Selection of Qualified Foreign Workers

Legal economic migration is playing increasingly important role within a unified Europe. The goal of the thesis is to analyze programs implemented to manage legal economic migration and to evaluate their impact on the countries involved and on migrants themselves. The thesis follows the origins and the development of collective migration policy in the EU, it analyzes distinct phases of its implementation, including the Haag programme, the Tamper Programme and the Lisabon Strategy. More specifically, the thesis follows the progress of a Czech pilot project "Selection of Qualified Foreign Workers" and discusses whether it is sufficiently well evaluated and established to serve as a basic tool for the management of permanent economic immigration. The impact of information campaign realized as part of the project is evaluated with a goal to determine whether it reached its target audience. The thesis also examines similar programs for temporary or permanent economic immigration implemented in Germany, Poland, the USA, Canada and the "green card" program for the temporary economic migration in the Czech Republic.Legální ekonomická migrace hraje stále významnější roli v rámci sjednocené Evropy. Cílem této práce je analyzovat programy určené k řízení ekonomické migrace a vyhodnotit jejich vliv na zdrojové a cílové země i na samotné migrující. Práce se zabývá vznikem a vývojem společné migrační politiky v EU, rozebírá fáze migrační politiky, Haagský program, Tamperský program a Lisabonskou strategii. Cílem práce je shrnout vývoj pilotního programu Výběr kvalifikovaných zahraničních pracovníků a posoudit, zda se jej podařilo v pilotní fázi kvalitně otestovat jako základní nástroj pro řízení trvalé ekonomické imigrace. Předmětem práce je i vyhodnocení informační kampaně realizované v rámci projektu Výběr kvalifikovaných zahraničních pracovníků se záměrem zjistit, zda se kampaní podařilo oslovit stanovené cílové skupiny. Práce se zabývá i dalšími programy dočasné a trvalé ekonomické imigrace v Německu, Polsku, USA, Kanadě a programem zelených karet v ČR jako nástrojem dočasné ekonomické migrace. Její součástí je i empirický výzkum mezi firmami v ČR, který zjišťuje hlavní motivace k zaměstnávání cizinců.Department of Civil Society StudiesKatedra studií občanské společnostiFakulta humanitních studiíFaculty of Humanitie

Diesel exhaust-gas reforming for H2 addition to an aftertreatment unit

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Chemical Engineering Journal. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2008 Elsevier B.V.The work described in this paper has been undertaken as part of the design of an integrated system comprising a diesel engine, an exhaust-gas fuel reformer and a NOx aftertreatment unit. The exhaust-gas reformer is used to provide hydrogen-rich reformate to the NOx aftertreatment unit, containing a hydrocarbon-SCR catalyst, in order to improve its NOx reduction activity at low exhaust-gas temperatures. The reformer configuration and operating parameters have been examined in order to optimise the performance of the hydrocarbon-SCR catalyst, which is promoted by the presence of H2 but inhibited by CO. The length of the catalyst bed inside the reformer is a key factor in determining the extent to which the water-gas shift reaction can contribute to the reforming process, and therefore strongly influences the proportions of CO and H2 in the reformate. However, it is also necessary for the reactant ratios at the reformer inlet to be controlled in response to changes in the engine operating conditions. In practice, this means that the rate of fuel addition to the reformer needs to be optimised for different exhaust gas compositions and space velocities

Post-synthesis stabilization of germanosilicate zeolites ITH, IWW, and UTL by substitution of Ge for Al

M.S. thanks the Czech Science Foundation for the support of the Project 14-30898P. R.E.M. thanks the EPSRC for funding through grant EP/K025112/1.Germanosilicate zeolites often suffer from low hydrothermal stability due to the high content of Ge. Herein, we investigated the post-synthesis introduction of Al accompanied by stabilization of selected germanosilicates by degermanation/alumination treatments. The influence of chemical composition and topology of parent germanosilicate zeolites (ITH, IWW, and UTL) on the post-synthesis incorporation of Al was studied. Alumination of ITH (Si/Ge=2–13) and IWW (Si/Ge=3–7) zeolites resulted in the partial substitution of Ge for Al (up to 80 %), which was enhanced with a decrease of Ge content in the parent zeolite. In contrast, in extra-large pore zeolite UTL (Si/Ge=4–6) the hydrolysis of the interlayer Ge−O bonds dominated over substitution. The stabilization of zeolite UTL was achieved using a novel two-step degermanation/alumination procedure by the partial post-synthesis substitution of Ge for Si followed by alumination. This new method of stabilization and incorporation of strong acid sites may extend the utilization of germanosilicate zeolites, which has been until now been limited.PostprintPeer reviewe