Green Structure Plan for Chişinău

As a Master Thesis, Johanna Hagberg and Karin Winroth made a Green Structure Plan for Chişinău.

The Master Thesis is not finished, however, the text below might function as an inspiring abstract:

The plan is based on sustainability from an ecological, social, and to some extent economic perspective, and it gives the answer to what a Green Structure Plan is and how it can be used as a tool for sustainable urban development. Further, it investigates how a Green Structure Plan can be applied to the city of Chişinău. 

The work with this dissertation has passed through three phases: preparations, an eight week long field study and then processing of the gathered material. During the inventory and analysis phase a range of different methods were used to get as a diverse and precise perspective of the city as possible. The methods we have used for the inventory are: literature studies; a case study of Borlänge Green Structure Plan; site visits, observations and photography; studies of maps and plans; interviews; and a public workshop with citizens. Methods used for analysis are SWOT-analysis, Lynch-analysis, and Patrik Grahn's eight park characters.  

One of the greatest challenges of today’s society is to achieve sustainable urban development. The values of environment, nature, and culture need to go hand in hand with values from a social and economic perspective. The preconditions to create enduring sustainable development of the urban environment are to a great extent determined by how the built environment is preserved and developed (Boverket 1999, p.12). Chişinău has great potentials for connected green structures with high social, cultural and ecological value. There are vast green spaces in the suburbs and a river floating through the city. Also, the city is connected with the only larger forest area left in the country, Codrii forest. However, fractioning of green links, increased traffic, lack of finances for maintenance, pollution, and unregulated growth within green areas are threats to green spaces today. For a sustainable development of the city these threats need to be adjusted. Also, it is important to keep the historic traces and the identity of green spaces as they are important factors from a social and cultural perspective. 

We have partly based our project on the General Urban Plan for Chişinău from 2004. New ring roads are planned within and outside of the city to handle the traffic situation. Our first proposal concerns the management of increased amounts of traffic in the city, where the purpose is to protect the existing green links and encourage a more sustainable network of transportation. Also, we have focused on the River Bîc which is a backside and barrier today going through the city. The river is threatened by the risk of flooding and pollution from domestic and industrial waste. However, it does have great potential as a green spine through the city, becoming a public green parkway. To decrease the frequent risk of floods, a plan has been made by the Water Management projecting Institute, Acvaproiect, where the river is broadened, slopes are reinforced with concrete and where the water flow is controlled by valves. In comparison, our suggestion is to prevent flooding in a more natural way, going back to the original meandering shape of the river. If slopes are stabilised by planted vegetation new habitats will be created, supporting the local flora and fauna. Also, a flood plain can prevent flooding as well as becoming a recreational parkway and tourist attraction.

Inventories, analysis and proposals are also made for existing park areas within Chişinău. People use these spaces as their living room. Older men play chess, ladies talk, and young couples sit on benches. There are three types of green space in Chişinău; public gardens, parks and forest-parks. Due to similar maintenance, character and function some of these areas are not used according to their potential. We have offered a new way of categorising the green space according to Uppsala's park program, based on the existing classification in Chişinău. We believe a diversification of the maintenance, function, and character of green space will create more efficient use and increase the value of the green space, since more people will have the opportunity to find a park suitable to their  needs. 

This thesis should be seen as a first step towards the sustainable development of Chişinău. Further inventories and analysis are needed in order to cover all green space in the city. We have provided an example of how to include economic, ecological and social factors when planning for the green structure through added habitats for the native flora and fauna, reinforced green links, increased quality of public green spaces, and a sustainable transportation network. The economic investment needed provide a long-term profit through the improvement of people's health and life quality, by attracting tourists and business inventors, and by stabilising the ecological system in Chişinău.

A pre-feasibility study of a Waste to Energy Plant in Chisinau

Linus Karlsson and Tomas Linderholm Jönsson finished their master thesis this spring.  Their thesis aimed to explore the economic and environmental opportunities for waste incineration with energy recovery, also known as Waste to Energy in Chisinau. 

From the abstract:
At present, the solution to the waste situation is unmonitored landfills with smaller sorting operations. Environmentally, this is a poor solution and although there are plans for change, no specific strategy has been presented. Another important issue is Moldova's dependence on foreign produced energy. What makes the waste to energy so interesting for this region is that it contributes to an improvement in both of these issues by using the waste as fuel to reduce energy dependency.

