The paper presents results of coal behaviour during combustion in oxy-fuel atmosphere. The experiment was performed using 3 meter long Entrained Flow Reactor and 1 meter long Drop Tube Reactor. Three hard coals and two lignites were analysed in order to investigate NOx, SO2 emission and fly ash burnout. The measurements were performed along and at the outlet of a combustion chamber for one- and two - stage combustion. In the second stage of the experiment, kinetic parameters for nitrogen evolution during combustion in oxy - fuel and air were calculated and the division of nitrogen into the volatile matter and the char was measured. The conducted experiment showed that emissions in oxy - fuel are lower than those in air.

Results of the study examining carbon monoxide and nitric oxide concentrations while burning different types of agricultural biomass: coffee husk pellets alone or in combination with wheat straw pellets and cherry stones, sewage sludge pellets, corn stover briquettes and a mixture of rye straw briquettes and miscanthus briquettes were presented. The combustion was performed in a 50 kW boiler type Biowarmer with a cast-iron moving step grate. The temperature in the combustion chamber did not exceed 800 ◦C. For all biomass types, only brittle slag was generated in the furnace, which was easily broken by a reciprocating movement of the grate. Carbon monoxide concentration in the flue gas except for the case of sewage sludge pellet firing did not exceed the permitted value of 3000 mg/m3 and nitric oxide concentration 515 mg/m3, both presented for 10% O2 concentration in the flue gas based in dry gas. Hydrocarbon concentrations for all test runs were close to zero.

The solution of applications for air pollution control in foundries for iron and non-ferrous metals may not only be understood as the observance of requested emission limit values at the stack outlet. An effective environmental protection already starts with the greatest possible capture of pollutants at the source with at the same time minimisation of the volume flow necessary for this. Independent of this, the downstream installed filtration system has to realise a degree of separation of definitely above 99%. Furthermore, when selecting the filter construction, attention has to be paid to a high availability. An even temporarily production without filter will more and more no longer be accepted by residents and authorities. Incidents at the filter lead to a shutdown of the whole production. Additional measures for heat recovery while preparing concepts for filtration plants help to reduce the energy consumption and serve for a sustained conservation of environment. A consequent consideration of the items above is also condition for the fact that environmental protection in foundries remains affordable. The lecture deals with the subjects above from the point of view of a plant constructor.

This paper presents an identification method of pollution inflow directions based on the circular graphs of percentiles of pollution concentrations and the possibilities of applying these graphs to estimation of pollutant emission. Based on these graphs of particulate matter concentration recorded in winter and summer seasons, the inflows of dust from the direction of fly ash landfill have been compared for summer and winter periods. This analysis enables to assess the relation of concentrations of pollution from secondary particulate matter suspension to concentrations of pollution generated by other sources. This paper also argues that the 24-hours concentrations, though commonly used, may prove to be an indicator of minor importance to assess air pollution status. On the one hand, excessive 24-hours concentrations impede the identification of the polluter, on the other hand, concentrations generally within permissible limits may occasionally peak dangerously at some sources. As an example, an existing case and a numerical experiment have been presented.

It can be expected that there is a considerable correlation between combustion air flow rate and the concentrations of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxide in the flue gas. The influence of temperature and oxygen concentration in the combustion zone on the concentrations of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxide in the flue gas, for high and low combustion air flow, was analysed. Oxygen concentration for which the concentration of carbon monoxide is the lowest was determined, as well as the mutual relation between carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide concentration.

The road pollutant emissions, above all in urban context, are correlated to many infrastructural parameters and to traffic intensity and typology. The research work on road junction geometry, carried out in European research centres, has recently allowed to design new road intersection types which are of undoubted interest, especially in terms of traffic functionality and safety, like the fl ower roundabouts (in which right-turn manoeuvres do not confl ict with the circulating flow). The main objective of this paper is to propose a model for the estimation the capacity, delay, levels of service and the pollutant emissions into flower roundabouts. A comparative analysis between conventional roundabout and flower roundabout has been carried out in terms of CO, CO₂, CH₄, NO, PM₂,₅ and PM10 vehicular emissions, evaluated by mean of COPERT Software which is developed as a European tool for the calculation of emissions from the road transport sector.

If we throw something into a river, how long will it take to reach a certain location downstream? We talk to Prof. Ian Guymer from the University of Sheffield about our increasingly complex models of this deceptively simple problem.

Results of testing air quality in the vicinity of Gliwice transport routes arc presented in the paper. Assessment of air contamination with nitrogen dioxide from motor transport, for typical conditions dominating in big cities of high transit movement without any ring roads was the studies objective. Presented results will be used in the future to determine the impact of opening the ring road on air quality in the city. In the studies, the passive method of sampling, with further application of spectrophotometric technique to determine nitrogen dioxide concentration, was used. Average annual nitrogen dioxide concentrations were based on average daily concentrations measured from July 2004 to June 2005 at 16 measuring points. As they meet conditions for random distribution of measuring days and cover the measuring time, they were treated as average concentrations of nitrogen dioxide in a calendar year and were compared with a permissible concentration to make an assessment of air quality..

