Renewable Energy in the Pomerania Voivodeship - Institutional, Economic, Environmental and Physical Aspects in Light of EU Energy Transformation

In the era of globalization and rapid economic growth, affecting most world economies, increased production and consumption are leading to higher levels of energy production and consumption. The growing demand for energy means that energy resources from conventional sources are not sufficient; moreover, its production generates high costs and contributes to the emission of greenhouse gases and waste. In view of the above, many countries have opted to implement an energy transformation. The energy transition allows the transition from an energy system based on conventional fuels to an energy system based mainly on renewable energy (RE) and low-emission sources. In the EU, the development of a “green economy” has become a strategic goal in the fight against climate change. The development of RE offers the possibility to improve the energy security of a given country and the entire EU. New, innovative technologies of RE also increase the attractiveness and competitiveness of the economies of the Member States. In line with the EU strategy, the activities carried out aim to achieve a situation in which, in 2050, the activities of economies will not endanger the environment. The main purpose of this article was the assessment of the RE sector in the Pomerania region in the context of energy transformation. To achieve this goal, PEST analysis regarding the functioning of the RE sector in the selected Polish region was used and the potential of the RE sector was determined using GIS tools on the basis of physical conditions. The article presents the research hypothesis that the RE sector within the Pomerania Voivodeship possesses appropriate energy potential, which will allow this Voivodeship to become an energy self-sufficient region based on the use of these energy sources (according to EU strategy). The implementation of the goal set in the article allowed for the verification of the research hypothesis, where the determined energy potential from the RE sector would cover the Voivodeship’s needs due to the use of electricity and heat. The conducted research shows that the RE sector in these regions has high energy potential to meet the criteria outlined in EU legal documents and to implement them successfully within the intended period

Connecting Land–Atmosphere Interactions to Surface Heterogeneity in CHEESEHEAD19

The Chequamegon Heterogeneous Ecosystem Energy-Balance Study Enabled by a High-Density Extensive Array of Detectors 2019 (CHEESEHEAD19) is an ongoing National Science Foundation project based on an intensive field campaign that occurred from June to October 2019. The purpose of the study is to examine how the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) responds to spatial heterogeneity in surface energy fluxes. One of the main objectives is to test whether lack of energy balance closure measured by eddy covariance (EC) towers is related to mesoscale atmospheric processes. Finally, the project evaluates data-driven methods for scaling surface energy fluxes, with the aim to improve model–data comparison and integration. To address these questions, an extensive suite of ground, tower, profiling, and airborne instrumentation was deployed over a 10 km × 10 km domain of a heterogeneous forest ecosystem in the Chequamegon–Nicolet National Forest in northern Wisconsin, United States, centered on an existing 447-m tower that anchors an AmeriFlux/NOAA supersite (US-PFa/WLEF). The project deployed one of the world’s highest-density networks of above-canopy EC measurements of surface energy fluxes. This tower EC network was coupled with spatial measurements of EC fluxes from aircraft; maps of leaf and canopy properties derived from airborne spectroscopy, ground-based measurements of plant productivity, phenology, and physiology; and atmospheric profiles of wind, water vapor, and temperature using radar, sodar, lidar, microwave radiometers, infrared interferometers, and radiosondes. These observations are being used with large-eddy simulation and scaling experiments to better understand submesoscale processes and improve formulations of subgrid-scale processes in numerical weather and climate models

Public Perceptions of MSW Management in Wroclaw City, Poland

Elevating public awareness of waste management at the household level is a cost effective and a win-win social, economic and environmental approach on the table of policymaking. Modern and effective waste management bring about broader economic efficiency and social equity, mitigate consumerism, thus, promoting the conservation of natural resources. In this article, a survey study was conducted among the citizens of Wrocław city, Poland. The city is dynamic, touristic, and industrial. Through random sampling, 160 respondents filled in the questionnaire. The results revealed that the participants appeared aware of the benefits of waste management (WM); however the current WM systems and infrastructures are not very satisfying. The participants identified several shortcomings in the current WM systems such as the lack of sufficient colored bins for glass recycling, overfilled bins and heavy lids, and irregular waste collection system. The study proposes a public-oriented outreach campaign targeting waste separation and less-waste behaviors as economically and environmentally beneficial, accompanied by continuous development of WM regulations and infrastructures and linked it to waste-to-energy systems and technologies to assist in achieving the long-term energy and emissions-reduction targets.published versionpeerReviewe

Enabling Technology for Distributed Multimedia Applications

In September 1993, the Canadian Institute for Telecommunications Research, in collaboration with the IBM Toronto Laboratory Centre for Advanced Studies, initiated a major project on Broadband Services. The goal of this major project is to provide the software technologies required for the development of distributed multimedia applications. Of particular interest are "presentational" applications where multimedia documents, stored in database servers, are retrieved by remote users over a broadband network. Emphasis is placed on efficiency and service flexibility. By efficiency, we mean the ability to support many users and many multimedia documents. As to service flexibility, we mean the application is able to support a wide range of quality of service requirements from the users, adapt to changing network conditions, and support multiple document types. The research program consists of six constituent projects: multimedia data management, continuous media file server, quality of servic..

Robust kinetic modelling of heterogeneously catalyzed free fatty acids esterification in (monophasic liquid)/solid packed-bed reactor: rival model discrimination

Biofuels are key products for the sustainability of the world energy consumption in the next years. Biodiesel in particular is a non-toxic, biodegradable, environmentally friendly alternative diesel fuel. Nowadays, the main problem for the commercialization of biodiesel is its final cost, that is strongly dependent (about 85 % of the total) by the feedstock used. A possible way to lower the biodiesel production costs is using raw oils, which contain a higher amount of Free Fatty Acids (FFA) that should be eliminated before the transesterification reaction to avoid soaps formation. In this work the regression of kinetic parameters of heterogeneously catalyzed esterification with a packed-bed reactor was made. Robust techniques for kinetic parameters estimation and simultaneous discrimination of rival models were adopted and combined with a dedicated differential-algebraic equation (DAE) model that characterizes the system. The main kinetic parameters were regressed using kinetic models other than literature models in considering the activity (UNIQUAC model was used to calculate the activity coefficients) of the components instead of the concentration because the oil/methanol/water/FAME system is highly non ideal. The kinetic parameters were obtained using equilibrated resins, i.e. using the catalyst after having let it to adsorb reactants and products at the operative conditions. The regressed parameters allow to represent the system in a wide range of operating conditions with a little residual error