Simona Jursová

Comparative life cycle assessment of current and future electricity generation systems in the Czech Republic and Poland

PurposeThe purpose of the study was to perform a comparative life cycle assessment of current and future electricity generation systems in the Czech Republic and Poland. The paper also outlines the main sources of environmental impact for the different impact categories for the electricity generation technologies analyzed. The analyses covered the years 2000–2050, and were conducted within the framework of the international programme Interreg V-A Czech Republic-Poland, Microprojects Fund 2014–2020 in the Euroregion Silesia.MethodsEnvironmental assessment was done using the life cycle assessment (LCA) and ReCiPe Midpoint and Endpoint methods, which allowed the presentation of different categories of environmental impact and damage. The LCA was based on ISO 14040 and ISO 14044, using SimaPro 8.2.3 software with the Ecoinvent 3.2 database. The analyses cover both the current electricity production structures in the Czech Republic and Poland, and the projected energy production.Results and discussionThe LCA analyses performed for the energy systems under consideration in the Czech Republic and Poland enabled a comparative analysis of current and forecast energy systems in these countries, as well as identification of the main sources of environmental impact. Comparative analysis of the LCA results showed that current and future electricity generation systems in Poland caused higher environmental impact there, than in the Czech Republic.ConclusionsThe assessment of the life cycle of electricity sources showed that the main determinant of the negative impact on the environment of energy systems in both Poland and the Czech Republic was the consumption of solid fuels, and in particular, the consumption of lignite. It is important to highlight that this is the first attempt of a comparative LCA of electricity production in the Czech Republic and Poland. This is also the first approach that contains analyses of the life cycle assessment of both present and future energy systems. The economic assessment and eco-efficiency of current and future electricity generation systems in European Union countries will be addressed in future research.

The Evaluation of Efficiency of the Use of Machine Working Time in the Industrial Company – Case Study

Abstract In the paper the evaluation of efficiency of the use of machines in the selected production company was presented. The OEE method (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) was used for the analysis. The selected company deals with the production of tapered roller bearings. The analysis of effectiveness was done for 17 automatic grinding lines working in the department of grinding rollers. Low level of efficiency of machines was affected by problems with the availability of machines and devices. The causes of machine downtime on these lines was also analyzed. Three basic causes of downtime were identified: no kanban card, diamonding, no operator. Ways to improve the use of these machines were suggested. The analysis takes into account the actual results from the production process and covers the period of one calendar year.

The relation between CRI, CSR indexes, chemical composition and physical parameters of commercial metallurgical cokes

ABSTRACT The paper deals with comprehensive quality and physical parameters of commercial cokes. It aims to present comparative analysis of acquired values with standards found in other literature sources. There were analysed 15 samples of coke from current industrial operation. There were carried out chemical analysis, CSR and CRI characterization. Density, porosity, compressive strength, friction coefficient, volume of particles were determined. There was performed one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) by Statistica v.12.0 (StatSoft, Inc., Tulsa, USA) to determine significant correlation between the measured parameters. The highest correlation coefficents were noted between the pycnometer density of cokes and CSR index (r = 0.925) and CRI index (r = −0.828). The comparative analysis of quality and physical parameters with values mentioned in literature revealed the significant differences in the values of apparent density, bulk density and true density of pulverized samples.

Study of CO2 Emissions Decrease in Metallurgy Industry of Czech Republic

The paper deals with possibilities of decrease in CO2 emissions in Moravian Silesian region, Czech Republic, typical of metallurgy industry. It analyses various kinds of technical and technological approaches of metallurgical industry to this problem. It discusses application of hydro – carbon fuels in iron -making process which seems to be technologically and economically beneficial alternative for blast furnace fuel. The paper devotes to hydrocarbon fuels application relating with the decrease in CO2 emissions