Luboš Kotek

Risks associated with the production of biogas in Europe

This article discusses issues of risk in the production of biogas from primarily farm wastes. Biogas production is becoming widespread in Europe, and the number of accidents in these plants, both large‐scale and small, is increasing. Recent accident experience is summarized here. Compared with the petrochemical industry, damage levels in biogas production are low, but nonetheless worthy of increased application of modern safety and risk methodology.

APPLICATION OF AUGMENTED REALITY FOR VERIFICATION OF REAL WORKPLACE STATE

The article is aimed at verifying the state of a real workplace using virtual reality. In analyzing the readiness of virtual reality applications, augmented reality was selected for the following work. The most significant advantage of augmented reality is the implementation of a virtual model and the ability to deal with the analysis in a real environment, which is particularly beneficial in the case of production plants. In the first phase of the work, an analysis of the current state of the workplace was carried out, where the requirements for the design of the new workplace were specified. This was followed by the phase of design preparation in 3D modeller. At this very stage it appeared to be advantageous to use virtual reality applications; in the design process, regular approval procedures are required as for an expert team (management, design, quality, ...), which puts high qualification requirements on the readiness of this team. In this phase, the 3D design of the new workplace was inserted into the application supported by augmented reality and some options were indicated to deal with the ergonomic and risk analysis. The result of this work is, in particular, an extension of options in designing and analyzing production workplaces and machinery in multidisciplinary teams.

Modelling of Consequences of Biogas Leakage from Gasholder

This paper describes modelling of consequences of biogas leakage from a gasholder on agricultural biogas station. Four scenarios were selected for the purpose of this work. A rupture of gasholders membrane and instantaneous explosion of gas cloud, blast of gas with delay, emptying of whole volume of gas (without initiation) and initiation of gas with Jet-Fire. Leakage of gas is modelled by special software and consequences are determined on the basis of results. The first scenario was modelled with help of equations because used software does not include an appropriate model. A farm with high building density was chosen as a model case. Biogas is replaced by methane because used software does not support modelling of dispersion of mixtures. From this viewpoint, a conservative approach is applied because biogas contains “only” approximately 60% of methane (in dependence on technology and processed material).

Non-Invasive Displacement Measurement of Lightweight Structures Under Dynamic Excitations

The present article deals with the processing of data obtained by non-invasive measurement methods of instantaneous displacement of lightweight structures. This data is necessary to evaluate tuning-up of characteristics of an electro-magnetic vibration energy harvester, which is used for energy harvesting from these ambient mechanical vibrations. The electro-magnetic vibration energy harvester is device for powering of low power consumption wireless sensors without any external source of energy. The primary source of energy is only mechanical vibrations in place of wireless sensor and the operation without primary batteries is required. These techniques of wireless measurement are commonly used in aeronautics applications. The knowledge of mechanical vibrations in place of wireless sensors with vibration energy harvester is used for development of vibration energy harvester design.The major idea is to verify the use of non-invasive measurement using high-speed cameras with measurement obtained from the laser interferometer. The measurement using high-speed camera can provide very important information about resonance operation of the vibration energy harvester during the future development.Copyright

Condensing shafts on biogas stations and operational safety

This article investigates health and safety risks at a biogas station, in particular the activities in the condensation shaft. There were selected three scenarios in total, which can lead to a fatal accident during the maintenance and servicing of equipment located in the condensation shafts. These are the following scenarios: (1) the worker descends to the condensation shaft and in the subsequent service activities consumes oxygen contained in shaft, falls into unconsciousness and dies. (2) There is such a gas concentration in the condensate shaft that intoxication occurs (but even direct asphyxiation is possible—e.g., methane, carbon dioxide) thereafter subsequent death. (3) The worker suffers fatal injuries due to a fall from a height. The individual scenarios are discussed in the article, including whether and under what circumstances these may occur. To support the authors claims, measurements of selected gases concentrations were made in condensation shafts at eight biogas plants. The aim of this article is to highlight the risks that can be encountered when working in condensing shafts and how they can be prevented.

Environmental risk assessment of a biogas station

This article investigates the environmental risk assessment of a biogas station, in particular an example attached to a wastewater treatment plant. Such analysis focused on assessing the environmental risk presented by leakage of liquid material from the biogas reactor into a neighboring river. The risk methodology proposed herein is based on the principle of risk assessment regarding a major incident within the petrochemical industry. The threat of environmental damage from biogas production is low, when compared with the petrochemical industry, but represents a branch of industry worthy of heightened health, safety, and risk methodologies.

Risks in industrial management systems

This paper focuses on the evaluation of the approach to risk management in management systems in technical industries. The underlying framework is the updated standard ISO 9001 which is compared to the requirements of specific standards for the automotive industry, the aviation industry, the railway industry and the chemical and processing industries that fall under major accident prevention (SEVESO). This article aims to compare the requirements of these management systems for individual areas from the perspective of systemic risk prevention.

Comparison of suitability of tracking marks for optical measurement of displacement

Optical methods for measuring displacement is a key enabling technology allowing evaluate vibration of the light weighted objects. In optical evaluation of vibration of object displacement with high speed camera, systematical errors occurs in determining the displacement because of the tracking mark properties. The present article compares the results of optical tracking of four most common tracking marks (Filmmakin, Ridgeline creative, Eye fish and Blurry vision) and also own designed tracking mark (FMEIII). To verify the suitability of different tracking marks with high-speed camera, the test stand were constructed and measured data were compared to highspeed laser interferometer measurement.