Course syllabus

KBT135 KBT135 Waste management lp2 HT26 (7.5 hp)

Course is offered by the department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Contact details

• examiner: Martina Petranikova,  teaching area: Hydrometallurgy, metallurgy, batteries, etc. Contact: martina.petranikova@chalmers.se
• teachers:
• Dr. Pavleta Knutsson, teaching area: Ashes: Composition, treatment, and use/or disposal. Contact: pavleta.knutsson@chalmers.se
• Dr. Burcak Ebin, teaching area: Recycling of solar cells and materials in new vehicles. Contact: burcak@chalmers.se
• Dr. Stefan Allard, teaching area: Handling of nuclear waste. Contact: stefane@chalmers.se
• Prof. Magdalena Svanström, teaching area: Waste flows in society and organic waste. Contact: magdalena.svanstrom@chalmers.se
• Dr. Ulf Jäglid, teaching area: Reuse of cement and concrete. Contact: ulf@chalmers.se
• Prof. Britt-Marie Wilén, teaching area: Treatment of sewage sludge. Contact: britt-marie.wilen@chalmers.se
• Adjunct prof. Karin Karlfeldt Fedje, teaching area: Thermal treatment methods for waste. Contact: karin.karlfeldt@chalmers.se
• Prof. Henrik Thunman, teaching area: Chemical recycling of plastics to virgin qualities via thermal processes. Contact: henrik.thunman@chalmers.se
• Dr. Giada  Lo Re, teaching area: Recycling of plastics. Contact: giadal@chalmers.se

Course purpose

What if waste could become a valuable resource rather than an environmental burden? Moving towards a zero-waste society is one of the major challenges of our time, and achieving it requires innovative technologies, smarter resource management, and new ways of thinking about materials.

In this course, you will explore how waste can be transformed into valuable resources through recycling, reuse, and sustainable waste management. You will learn the fundamental principles behind different waste management strategies and discover how they can be applied to both municipal and industrial waste streams. By examining real-world examples, you will develop the skills to critically evaluate different technologies and strategies, understand their advantages and limitations, and identify opportunities to recover valuable materials.

The course also explores new and emerging technologies that are shaping the future of waste management and recycling. Whether you are interested in environmental sustainability, resource recovery, industrial innovation, or the circular economy, this course will provide you with knowledge and tools to help turn today's waste challenges into tomorrow's opportunities.

Schedule

TimeEditLinks to an external site.

Links to an external site.

Course literature

The course material consists of the lecture slides and other text files or links provided by the teachers. This material will be available in the section called Files and under the names of the teachers. At the course start you will find last years lecture slides, articles to read and other material. The teachers will probably update their slides but you can start reading to get an idea about what the lectures will be about. Updates of the course material will be announced here on the course webpage.

 

Course design

The course consists of a series of lectures, a project and a study visit. 

The course homepage on CANVAS will be used extensively to provide relevant up-to-date information and material important for the course.
Mandatory tasks: Please note that the project, including all project presentations, as well as the study visit are mandatory. Should you not be able to attend the study visit, you will be assigned an additional task.

 

Projects (In groups of 3-4) - short description is in the Modules/Course information
The aim of these projects is that the students should be familiar with different information sources dealing with waste management. Knowledge of some specific waste treatment issues will also be gained. Furthermore, the project will train an oral presentation and acting as opponents.
The groups (3-4 students) will perform a literature research about a specific topic and summarize their findings in PowerPoint presentation,  that should be handed in to the topic supervisor no later than December 1st.

The topic supervisor will review your presentation and give you a feedback.

The presentation should include headings such as Background, Technical Problems, Solutions and own innovative contribution. 

During the last week of the course one occasion is allotted for presentations of the projects (See schedule). The groups will present their findings in an oral presentation of approximately 20 minutes and all group members have to contribute within the presentation. Depending on the quality of the presentation of the project, a maximum of 4 points will be added to the result of the written exam.

A list of available projects will be available in the course webpage section "People/Projects to present" and on the course CANVAS page, which is also where you sign up for your project.

Topic supervisors contacts:

Léa Rouquette (malea@chalmers.se)

Simon Duda (simond@chalmers.se)

Martina Petranikova (martina.petranikova@chalmers.se)

Yarivith Carolina Gonzalez Pena (yarivith@chalmers.se)

Arushi Kanojia (kanojia@chalmers.se)

Nabil el Halya (halya@chalmers.se)

Every presenting group will have another group as the opponents. Your role will be to get familiar with the topic, and then prepare at least two questions for the presenting group. The quality of the opponent work will be evaluated by the teachers and maximum 2 points can be awarded. Opponents should sign up in the course webpage section "People/Opponents". Questions should be send to the Martina Petranikova one day before the presentation. You can work as the team or individually, but number of questions still should be two per person. 

Changes made since the last occasion

A summary of changes made since the last occasion.

Learning objectives and syllabus

Learning objectives:

 

Be able to describe and discuss the waste management area including definitions. To be able to describe and discuss waste management practices as well as utilisation and recycling alternatives for the following material areas:

--Metals

--Polymeric material

--Treatment of liquid waste streams - mechanical, biological and chemical methods; industrial and municipal cases; anaerobic digestion; production of bio-gas; dewatering and drying

--Solid waste - separation, incineration, composting and landfilling; treatment and use of ash-products

--Radioactive waste

--Emerging technologies

 

Link to the syllabus on Studieportalen.

Study plan

If the course is a joint course (Chalmers and Göteborgs Universitet) you should link to both syllabus (Chalmers and Göteborgs Universitet).

Examination form

The course examination includes

- A written exam (max. 50 points) which will take place the 14th of January 2027 in the Johanneberg campus/on the web. The location of the exam room will be published on the student portal of Chalmers. More details to be found at Studieportalen.

Students have to sign up for the written exam. Please get updated information from Studieportalen about this!

- The project presentation and opponent work that can give max 6 points to be added to the exam points

- Your presence at the mandatory activities - see schedule. If you happen to miss the study visit you should contact the course examiner (martina.petranikova@chalmers.se) to get an extra assignment as replacement