Industrial wastewater treatment wastes used as oxygen carriers in energy generation processes

The paper contains the results of a study on a promising combustion technology known as chemical looping combustion (CLC). The main advantage of CLC is the production of a highly concentrated CO2 stream without any energy penalty for its separation, together with NOx emissions reduction. The objective of this work was to examine novel oxygen carrier (OC) materials for their practical applications with gaseous fuel/air. We report a simple, economical and environmentally friendly method for the large-scale synthesis of OCs from wastes. The reactivity tests for OCs made from wastewater from a coking plant were performed in a thermogravimetric analyser. For selected temperatures, reduction–oxidation cycles were performed. The effect of temperature on the reaction rates, the effect of waste treatment and the oxygen transport capacity were determined. The waste material demonstrated good thermal stability and maintained its redox behaviour over cycling. ICP-OES and XRD data revealed these materials that contained beneficial amounts of Fe species and silicon oxide, which improved stability. The study showed that these waste materials are excellent examples of raw materials that can enable a decrease in OC production costs with the additional benefit of the practical management of post-wastewater sediments from coke oven wastewater plants

Supercritical foaming and impregnation of polycaprolactone and polycaprolactone-hydroxyapatite composites with carvacrol

Producción CientíficaPolycaprolactone (PCL) and polycaprolactone-hydroxyapatite (PCL-HA) scaffolds were produced by foaming in supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) at 20 MPa, as well as in one-step foaming and impregnation process using carvacrol as an antibacterial agent with proven activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The experimental design was developed to study the influence of temperature (40 °C and 50 °C), HA content (10 and 20 wt.%), and depressurization rate (one and two-step decompression) on the foams’ morphology, porosity, pore size distribution, and carvacrol impregnation yield. The characterization of the foams was carried out using scanning electron microscopy (SEM, SEM-FIB), Gay-Lussac density bottle measurements, and Fourier–transform infrared (FTIR) analyses. The obtained results demonstrate that processing PCL and PCL-HA scaffolds by means of scCO2 foaming enables preparing foams with porosity in the range of 65.55–74.39% and 61.98–67.13%, at 40 °C and 50 °C, respectively. The presence of carvacrol led to a lower porosity. At 40 °C and one-step decompression at a slow rate, the porosity of impregnated scaffolds was higher than at 50 °C and two- step fast decompression. However, a narrower pore size distribution was obtained at the last processing conditions. PCL scaffolds with HA resulted in higher carvacrol impregnation yields than neat PCL foams. The highest carvacrol loading (10.57%) was observed in the scaffold with 10 wt.% HA obtained at 50 °C.Narodowe Centrum Nauki (Polonia) - (grant 2018/31/B/ ST8/01826)Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo de Chile (ANID) - (project 120130)Programa de Financiamiento Basal para Centros Científicos y Tecnológicos de Excelencia - (Project AFB180001

The future of Viscum album L. in Europe will be shaped by temperature and host availability.

Viscum album L. is a plant of great importance due to its influence on the host trees and, by extension, entire ecosystems. The species is also significant to humans-on the one hand, because of its use in medicine, and on the other, because of the growing threat it poses to the stability of conifer stands. Therefore, it is important to recognize the future range of three mistletoe subspecies (Viscum album subsp. album, V. album subsp. austriacum, and V. album subsp. abietis). Modelling of the potential range of these subspecies was performed using MAXENT software. Locations were collected from literature and databases. A total number of 3335 stands were used. Bioclimatic data for the current conditions and three future scenarios (SSP 1.26, SSP 3.70, SSP 5.85) were downloaded from the CHELSA database. The results confirmed that the temperature is the key variable on the potential range of the analysed subspecies. V. album subsp. abietis is withdrawing from its range according to all scenarios. In the case of V. album subsp. austriacum, a slight range shift is visible. Only the V. album subsp. album will expand non-directionally. The reason is most likely a very large number of host species and greater genetic variability compared to the subspecies found on conifers

Extremely Stable and Durable Mixed Fe–Mn Oxides Supported on ZrO2 for Practical Utilization in CLOU and CLC Processes

