Czechoslovakia's Approach to Securing its Prospective Fuel and Energy Supply

On the occasion of the "IIASA Day" on 4 March 1981 at Prague, C.S.S.R., a workshop was held with the participation of representatives from the Czechoslovak Government, the Czechoslovak Committee for IIASA, and a delegation from IIASA. This seminar focused on "Perspectives of Development of Fuel-Energy Complexes until the Year 2030" from the global as well as national viewpoints. The present paper highlights the introductory address to the workshop given by Ing. Vlastimil Ehrenberger, CSc., Minister of Fuel and Power. It has been taken up in IIASA's Collaborative Paper Series for several reasons. For one thing, it aptly illustrates the highly interactive nature of communications IIASA aspires to with its National Member Organizations. For another thing, it patently shows how the way of thinking developed in IIASA's Energy Systems Program can benefit the planning of the national energy sector. It is believed that such feedback from the decision-making community should in turn provide a valuable input to IIASA's applied research

Biofuels: From Hopes to Reality

This paper combines the research for biofuels processing development with the vehicle conception to focus on realistic scenarios for biofuels to attend vehicle specifications and future green mobility. Actually, these are two important segments of fuels and biofuels context which should converge to a sustainable and realistic model. Recently, due to the climate changes versus fossil fuels use, and its consequences, the United Nations System addressed to the world a report on green economy indicating large investments properly. In synthesis, it seeks for a new world reality towards a sustainable economy with emphasis on bioresources, mainly on biofuels research and production. Historically, wood biomass has had an important role since the 18th century as a solid fuel used for heating and all types of society purposes. This was an indiscriminate use and it caused forest devastation and unsustainability in the North of Europe. In modern era, biomass assumed a challenging role due to the scientific development that supported the green revolution. In the last decades, agricultural markets were characterized by steady growth production, which induced price falling of agricultural products. After the seventies, world agricultural and land use suffered another challenging pressure to produce biofuels to replace fossil fuels. To support that, the 1961 Nobel Prize, Melvin Calvin made a fundamental scientific contribution to the understanding of the photosynthetic C3 and C4 plant mechanism of light absorption. In 1999, Melis and researchers from National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the USA discovered that the green algae, Chlamydomonas reinhartdtii could be forced to produce biohydrogen under Sulphur-free anaerobic conditions. This discovery is another fundamental step towards sustainable biohydrogen production in the future. Other biological processes are being developed at Duisburg-Essen University, in Germany, as well as, in other countries. In spite of biomass biodiversity and the renewable character of biofuels, they are still gaining space at regional level and impacting land use. However, no one can predict what kind of biofuel will properly succeed fossil fuels at the international market reality. In spite of the achievements in biofuels research and processing, a large proportion of biomass is still used for heating purposes in developing countries, causing devastation and increasing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Good examples of regional emphasis and hopes are the ethanol production from sugar cane in Brazil and from corn in the USA, as well as, biogas from wastes in Asia. Recently, the German automobile industry pointed out their challenging project to replace the actual inefficient intern combustion motors by batteries or hydrogen fuel cell driven vehicles, towards world green mobility free of CO2 – emissions for small cars. So, biohydrogen produced from renewable feedstocks will assume a strategic position in the next decades. Differently from oil, which has hydrocarbons as its main component, biomass has a large diversity of compounds, like, carbohydrates, fat acids or even lignocellulosic complex materials, available all over the world. However, such chemical biodiversity of compounds and structure bring technical barriers relating to high yields of biomass conversion into biofuels. In this sense, promising sustainable processes for cellulose materials and microalgae are being thermochemically developed to convert these materials into SYNGAS, a convenient intermediate to fuel and chemicals. Due to their high productivity, versatile and simple chemical composition, microalgae can be produced in semi arid regions, unproductive land and any source of water. Moreover, microalgae cultivation could absorb CO2 from thermoelectric power plants increasing synthetic photosynthesis yield and reducing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. This seems to be a strategic model to convert bioresources into biofuels to attend future automobile requirements, as well as, chemical industry

Factors Influencing Innovation in Small and Medium Enterprises in the Czech Republic

Our paper is focused on the factors that influence innovation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Czech Republic. The country that went through long economic transformation that resulted in the set-up of the new improved standards for entrepreneurship activities is currently dealing with the aftermath of world’s economic and financial crisis. With regard to all that, Czech SMEs are facing tough competition on domestic and EU markets. This is when innovations might become one of the key factors of success that can help to differentiate the product, beat the competition and attract more customers. Our study is based on the empirical model that employs the data from the survey questionnaire with 1144 Czech SMEs. We find several forms of innovations (e.g. own R&D, investment into technology, improvement of quality of a product or service, or presence on foreign (EU and world) markets) can become very significant in enhancing the growth and success of Czech SMEs, while the bureaucratic barriers for innovations and external factors with negative impact did not come through as obstacles. Based on our results, one can state thatthe most important policy implications are for the relevant stakeholders would be the support of investment activities of SMEs, creation of SMEs clusters within business parks, education of employees, expansions of Czech exports to the new markets, and intensive support of R&D. It would also make sense to increase the number of small SMEs (sole-traders and micro-enterprises) by making the registration process easier, or by offering subsidies or government support to the new companies and start-ups

Methods for the survey reinforced concrete bridges

Zásady a typy diagnostického průzkumu mostu. Teoretická část obsahuje přehled diagnostických metod pro železobetonové konstrukce. V praktické části je provedena prohlídka mostního objektu přes řeku Moravu a návrh průzkumu na základě zjištěných poruch. V experimentální části pomocí georadaru zjišťujeme polohu vyztužení monolitické stěny a desky.Policies and types of diagnostic examination of a bridge. The theoretical section contains review diagnostic methods for a steel concrete frameworks. In a practical section there is made a examination of a bridge object over a river Moravia and a suggestion of the examination according to the detected defects. In the experimental section we are discovering, with a help of georadar, a location of reinforcement of a monolithic wall and board.