Teamwork and E-learning as a New Approach in High Education

Team work has become a central issue for many corporations, and self-managing teams are often viewed as the goal of team work development programs. The increased pressure on professionals to perform their tasks with fewer employees, at faster speeds, and with more quality and customer responsiveness creates the need for team work. In modern society and working place, dispersed teams are increasingly common in both large and small organizations. There are wide varieties of communication and collaboration options available. One of these is also using multifunctional rooms (MFR). This paper analyses introducing of a course “Team Project” on the first and second cycle of studies at University in Banja Luka, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and using MFR as a tool in learning process. Introduction of this course and establishment of MFR came as a transfer of the knowledge, experience and technology from NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) to the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering within the project HERD QIMSEE (HERD Quality Improvement of Master Programs in Sustainable Energy and Environment). “Team Project” is experience - based learning course where students learn how to be a part of a team and work on multidisciplinary problems. MFR is used as a tool in this process. This work is licensed under a&nbsp;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.</p

Energy Chains Optimization for Selection of Sustainable Energy Supply

The notion of energy chain concept has been defined as the trajectory of energy transformations from the fuel source or energy sources to useful energy form to end users. Production of fuels, heat and electricity from different sources is defined by the appropriate energy supply chain. Every single energy supply chain can be uniquely defined by several sustainability criteria. These criteria are: total energy efficiency of production, total exergy efficiency of overall chain, the coefficient of exergy quality for different products at energy chains, economy of production, investment and environmental criteria. Optimal energy supply chain can be chosen by using multicriteria optimization which fulfils the above-mentioned sustainability criteria. This selected energy chain is close to ideal solution. The ideal energy supply chain is formed from the set of energy production ways which are defined from the perspective of sustainability criteria and which have connection with the current status of technologies, economic, environmental parameters, etc. The concept of optimization in practice is usually based on economics until recently, often neglecting all the other consequences of such a decision. Therefore, multicriteria decision making (MCDM) improves the opportunities in assessing the optimal variant of energy chain for defined ranking criteria. Before the optimization process, it is necessary to create a mathematical model for calculation of optimization criteria. Also, for each specific case of energy production, it is necessary to develop appropriate mathematical formulas to describe the energy chain. Numerical verification, all mathematical calculations and modelling have been applied and confirmed on wood biomass supply chain for energy production in this case. The reason for this is complexity of supply chains in the bioenergy and representation of renewable energy sources. For total ranking of energy chain for production of fuel or energy and selection of optimum variant, the multicriteria optimization and VIKOR method were applied. The significance of energy production from renewable energy sources is particularly expressed nowadays. Basically, the most significant part in the process of energy production from energy sources is the supply chain, final conversion of energy in useful form at the energy plant and the distribution process to end users. Due to the fact that there are various opportunities for the composition of energy chains of fuel supply and different ways of energy production, it is necessary to try to make a unique mathematical approach for this problem. With the proposed sustainability criteria and developed mathematical model, it is possible to unify the overall problem of energy supply chains’ optimization. The proposed developed method can be used for the optimization of any kind of energy supply chains (electricity, heat, fuels or their mix). All of these are enabled by proper selection criteria for the description of overall energy transformations in energy chains and quality evaluation of the energy produced. The developed approach and mathematical model have a very practical application in the selection of optimal variant of energy production and of course in designing new energy chains

Multi-Criteria Optimization Concept for the Selection of Optimal Solid Fuels Supply Chain from Wooden Biomass

Production of solid fuels from wooden biomass is defined with appropriate energy chain of supply. Production procedure of solid fuels from wooden biomass, starting with technology for gathering wood residues and residues from logging up by the system of fuel production (system for milling, crushing, chopping, drying and pressing of wood residues), represents the energy chain of supply of solid fuel from biomass. Every single energy chain of supply and production of certain form of solid fuel from wooden biomass can be uniquely defined with three general criteria. These criteria are: energy efficiency of production, economy of production and environmental criteria. Efficiency of production is the relation of overall energy consumption per 1 kWh of heating value of produced fuel. When we talk about the economical aspect of production of solid fuels we take into account all production costs per 1 kWh of heating value of biofuel produced. Forest biomass is scattered and the need for its collection and transport require certain consumption of fossil fuel. Consumption of fossil fuel is needed to run mechanization to collect, transport and prepare biomass. Consumption of fossil fuels causes the emission of GHG. Ecological criteria for the estimation of production process of bio energy can be defined as emission of GHG per 1 kWh of heating value of produced fuel. Besides general criteria to estimate the quality of production of energy from biomass, there are specific criteria. Specific criteria regarding several characteristics are tightly related to applied technologies, potentials and barriers during the use of biomass. This paper analyzes only specific investment in selected chain of energy supply. The paper mathematically describes four characteristic cases of solid biofuel production from wooden biomass. These cases are: production of wooden chips from forest biomass with mobile chipper, production of wooden chips from wooden residues transported from sawmill to processing terminal, production of wooden briquette from mill residues transported into briquette factory, production of wooden pellet from mill residues transported into pellet factory. For overall ranking of energy chain of wooden biomass supply and selection of optimum variant, multicriteria optimization and VIKOR method is used

