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Biodiesel is a relatively new type of environmentally friendly fuel, which is made from renewable resources. Biodiesel is a mixture of methyl or ethyl esters of fatty acids. It is obtained by re-esterification of vegetable oils or others fat-containing substrate, including animal origin. Iodine and acid numbers of vegetable oils, such as rapeseed, olive, linseed, nut and sunflower, are determined. In addition, conditions for obtaining biodiesel by en-zymatic catalysis using pancreatic lipase as an enzyme and rapes...

The heliostat structure and shape must deliver the essential rigidity to accurately reflect solar radiation onto the target under several working conditions. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the effect of various rectangular heliostat shape aspect ratios ? =L/W on the spiral layout performance considered by keeping the same heliostat area. Here ?L? and ?W? are the length and width of the rectangular heliostat shape respectively. A combination of an-inhouse developed computer code based on the vec...

Heavy metals ions can be removed from industrial wastewaters by numerous methods, such are precipitation, electrolysis, electrodyalisis etc. Sorption, i.e. adherence of a dissolved specie on solid sorbent, may be a cost-effective alternative to these conventional methods, in case a low-cost material is used as sorbent. Heavy metals are well sorbed by zeolites, clay minerals, char coal, carbon nanomaterials or numerous biopolymers. In this research, waste ceramic was used as sorbent for heavy metals (Cu, Pb, Zn). T...

Among the main environmental problems of Russia, the problem of wastewater treatment and the problem of accumulation of solid municipal wastes are currently highlighted. In these conditions, it becomes fundamentally important to introduce environmental management directly in the places of waste and waste water generation, in particular at the objects of housing and communal services. The article considers the prospects of office greening as the smallest unit of housing and communal services, amenable to direct man...

One of the possible innovative ways how to process and utilize waste is its pyrolysis in the pyrolysis unit Pyromatic 250. The tests were conducted by Ostravsk? LTS, a.s. in laboratory conditions in the ENET Center of V?B-TU Ostrava. The input material was provided by MEVAPACK, s.r.o. Pyrolysis is a thermal decomposition of organic substances without access of oxygen. This decomposition produces three fractions ? liquid fraction, gaseous fraction and a solid residue. These can be used for heating of the pyrolysis ...

Renewable sources of energy are supported in all the EU countries including Czech Republic. The landscape potencial of Central Europe enables generally the exploitation of wind energy rather than other sources. One of the most important problems is the location of the energetic power stations as the landscape in the Czech Republic is densely inhabitated and used for complex functions including agriculture, industry, communications, ecological functions etc. That is why the construction of any "wind mill" requires ...

The flow of gases through porous media is a common physical phenomenon occurring not only in the natural environment but also in a number of technical applications, including the industry. The flow of gases through rock porous media takes place during exploitation of numerous energy resources ? not only during the excavation of hard coal (the flow of a gas mixture through goaf with caving) but also in the course of exploiting crude oil and natural gas (the flow through shale rocks). The issue of gases flowing thro...

The small combustion devices in the municipalities are significant element of the air pollution, especially in the winter season. Currently, there is increasing a choice of the alternative sources of heating and biomass combustion. However, even in these combustion processes are fine particles formed, which affects human health. The paper is focused on the issue of biomass combustion processes in the laboratory conditions, where was monitored the concentration and distribution of particles ( < PM10) with using of ...

The present study was conducted in order to investigate the effect of various organic food acids, on the proteolytic processes taking place in chicken. A poorly acidic medium favors the process of tenderizers the meat, this being a chemical method of accelerating proteolysis. Citric acid from lemon juice, lactic acid derived from yoghurt and borscht, acetic acid of natural fermentation have been used for this purpose. Meat samples were marinated in these media for 3 days, being preserved at the refrigeration tempe...

An up to date forest inventory is the key precondition for a sustainable forest usage. Especially for owners of smaller forests, the inventory is a major cost factor, as they do not generate huge revenues from their forestry units but still have to pay the forest surveyor. One result of this situation is, that many owners do not use the timber in their forests and the timber volume, which is available for the industry, is significantly lower than it should be. The solution is a cost-efficient inventory, which can ...

