Influence of liquid-nitrogen freezing of gas-bearing shale rocks on their compressive strength

Any definable relation between falling temperature and the compressive strength of shale rocks should provide a useful predictive tool aiding optimization of the results of hydraulic fracturing. In this research, an auto-measuring hydraulic press, a thermo-camera and the Fluent ANSYS software were used. The results of laboratory simulations, and the effects of experiments conducted on shale rocks to determine permanent changes in compressive strength, are presented. As both frozen rocks and rocks returned to room temperature show diminished compressive strength. It is suggested that prior freezing of rocks can increase the efficiency of fracturing

Cluster approach in innovation and investment entrepreneurial activity in free economic zones promoting

In markets globalization and increasing competition context, governments of the world’s leading countries are forced to use complex organizational and economic instruments to support the countries’ economy. One of such instruments is creation of Free Economic Zones (FEZ) with favorable conditions for doing business. Over the last decade activation process of Free Economic Zones mechanism disposal for the economy of a particular country development has been possible to observe. If in 1995 there were approximately 500 zones in the world, now there are more than 4,300 zones in more than 130 countries which employ more than 68 thousand workers. In addition, global practice has shown that FEZ activities effective organization is efficient not only in giving impetus to the country’s economy development, but in bringing it into the world leaders as well

Leading innovations and investments into the new energy technologies

This paper focuses on the novel and leading innovations and investments into the new energy technologies. Energy issues, including sustainability, energy security and energy dependency are probably one of the most crucial and critical issues that humanity must face at the moment. Recent global challenges, such as climate change and the rise of the “green” energy (represented by the increasing deployment of the renewable energy sources (RES)), as well as distributed energy generation and platform energy markets (e.g. peer-to-peer (P2P) markets for electricity) that were made possible thanks to the rise of Internet, social networks and sharing economy, all create a demand for the new energy technologies. The leaders in energy innovations, such as Tesla are becoming the true trendsetters who are marking the way for the humankind to go forward.We provide an overview of the innovative energy technologies that might change the energy market as we know it and discuss their outcomes and possible implications. Moreover, we contemplate the changes that might be caused by the ongoing transition from the fossil fuels to RES. Our results might be of some interests to researchers and stakeholders dealing with energy economics and policy