TESTING OF SMALL HOUSEHOLD BIOMASS BOILERS FROM THE ASPECT OF WASTE GAS EMISSIONS

The use of biomass for energetic purposes is actual issue from different aspect of views, such as economy, used technologies, combustion specifications, environmental issues, etc. Different types of biomass are available on the market today. During the combustion process in furnaces, these types of biomass behave differently due to their specific physicochemical properties. In this research, used biomass types were wood biomass, soybean straw and chamomile waste from medicinal herbs processing. Pellet combustion was performed in a commercial furnace that was designed to heat the living space by burning wood pellets. Furnace was installed with measurement system for emissions of combustion products. The current law regulation of the Republic of Srpska in the field of environmental protection does not include testing of emissions of combustion products for plants with power less than 100 kW. In this research, the influence of pellet type on concentrations of carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides was investigated, as well as the volume content of oxygen in the waste gas for plants with power less than 100 kW. Also, it was investigated whether the addition of additives (clay, kaolinite, bentonite), used to improve the melting characteristics of ash, has an effect on reducing the emission of combustion products. The results obtained by measuring the gas emissions are compared with the standard EN 14785 which is related to the emission of carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides. During this research, characteristic of ash left after combustion of tested pellets was examined. According to these examinations, it can be pointed out that potential problems can occur when burning these types of pellets in small household heating furnaces

Building capacities for sustainable energy in municipalities of Western Balkans

This paper discusses challenges of capacity building in sustainable urban energy planning and development in Western Balkan Countries (WBC). It identifies needs in training of municipal staff and addresses obstacles for transferring sustainable energy education from EU universities to universities of WBC. The analysis of the ten training courses developed and piloted in collaboration with academic and non-academic stakeholders in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia shows that while international cooperation has a good potential to improve quality of capacity building and to catalyse university-society collaboration in WBC, significant efforts on national and local (university) levels are needed to fully capitalise on these opportunities. In particular, it is necessary to enhance an interdisciplinary approach to education in sustainable energy, incorporating economic, social and institutional aspects of energy production and consumption together with the technical ones. On the national level, the lifelong learning system should get political and financial support in WBC to ensure efficiency and continuity of the training activities.Postprint (published version

UTICAJ TEMPERATURE NA PIROLIZU OTPADNE PLASTIKE U REAKTORU SA FIKSNIM SLOJEM

Piroliza, kao jedna od tehnika hemijske reciklaže plastičnih materijala, danas izaziva sve veća intersovanja kao ekološki i ekonomski prihvaljiva opcija obrade otpadnih materijala. Istraživanja ovih procesa se provode pri različitim eksperimentalnim uslovima, u različitim vrstama reaktora i sa različitim sirovinama, što čini poređenje procesa i direktnu primjenu procesnih parametara dosta složenim. U ovom radu dati su rezultati istraživanja uticaja temperature, u intervalu od  450°C do 525°C, na prinos procesa pirolize smjese otpadne plastike u sastavu: polipropilen 40%, polietilen niske gustine 35% i polietilen visoke gustine 25%. Istraživanja su provedena u pilot reaktoru sa fiksnim slojem koji je razvijen za ovu namjenu. Rezultati provedenih istraživanja pokazuju da se pri temperaturi od 500°C  postiže potpuna konverzija sirovine u vremenu od 45 min, uz maksimalni prinos pirolitičkog ulja od 32,80%, prinos gasovitih produkata od 65,75% i čvrsti ostatak od 1,46%. Sa daljim porastom temperature raste prinos gasovitih produkata, na račun smanjenja prinosa pirolitičkog ulja. Dobijeno pirolitičko ulje ima visoku toplotnu moć (45,96 МЈ/kg), te u tom pogledu ima potencijal primjene kao alternativno gorivo

Urban air pollution caused by the emission of PM10 from the small household devices and abatement measures

This paper is focusing on particulate matter (PM10 ) as the one of the main pollutants in the urban environments, and the one of the main sources of PM emissions are small household furnaces. This paper shows a part of the results of the research related to measurements of the ambient concentrations of aerosols and definition of the sources of the pollution in one part of Banja Luka city area, with dominant private households. Spatial and seasonal variability of concentrations indicates a significant contribution of biomass and fossil fuel burning as well as specific meteorological conditions. By using positive matrix factorization, technique chemical composition data for PM10 were analysed in order to identify the possible sources and estimate their contribution to PM mass. A biomass combustion devices were identified as the one of dominant PM10 emission sources during the winter season, because highly determined correlation between PM10 and potassium content. From the other side, the results of the project “Typology of Residential Buildings in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, were used as a tool for prediction and quantification of influence of the household’s appliances on the pollution as well as for definition of the possible measures for reduction for this specific location. This approach took in consideration spatial distribution of buildings, but also their type, which can give the opportunity to estimate their present energy needs and predict improvements, which can lead to reduction of the PM10 pollution at the end. On that base, some recommendations for the improvements were analysed

Pyrolysis as a key process in biomass combustion and thermochemical conversion

Biomass is a fuel with a highly volatile content and due to that, pyrolysis as a part of the combustion process, has a dominant role in the overall process development, as well as on final products and the process efficiency. It is of key importance to investigate the influence of the process parameters; as temperature, furnace/reactor environment, fuel properties, type, particle size, geometry, and the structure of the pyrolysis process has an influence regards the design of the combustion/pyrolysis equipment and the final products of the processes. This paper gives some results of the investigation’s related to this problem, mainly focussing on wooden biomass as the most important biomass type, as well as a comparison with relevant documented literature. Besides that, pyrolysis based technologies are one of the key directions in synthetic fuels production based on biomass. Biomass pyrolysis process parameters are crucial in reactor design as well as the quantity and quality of the final products. This paper provides discussion dedicated to this aspect with a focus on slow pyrolysis, targeting charcoal as the key product, and fast pyrolysis, targeting synthetic gas as the key product