden should engage established industry leaders to leverage their market influence and operational scale. This collaboration, coupled with strategic investments in key technological domains, can position Sweden at the forefront of the hydrogen economy.

This review comprehensively evaluates research on the lifecycle cost analysis (LCCA) of reusable packaging systems in the retail sectors of fruits and vegetables, automotive parts, etc. It categorizes researchers by product types and thoroughly analyzed the various models used by these studies to conduct LCCA of reusable packaging. This article provided extensive analyses of cost categorization frameworks, covering raw materials, transportation, maintenance, and end-of-life expenses, thereby providing profound insights into the economic and sustainability benefits of packaging logistics. Key findings indicate that, with effective logistics management, reusable packaging typically achieves significant long-term cost savings. The review also points out that future research should focus on the economic benefits of different types of reusable packaging, examining the impacts of reverse logistics management and packaging design on costs, and the development of more precise LCCA models. Such research will provide effective decision-making support for businesses promoting the transition of sup-ply chains towards sustainable development.

Oil spills, the most frequent environmental incidents in Sweden, have decreased in recent years but still pose risks to drinking water and aquatic ecosystems, with about 600 cases registered annually by the Swedish Fire Protection Association. Yet, detailed information about modern fuels and their environmental and human health impacts remains scarce. Hence, this study focuses on enhancing the understanding of the environmental impact of common fuels.This study collected thirty fuel samples of different types: petrol, diesel, fuel oil, and marine gas oil. A selected number of substances in the fuels and the water-soluble phase were analysed using GC-MS.

A crucial step in the analytical method in this project, since the focus was on the effect on sub-surface aquatic life and drinking water production, was to form a stable water-accommodated fraction (WAF) where non-dissolved fuel elements were separated from the water. Since odour properties were of interest, the mixing was extensive, with limited space allowed for gases, meaning that more volatile organic carbons (VOC:s) would be in solution. The chemical analysis focused on identifying and quantifying 50 substances, including aromatic hydrocarbons, aliphatic hydrocarbons, ethers, and esters, plus 17 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH:s) for eight of the samples. These substances were chosen for their significance in interpreting results related to odour and to illustrate the proportion of light and heavy substances in the fuels.Twelve of the thirty fuel samples were selected for odour threshold testing, where a dilution series from the WAF was used to evaluate the intensity of odours at different concentrations. Six samples were chosen for ecotoxicological assessments on crustaceans, algae, and bacteria, offering a comprehensive understanding of the ecotoxicity of the fuel-water mixtures. Four samples were used in tailor-made evaporation experiments to study how volatile fuel components evaporate from the water surface under different temperatures and ethanol concentrations.For odour, three fuels were notably distinguished, namely the fuels containing higher concentrations of ether: 98 Octane petrol and E85 fuel.

While there was significant variability in odour thresholds among different panel members, the concentration of MTBE (Methyl Tertiary-Butyl Ether) in the fuel-water mixtures was generally identified as a precise predictor of odour. Conversely, the lack of ether in diesel fuels made them significantly less prone to cause odour in the WAF.Generally, petrol-specific substances dissolve more readily in water than those in diesel, which only marginally ended up in the water-accommodated fraction. However, ethanol in petrol and RME (rapeseed methyl ester) in diesel favoured the dissolution of hydrocarbons into water. For ether, which is of utmost importance for odour, a strong correlation was observed between the concentration of ether in water and its content in the fuel. Therefore, it is possible to predict the ether concentration in the WAF solely from ether concentration in the fuel, meaning that ethanol did not significantly increase ether solubility.In the case of a fuel spill into surface water, volatile substances like ether or toluene evaporate into the air, reducing the water concentration. The experimental conditions in this study do not reflect actual real-world conditions. The evaporation experiments showed that the evaporation of ether can be predicted based on the WAF ether concentration, water temperature, and ethanol content. It was found that cold water (5 °C) conditions reduce the evaporation rate of ether to almost negligible levels.The ecotoxicological tests showed reproduction inhibitions in crustaceans across all fuel samples. However, the inhibiting effect from HVO (hydrogenated vegetable oil) was only marginally greater than that of the control. Fuel oil and some petrol fuels had detrimental effects on the algae growth, while diesel did not.

The decrease of luminescence of bacteria, an indicator of toxicity, exhibited a similar trend; petrol fuels inhibited luminescence more than diesel. None of the fuels disturbed activated sludge to the extent that respiration was inhibited at toxic levels. This shows that an active sludge is more robust than single organisms, probably due to the diverse bacteria flora.For a drinking water producer, fuels containing water-soluble ethers, such as E85 and 98 Octane petrol, are the most prominent risk. If a spill occurs in the drinking water supply, the production disturbance likelihood depends on the dilution prerequisites below the odour threshold of 1.5-4 µg/L. The study also shows that modern diesel has become an issue of marginal concern for surface water-based raw water sources due to very low solubility and regulations that have reduced the amounts of toxic substances in the products.For freshwater ecosystems, water-soluble petrol-associated substances and hydrophobic toxic substances in fuel oil or EU diesel have the most severe effects during a spill. However, MK1 and HVO diesel only marginally affected the test organisms compared to the control, which represents unaffected organisms.