The cone heater is one of the primary sources of radiant heat in the field of fire protection. It is increasingly used not only for measurements related to building materials but also for other flammable objects, that may be exposed to heat radiation during their lifetime or during a fire. Such measurements are more specific in the case of electric cables. They can be exposed to heat individually or in bundles. Their positioning may be in the horizontal or vertical direction, with the latter prevails in real-life ...

The fast development and densification of urban areas, combined with climate change conditions, have a consistent impact on urban water management services such as rainwater handling. The current pattern of urban development focuses on the creation and expansion of grey infrastructure, resulting in the deterioration of the natural environment and the loss of ecosystem functionality. This research aimed to identify and mix technical (hydraulic) solutions with green- infrastructure and with town-planning measures in...

Population densities of cervids (moose, red deer, roe deer) are increasing sharply and consistently in Latvia since middle of 1990th, causing more damages in young forest stands. It is a result of changes in farming practices well as game-management strategies by hunting clubs. Many hunting clubs tend to keep or increase the population densities of cervids with different methods, including supplemental feeding. The aim of the study is to evaluate the impact of the proximity of supplemental feeding sites on browsin...

Instruments of tax policy should have an impact on resource conservation. The task of increasing the investment activity in the field of resource saving stipulates the need to develop effective instruments for tax regulation. By creating special taxation conditions for investors in resource-saving technologies or companies producing such technologies, the state affects the resource-saving policy. At the same time, the experience of the functioning of environmental funds in Russia testifies to the need for tax admi...

Currently, construction industry puts greater emphasis on sustainability. Exploitation of clear materials, methods and pressure on zero waste policy represent priority in architecture and civil engineering. The new directives and laws in individual European countries help to implement these environmental aspects throughout the whole life cycle of construction projects. Cost issue represents one of barrier and common problem to implement these aspects into the construction process. This is not just about perceiving...

As a rule, buildings make an impact on their surroundings. Industrial and manufacturing facilities obviously create the most severe problems. This is due to the technological processes involved, the need to ensure transportation routes to provide supplies and the necessity to handle waste products. Residential buildings are not normally considered in terms of being a threat to the environment, although their large agglomerations are likely to give rise to many problems and are not neutral to the environment. This ...

Investigation of methods for increasing the rate of oxidation of ferrous ions dissolved in natural water and developing techniques for obtaining high-dimensional agglomerates of oxidized iron particles, with the aim of improving the efficiency of separation processes. As a method of oxidation in processes of deironing of natural waters, aeration and oxygenation of air through ceramic membranes were chosen. The effectiveness of the aeration method of deironing is associated with the rate of oxidation of Fe II with ...

Each of the national committees organising the Games is required to provide stadiums and related infrastructure capable to accommodate hundreds of thousands of spectators within a short, 40-day period of time in order to carry out the Olympic Game. At the same time, the International Olympic Committee calls for providing a complete buildings that are sustainable, energy-saving, with the use of energy from renewable sources (ie. solar-, wind-, geothermal energy, etc), building skins designed to eliminate thermal lo...

Results of research into the choice of rational parameters of thermal regime in coal mine workings of the permafrost zone which are minimizing energetic and economic expenses of creation of normative parameters of mine microclimate are presented. It is determined that there is an optimal temperature to which the air in the coal face should be heated. It is demonstrated that the most rational method of air heating is the one employing heating devices distributed along the length of the coal face. Basic criteria of ...

The paper describes a technology of controlling a prefabricated wall made of new material called Polytech used to produce prefabricated units. Prefabricated units made from a modified Polytech mortar based on expanded polystyrene derived from recycling were used to build a single-family residential building. Prefabricated elements are provided as wall panels. In order to control the prefabricated wall under realistic conditions, an innovative control technology was suggested that involved installation of a fiber B...