The results of this study show that implementation of a waste incineration plant in the Chisinau energy system is economically and environmentally feasible, given the current conditions. The proposed plant is designed to annually handle 400,000 tonnes of waste, and would with the assumed waste composition deliver 560 GWh of district heat and 260 GWh of electric energy. This production provides an annual profit of 31.6 million Euro, which gives a positive net present value after the project amortization.

Compared with the city's current solution with landfills and gas turbines, the project also provides a significant environmental improvement. During the plant's design lifetime, greenhouse gas emissions are 6.8% with the assumption that only a portion of the carbon content of the waste is of fossil origin. 

Thanks for your work Linus and Tomas!

Say Hello! to Therese and Siri

We asked Therese and Siri what they are going to do in Chisinau this spring. This is their answer:

Hello,

We are doing our last semester of our master in Transport Systems at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). Our mission is to contribute to the solutions of the traffic problems in Moldova's capital Chisinau. Chisinau has experienced an economic growth the past years leading to more private vehicles and as a consequence, congestion. At the same time maintenace and operations have been neglected and the vehicles in the public transportation network are of low standard. This will be done partly by using guidelines from the European Union and partly by by field work once we get there. We will be in Chisinau in march and april, where we will be working at the City Hall.

Siri Brolén and Therese Nyman

Good Luck Siri and Therese, we are looking forward to learn about your results.

Say Thanks! to David and Johan

David and Johan finished their Bachelor thesis in 2011:

The impact of applying Swedish standards on the district heating distribution system in Moldova

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to display the economic consequences of changing construction methods and material when constructing district-heating distribution networks in Moldova. This could be accomplished by switching from the currently used technology regulated by the existing norms to modern methods and solutions commonly used in Sweden.

Through assistance from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and experts from Sweden, several energy projects have been implemented around the Republic of Moldova in collaboration with the Moldovan Energy Project Implementation Unit (MEPIU).

Results show that it is possible to reduce the total construction costs for both the studied cases with up to 50 %, while at the same time reducing the energy losses in the systems with the same amount. Some of the easiest changes to implement are also the ones with the greatest potential for decreasing the total construction cost. Actions as simple as reducing the depth at which the pipe network is constructed displays significant changes in the total construction cost. The impact of these solutions would be of great benefit to the Republic of Moldova’s strained financial situation. It might allow for further renovations of the current distribution system of which large parts are of poor quality.

If the quality of the systems could be increased, the magnitude of the current issues regarding the district-heating situation in Moldova could be decreased. One of these issues is the inferior delivery reliability, which have caused many households to disconnect from the network. An increased quality of the network might result in clients reconnecting which would have a positive impact on the struggling district heating industry.

The result

After analysing the results it can also be concluded that there are many ways to lower the costs when building district heating networks in Moldova, some things are easier to implement than others but these results show that it could be well worth the effort to try.

Thanks for this report Johan and David!

Listen to the interview of Karin and Johanna H, by Daniel V

Listen to Johanna Hagberg and Karin Winroth sharing their experience in Moldova.

Swedish Master thesis students shares their experience in Moldova by Daniel Vodă on Mixcloud

if the link doesn't work: Click here

Say Thanks! to Magnus

Magnus just finished his Master thesis:

Potential for Biogas at Wineries in Moldova

- A case study based techno-economic analysis

...and he found that a biogas plant at a Moldovan winery is profitable and also reduces climate impact and contributes to energy independency and security.

Preface by Magnus
This Master’s thesis covers a wide range of topics, from biogas and renewable energy to wine and agriculture. It has been made in a Swedish-Moldovan multicultural context and includes aspects of Moldovan society and politics and how these aspects relate to the engineering perspective of biogas. An experience in itself is often greater than the report of it, however I will try to make clear the understanding I got during my stay in Moldova on how a biogas project can be realized.

I first got the idea of producing biogas from wine production residues during my initial meeting with Borlänge Energi and Sida, the Swedish development cooperation agency, at BNG communications in Stockholm, February 2011. There was a presentation of a country called Moldova, of which I knew very little. In the presentation it was mentioned that Moldova is a wine producing country that uses Russian natural gas. I therefore came up with the idea of producing biogas from the wine production residues and feeding it to the gas grid. I thought that would increase the income for the Moldovan people and at the same time decrease the environmental impact. At this point all I had was questions; I knew nothing of anaerobic digestion, wine production or its residues. As they often do, answers came with time; and as usual, they were not the expected ones.