This paper contains the results of research on a promising combustion technology known as chemical looping combustion (CLC) and chemical looping with oxygen uncoupling (CLOU). The remarkable advantages of CLC are, among others, that concentrated CO2 stream can be obtained after water condensation without any energy penalty for its separation or significant decrease of NOx emissions. The objective of this work was to prepare a novel bi-metallic Fe–Mn supported on ZrO2 oxygen carriers. Performance of these carriers for the CLOU and CLC process with nitrogen/air and hard coal/air was evaluated. One-cycle CLC tests were conducted with supported Fe–Mn oxygen carriers in thermogravimetric analyzer utilizing hard coal as a fuel. The effects of the oxygen carrier chemical composition and process temperature on the reaction rates were determined. Our study proved that for CLOU, properties formation of bixbyite and spinel forms are responsible. Among iron ferrites, we concluded that iron-rich compounds such as Fe2MnO4 over FeMn2O4 spinel type oxides are more effective for CLOU applications

Sprzedaż wysyłkowa towarów konsumenckich w świetle unijnych dyrektyw oraz prawa krajowego

There is no abstract available for this languageJednym z następstw wynikających z przystąpienia do Unii Europejskiej jest kreowanie przez organy państw Unii Europejskiej wspólnotowego prawa konsumenckiego. W tym obszarze istotnym zagadnieniem jest przyjęcie nowej dyrektywy o prawach konsumenckich 2011/83/UE. Obecnie bowiem w poszczególnych krajach członkowskich UE zauważalna jest tendencja wzrostu sprzedaży na odległość wewnątrz kraju przy jednoczesnym niezmienionym poziomie sprzedaży na poziomie transgranicznym. Akt prawny ma więc stanowić kompromis pomiędzy zwiększeniem poziomu ochrony konsumentów w UE, a dążeniem przedsiębiorców do ujednolicania zasad zawierania umów. W poniższym artykule zostanie więc przedstawiona problematyka wpływu dyrektywy 2011/83/UE na ustawodawstwo krajowe dotyczące sprzedaży dóbr konsumenckich na odległość. W duchu harmonizacji zupełnej, dyrektywa dokonuje zmian w szczególności w zakresie terminu odstąpienia od umowy, ponoszenia kosztów przesyłki przez sprzedawcę, czy też zwiększenia obowiązków informacyjnych przedsiębiorcy

Selection of optimal tree top detection parameters in a context of effective forest management

In the process of tree stand parameter estimation based on data from airborne laser scanning ALS, the detection of a single tree is an important starting point. The aim of this work is to develop optimal values of parameters in the process of detection of tops and segmentation of stands on the basis of ALS data analysis. The research was carried out on the basis of ALS data from raids carried out in 2007 and 2017 on a fragment of the Zajma forest district in the Zednia forest inspectorate (north-eastern Poland). Parameters analyzed included: Ground Sampling Distance [m], the level of smoothing of the Canopy Height Model (CHM) with the Gaussian filter (the size of the moving window, the value of standard deviation), the filtration of the output point cloud, as well as the application of the additional interpolation algorithm CHM based on the analysis of raster cells neighborhood. The research has shown that it is possible to indicate detection parameters that ensure a very high correlation between the number of automatically detected treetops and the number of trunks found during fieldwork. Importantly, the optimal detection parameters developed for remote-sensing materials from the years 2007 and 2017 differ slightly, which ensures generally high accuracy of ALS data and the possibility of implementing the values of these parameters in other research objects

Staða fatlaðs fólks og hlutverk starfsmanna

Á meðan gamaldags hugmyndir um fatlað fólk þar sem einblínt er á veikleika þess eru til staðar er hætta á því að aðstoð sem veitt er byggist ekki á vilja eða rétti fatlaðs fólks til að stjórna eigin lífi. Verkefni þetta er ætlað starfsmönnum sem vinna í velferðarþjónustu. Tilgangur verkefnisins er að beina sjónum að réttindum fatlaðs fólks og hlutverki starfsmanna. Unnið er út frá mannréttindasáttmálum, fræðilegum heimildum og hugmyndafræðum innan fötlunarfæði. Verkefnið skiptist í fræðsluhefti og greinargerð. Í greinargerðinni er farið ítarlega í hvern kafla og á greinargerðin að gefa tækifæri á að skilja stöðu fatlaðs fólks og réttindi þess og er hugsuð sem fræðsluefni fyrir starfsmenn. Samhliða henni fylgir fræðsluhefti sem er hnitmiðað og auðlesið. Fræðsluheftið er hugsað sem hagnýtt verkfæri með fræðiefni og lausnum fyrir starfsfólk sem vinnur í velferðarþjónustu