The paper presents the results of the study of modern movements of the Earth's crust in the southern part of the Nizhnekanskiy massif according to global navigation satellite systems (GPS/GLONASS). The article presents preliminary results of geodynamic zoning of the Yeniseisky site based on the methods of system analysis. Nizhnekanskiy massif is located at the junction of major tectonic structures - the Siberian Platform and West Siberian Plate. Its southern part is characterized by stable tectonic regime, the ave...

The tanning industry aims at converting the raw hide or skin (a putrescible material) into leather. At each ton of raw hides results 200-250 kg leather, while the untanned solid waste as organic fractions is around 500-600 kg. According to the EU policies on Green and Circular Economy the Action Plan covers the whole cycle: from production and consumption to waste management and use of secondary raw materials. In contrast with the traditional, linear ?extract-transform-use-dispose? economy model, the circular mode...

Geopolymers are alkali-activated materials produced by mixing silicate and aluminate phases containing minerals or aluminosilicates. This reaction results in stable polymeric networks of aluminosilicates. Nowadays, geopolymers have become very popular since they are seen as a potential alternative to ordinary concrete-based materials. They can be produced with the utilization of a variety of waste products. Therefore, the development of these materials can help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the productio...

People spend approximately 90% of their life in the indoor environment of buildings. Indoor environment significantly influences the health, the comfort and the performance of buildings users. The long-term insufficient indoor environment is associated with the Sick Building Syndrome (SBS). According to previous studies, basic factors influencing satisfaction and performance in indoor environments include indoor air quality and ventilation, thermal comfort, lighting and daylighting, noise and acoustics, space layo...

There have occurred significant changes in the world political stage over the last more than 20 years. Events of the recent decades have changed territory, economic, social, natural resource and environmental situation in Russia. Nowadays up to 70% of territory of the Russian Federation, nearly half of northern land areas of the globe are regarded as territory of the nordic region and the Arctic region. The notion ?Arctic region? (?Arctic zone?) has no distinct definition, it is frequently equated with the notion ...

In our study, we optimized two methods of enzyme activity estimations characterizing C and P cycles (?-1,4-glucosidase and acid phosphatase) for agricultural soil with 2.629% of total C and 0.062 % of total N sampled in Tatarstan (Russia). Concentration of the substrates (4-MUF-?-d-glucopyranoside, 4-MUF-phosphate) in the range from 20 to 900 ?mol g-1 soil was used, four levels of buffer pH (3, 6, 8, 11) were compared, and three different dilutions of soil suspension (1%, 2%, 10% w/v) were investigated. Besides, t...

This paper aims to provide an overview of the technologies for the use and implementation of phase change materials, in order to identify possible applications in energy efficiency, reducing energy losses and reducing carbon dioxide emissions, while at the same time bringing a contribution to identifying applications in passive house designs for reducing thermal bridges and providing heating and cooling requirements in extreme weather climates, as well as aspects regarding the integration of phase change materials...

The paper gives a brief overview of the possibility of using microorganisms in ecological farming. Increasing the world's population is a serious challenge in the future to ensure food for mankind. That is why the scientists are looking for ways to increase agricultural production in a sustainable way and preserve the quality of the environment. The current concept of agriculture tends towards a unifying vision in which crop plants, microorganisms and agricultural land form a unity. Within this complex system, the...

St. Petersburg is one of the most northern world megapolises. Climate changing, increasing of anthropogenic pressure, diseases and insect pests invasions determine the necessity of trees and shrubs assortment revision. St. Petersburg is known as one of the major centers of introduction works and landscape design development both in Russia and in the world. These work is devoted to estimation of trees and shrubs composition in St. Petersburg greening. The approaches to sustainable assortment development in modern c...

Black Sea is one of the largest inland seas in the world and is vulnerable to land ? based pollution pressure from its littoral area that causes the degradation of the aquatic ecosystems through eutrophication. Sometimes were recorded at the Romanian littoral a macroalgae mass development, especially by the group green macro-algae, Ulva, Enteromorpha and Cladophora species which are present in associations succeeding in all the year. A comparative study of waste algal biomass microbial charge was done in order to ...