Before beginning the report I want to stress an important matter. There are five biogas plants in Moldova today. None of them work. Four of them were operational, but not anymore. In all cases the reason for the failure was not in the biogas plants; technically they all worked fine. So why did they fail? The answer of that question will be given in the report and is a key for successfully implementing biogas at wineries in Moldova. Implementing biogas in Moldova will not be huge technical challenge. The problem lies instead in adapting the technology to the situation and context in which it will be used in. It does not matter if one finds the perfect technical solution for a problem if that solution does not work in its context.

The prestudy was made during the spring and summer in Sweden. A way of transport with low environmental impact was chosen to get to Moldova, the bicycle. The trip was 2000 km and was made in three weeks through Sweden, Poland, Ukraine and Moldova.The autumn was spent in Chisinau, Moldova, at the Department for Foreign Relations in the Chisinau City Hall. The finishing work took place at the Division of Energy Technology at Chalmers.

Abstract
Biogas produced by anaerobic digestion is a proven and renewable energy technology that has a role to play reaching towards a sustainable development. It is a process where microorganisms feed on organic matter. Moldova is wine producing country where the energy-rich waste from the wine production, pomace, is mostly landfilled today. It is therefore both free and readily available for biogas production.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate if biogas produced at wineries in Moldova can be economic, it also evaluates its environmental and social benefits. The technical aspects investigated include plant scale, preferred technology, substrate and gas offset.

The thesis was carried out in three steps. First a pre study, then field work during a three months stay in Moldova and finally plant calculations and dimensioning. Five wineries were included in the case study. The waste streams at the wineries and their properties and potential for biogas production were identified. The data was analyzed to get understanding of how biogas from wine production residues can be implemented in Moldova. The amount of grapes harvested at the studied wineries determined the size of the biogas plants, at each winery. Flows of energy, substrate, fertilizer and money were calculated which served as a basis for investment proposals and recommendations for the wineries.

The proposed biogas plant is a tank reactor, fed with stored pomace from the local winery. It produces combined heat and power and organic fertilizer. A Moldovan winery that processes 3800 tons of grapes annually can with this technology produce over 500 GWh of electricity and 260 GWh of useful heat. The reduction in climate impact is 1100 ton of CO2-equivalents per year. The annual income of such a plant is 60 000 euro. On top of this comes the economic benefit from the organic fertilizer. This plant has an investment cost of 260 000 euro which gives a payback time of less than five years. The export potential for biogas companies to deliver these solutions is 6.4 million euro for the 20 largest wineries in Moldova. Moldovan wineries are interested but need assistance with planning and implementation.

The conclusion is that a biogas plant at a Moldovan winery is profitable and also reduces climate impact and contributes to energy independency and security. Investment is therefore recommended. It can also be an interesting possibility for other wine producing countries.

Thank you very much for this report Magnus!

Say Hello! to Emma

We asked Emma what she is going to do in Moldova this spring and this is her answer

My name is Emma Lundblad and I am a student of Environmental Engineering at Lund Institute of Technology, LTH. It is a five-year education where the interaction between technology, environment and science is a consistently theme. I have specialized in Energy Systems and will be writing my master thesis this spring.

The aim of the thesis is to make a pre-study for a new landfill in Chisinau, Moldova. To fulfill this I will evaluate which of different suggested locations that is most suitable as the location of a new landfill. The evaluation will take different aspects into consideration. 

These aspects are:

• social 
• economical
• environmental
• potential risks
• cultural heritage
• existing infrastructure  

I will also investigate the geological conditions and the hydrogeology at the locations.

When the most suitable location has been chosen I will give a proposal on how to design the new landfill in regard to the chosen location, the composition of the waste and EU legislation on waste, and particularly the Landfill Directive 99/31/EC. I will also take the leachate water from the landfill into consideration as well as the formation of gas.

I will spend two months in Chisinau, where I will visit the existing landfill and the different possible locations for the new one. I will also interview experts in Moldova so that the pre-study will be as applicable as possible.

I am leaving for Chisinau on the 9^th of February and will return in the middle of April. I am looking forward to my visit and I am hoping to learn a lot both about landfills and about Moldavian culture during it. 

Best regards

Emma Lundblad

Good luck Emma!