I would like to express my gratitude to my main supervisor, Professor Mohammad Taherzadeh for his guidance, availability, and for the opportunity to start with this Ph.D

xiii

Acknowledgments 1

I am grateful to the Swedish Research Council for the funding of this work.

I would like to express my gratitude to my main supervisor, Professor Mohammad Taherzadeh for his guidance, availability, and for the opportunity to start with this Ph.D.

program. I also wish to thank Dr. Supansa Westman for her support and guidance during my first year as a Ph.D. student and before that during my M.Sc. studies. I also thank Professor Tobias Richards and Professor Claes Niklasson for their constructive discussions. Special thanks to Assistant Professor Ilona Sárvári Horváth and Dr Ria Millati, for the encouragement, support, and warm welcome.

To the laboratory staff: Tomas, Kristina, Marlén, Haike, Faranak, and Jonas and to the section staff especially to Peter, Patrick, Päivi, Jorge, Tomas, Solveig, Kamran, Magnus, Louise, Jonas, Camilla, Tatiana, Jonas, Akram, and Dan; thank you for all your help and for creating a nice working environment.

During my studies, I had the privilege to work with many bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D.

students from all around the world. I have learned a lot from you all, and I hope we will meet again in the future! Thank you Karthik, Foluke, Wikan, Martin, Ram, Regina, Alex, Julius, Mostafa, Maryam, Adib, Veronika, Farzad, Abas, Swarnima, Kehinde, Solmaz, Behnaz, Sunil, Amir, Luki, Andreas, Rebecca, Sindor, Gürlu, Mohsen, Sofie, Madumita, Steven, Anette, Danh, Mukesh, Pedro, Sajjad, Taner, Moein, Tuba, Hanieh, Babak, Eboh, Supri, David, and the rest of the Ph.D. students that worked in the Swedish Centre for Resource Recovery. I also want to express my gratitude to my master’s and bachelor’s students, Laurenz, Nurina, Björn, Sara, Müge, Enise, Sara, and Karolin; thank you for your hard work and efforts.

I feel very blessed to have my friends in Borås, and I feel that they have also helped me in their own way in order to finish this thesis. Thank you Stamatis, Katerina, Argyro, Martha, Iordanis, Vasiliki, Vicki, Thomas, Nelly, Spiros, Vaya, Stratos, Thanassis, Stavros, and Vasso.

My thoughts are always with my friends in Greece, especially to my best friend George;

thank you for the nice summer moments, I really needed them between my studies.

xiv To my lovely parents, Angelos and Rodi, my beloved brother Lampis, and my grandmother Nikki. You have been a role model for me; thank you for your love, patience, and kindness. I wish we could see each other more often.

To my wonderful wife Magda and my son Angelos. Without you, I could not make it.

Thank you for your love, and I hope that we will have more time together now. I love you!