Picea abies (L.) H. Karst is the most economically significant coniferous species in Europe. In central Europe, it has been growing for a long time. Since spruce stands in Latvia occupy considerable area - 18% of the total forest area (3.01 million), it is important to evaluate the impact of thinning on the productivity of young forest stands. In order to grow up healthy and productive forest stand, it is necessary thinning to perform timely and with a good quality. The aim of the research - to assess impact of Pi...

For to determinate the DNA content and analysis of cell distribution in different phases of the cell cycle, flow cytometry was used. The exact measurements of a large number of nuclei by flow cytometry, fluorescently labeled by passing a laser beam (excitation), which marks each individual nucleus by fluorescence, allows a rapid estimation of the relative nuclear content of the DNA of the analyzed plants . Approximately 0.5 cm2 of foliar tissue is harvested, crushed very well, followed by incubation of the sample ...

It is very useful to use technologies of various fields. An important position in the field of knowledge engineering and knowledge technologies is the so-called decision support systems. The paper gives an overview of this highly exploited field of modern information technology applications, provides basic information on such systems, their architecture, the possibilities of their application, and some typical uses in the field of water management. Questions concerning effects and contradictions of multipurpose wa...

The process of underground hard coal exploitation is accompanied by the release of methane. This phenomenon has been present in the majority of Polish hard coal mines, with the intensity of methane release from hard coal seams exhibiting a growing trend on a year-by-year basis. The highest amount of this gas is emitted into the atmosphere, with only a small part being collected by methane drainage systems and subsequently used for industrial purposes. In 2017, all the hard coal mines in Poland released 611.15 mill...

Phosphorus, as one of the biogenic elements, is a compound conditioning the life of organisms, as well as plays an important role in the industry. The processes related to the recycling of phosphorus compounds and closing the loop of it, result primarily from the financial situation on world markets, the state of deposits of this element and the implementation of EU directives - Critical Raw Materials and Circular Economy. In the face of such conditions, the recovery of phosphorus from sewage sludge is an importan...

In the present work, UV-Fenton, UV-H2O2 and Fenton processes were employed to treat a leachate from the municipal solid waste landfill of Astana (Kazakhstan). Each experiment lasted 120 minutes, and the treatment efficiency was assessed through total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN) and color removal. The total volume of the treated solution was 250 mL and an annular UV (254 nm) photoreactor operated in batch recycle mode was used in the case of photochemical treatment. The landfill leachate, which curren...

The North Dobrogean Orogen is located between the Sf Gheorghe fault to the north and Peceneaga -Camena to the south. Structurally, it involves four tectonic units with NW-SE direction: M?cin unit, Niculi?el unit, Consul unit and Tulcea unit. The M?cin unit comprise a large variety of rocks assemblage, including sedimentary rocks, metamorphic rocks and igneous rocks. All this rocks assemblage belongs to several subunits developed on quasi-parallel NW-SE direction. M?cin unit has been interpreted as nappe folded ove...

One of the major assumptions of the so-called Ecodistrict is Scharnhauser Park, Ostfildern in Germany, it is an interesting example that mostly consists of a newly created urban fabric. Many scientific publications focus on technical aspects related to the protection of the environment and natural resources, which, in fact, in this type of projects are achieved by the applied recycling technologies and other technological solutions. Energy efficiency is not directly translated into the quality of living and the qu...

In tanneries, only approx. one-third of the total mass of raw hides and skins is converted to finished leather, while two-thirds become either dissolved or solid waste. As part of the natural materials category, usually considered waste, leather fibers introduced into cement mortar panels play a fundamental role in construction due to both insulation properties and mechanical strength. Waste is introduced as a powder or filler or as aggregates in the concrete mix, with energy, economic and environmental benefits. ...

In slaughterhouses are produced a huge amount of by-product by their pig slaughtering and processing activities. These by-products are internal organs (for example: liver, heart, lungs, kidney and intestines), and another by-products like separated bones, hair, semi-finnished and finnished meat products which do not used for human consumptation. In slaughterhauses the most common occuring problems the treatment, storing of by-products is not under hygenic condition. The main problem the cooling chain is interrupte...

Occupational health and safety is an important work discipline that must be included in the working life. Especially, developed countries have been able to place this discipline in working life, while developing countries have still problems. These problems take place both in terms of legislation and practice. The situation is similar to that of developing countries, in Turkey. The construction sector is in line with the development status of a country. The construction sector contributes both directly and indirec...

The research aim is to identify the growth pace, productivity and quality of Scots pine in age classes I-IX in the forest type Callunoso-sphagnosa. Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), which occupies 35% of the total forest area, is the most significant tree species in Latvia from the forestry perspective, yet the growth pace, productivity and quality of the species in the forest type Callunoso-sphagnosa have been little researched. The forest type Callunoso-sphagnosa is rarely found in Latvia; it is poor in nutrient...

The paper gives an overview of the geographical scope of petroleum reserves, mentioned in article titles from seven journals over the recent five years 2013-2018: (1) Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering; (2) Marine and Petroleum Geology; (3) Petroleum Geoscience; (4) Journal of Petroleum Geology; (5) Journal of Unconventional Oil and Gas Resources; (6) Petroleum Exploration and Development; (7) Petroleum Science. The samples included 100 titles from each journal (700 in total). According to the gained res...

The necessity and opportunity of research by fast and efficient remote sensing methods and means derives from the fact that pratological investigation involves a great deal of time and resources, repeated missions on the ground and the involvement of a larger number of specialists. With the advanced technique (remote sensing methods and means), the main purpose of this study is to monitor grassland in the analyzed area and quantify the chlorophyll concentration of plants on the basis of the Normalized Difference V...

Understanding human impact on land-cover and capacity to monitor change is fundamental to sound research and informed decision-making to address Global Change and ensure sustainable development. While remote sensing technology is evolving rapidly, and multiple land-cover products have been developed, the lack of detailed information on land-cover remains a major problem. Analysis of vegetation in the study includes the assessment of different tree species and provides a broad-scale evaluation of available land-cov...

On the present paper we want to highlight the evolution of the main crops in terms of cultivated areas and the yields obtained in the center of Banat [6] and also the harvest loses produced by endemic diseases for the most important crops. The area where we collect data was on the territory of Sagu, S?nandrei and Bucov?? settlements, all located in the center of the Western Planin of Romania. These diseases are endemic because they are produced by pathogens which are present in this region on the same crops each y...

Lake Taymyr is largest lake in Eurasian Arctic. Late Quaternary environmental history of the area has been studied extensively during the last decades. However, Late Pleistocene and Holocene history of Lake Taymyr itself remain uncertain. More information concerning lake-level changes and climate conditions can be obtained by studying lake terraces. During summer 2016, several outcrops of Lake Taymyr terraces (10-m high and 25-m high terraces) deposits have been investigated. Here we present the results of litholo...

Renewable energies are considered among those that do not produce pollutant emissions and therefore have world-wide benefits, their exploitation indirectly contributing to reducing local pollution but also global phenomena (primarily greenhouse gases). As a result, the development of technologies to exploit these significant and non-polluting energy sources is one of the main objectives of global energy policies that, in the context of sustainable development, aim to increase energy supply security, protect the en...

We performed seismoacoustic and magnetic investigations of samples taken from Lake Bolshoe Miassovo (Chelyabinsk region, Russia) in 2018. Before sampling, seismoacoustic investigations were conducted in order to study stratification in sediments, reconstruct the reservoir?s history and select core locations with undisturbed stratification. A special hydraulic corer was used for taking long core samples. Five cores up to 5 meters long were obtained. For laboratory investigations, all cores have been cut into smalle...

Romania has realized that potential risks arising from anthropogenic activities with a possible significant impact on human health, soil quality, groundwater and surface water. Therefore concerns for soil protection, sustainable use of its conservation and restoration capacity where possible / necessary to its fulfillment as many functions show a significant upward trend. In the process of harmonizing national policies with the European Union policies and transposing and implementing EU rules and regulations, the ...