Room temperature vulcanized (RTV) silicone rubber is widely used to prevent pollution flashover with its excellent hydrophobicity and hydrophobicity transfer. However, RTV coatings are at the risk of deterioration and failure in heavily polluted operating environment. In this paper, RTV coated insulators with different suspension heights operating in coal ash polluted areaswere sampled. Pollution degree, pollution composition and aging degree of coatings were tested. The result shows that the insoluble pollution contains Al(OH)3 filler precipitated from RTV coating, which indicates the aging of the RTV coating. The top surface coating is more affected by ultraviolet and rainwater than the bottom surface resulting in more serious degradation. As the pollution degree of the lower phase insulator is heavier than that of the upper phase insulator, the erosion effect of pollution on the RTV coating is more intense. The fillers and rubber molecules of RTV continuously precipitate into the pollution layer, leading to further aging. Therefore, the overall aging degree of the lower insulator coating is more serious than that of the upper insulator coating.

The presents paper determination of 16 PAHs in collected samples of soil or plants and investigation of sorption process dynamics. The investigation included plants growing on shoulder of road and on cultivated field. As accumulations of quality of environment cabbage, parsley, carrot, cucumber, dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), plantain (Plantago major) and colfsfoot (Tussilago farfara) were used. The samples were collected at a defined distance to the main road E8 (Moscow - Berlin), near Siedlce. A total PAHs concentration in soil and cabbage samples collected in the distance 5 m to the road was 1.5 I μg/kg (total carcinogenic PAHs = 556.03 ng/kg) and 358.90 ng/kg (total carcinogenic = I 01.17 ng/kg) respectively. On the other hand, total PAHs in samples collected in 15 m distance to the road was 136.46 ng/kg for soil (total carcinogenic = 27.30 ng/kg) and 87.20 ng/kg for cabbage (total carcinogenic= 12.17 ng/kg).

People rarely consider where their tap water comes from, or how much of it is actually available. At the same time, it is people who are most often responsible for water pollution. Problems involving the contamination of water-supply areas in Poland are scrutinized by an “intervention team” of experts at the Polish Hydrogeological Survey.

Sometimes just a single spark of curiosity can be the beginning of a successful scientific career, says Prof. Lidia Morawska, Professor at the Queensland University of Technology and Director of the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health (ILAQH).

Too much liberty to produce and consume will lead the human race to ruin; the clothing industry is unfortunately increasingly contributing to this – says Magdalena Płonka from the University of Economics and Human Sciences (AEH) in Warsaw.

What is smog, what does it consist of, and where does it come from? How badly polluted is the air in Poland in relation to other countries in Europe?

The aim of the study is to present the FAPPS (Forecasting of Air Pollution Propagation System) based on the CALPUFF puff dispersion model, used for short-term air quality forecasting in Krakow and Lesser Poland. The article presents two methods of operational air quality forecasting in Krakow. The quality of forecasts was assessed on the basis of PM10 concentrations measured at eight air quality monitoring stations in 2019 in Krakow. Apart from the standard quantitative forecast, a qualitative forecast was presented, specifying the percentage shares of the city area with PM10 concentrations in six concentration classes. For both methods, it was shown how the adjustment of the emissions in the FAPPS system to changes in emissions related to the systemic elimination of coal furnaces in Krakow influenced the quality of forecasts. For standard forecasts, after the emission change on June 7, 2019, the average RMSE value decreased from 23.9 μg/m3 to 14.9 μg/m3, the average FB value changed from -0.200 to -0.063, and the share of correct forecasts increased from 0.74 to 0.91. For qualitative forecasts, for the entire year 2019 and separately for the periods from January to March and October to December, Hit Rate values of 5.43, 2.18 and 3.48 were obtained, the False Alarm Ratios were 0.28, 0.24 and 0,26, and the Probability of Detection values were 0.66, 0.75, and 0.74. The presented results show that the FAPPS system is a useful tool for modelling air pollution in urbanized and industrialized areas with complex terrain

The main source of spatial information on concentration and deposition of air pollutants in Poland is the continental scale EMEP model with 50 km x 50 km grid. The coarse resolution of the EMEP model may be insufficient for regional scale studies. A new proposal is the application of the national scale atmospheric transport model FRAME (Fine Resolution Atmospheric Multi-pollutant Exchange), originally developed for the United Kingdom. The model works with 5 km x 5 km spatial resolution and the air column is divided into 33 layers. FRAME was used here to assess the spatial patterns of yearly averaged air concentrations, and wet and dry deposition of sulphur and nitrogen compounds for the area of Poland. This study presents preliminary results of the modeling of the yearly average concentrations as well as dry and wet depositions of SO,, NO, and NH, for Poland. FRAME results were compared with available measurements from the monitoring sites and national deposition budget with the EMEP and IMGW estimates. The results show close agreement with the measured concentrations expressed by determination coefficient close to O. 7 for both SO, and NO . The dry and wet deposition budgets for FRAME are also in close agreement with the EMEP and GIOŚ estimates. The FRAME model, despite its relatively simple meteorological parameterizations, is well suited to calculate the spatial pattern of annual average concentration and yearly deposition of atmospheric pollutants which was earlier presented for the UK and was shown in this paper for Poland. The model can also be used to analyze the impact of individual point sources or different emission sectors on spatial pattern of air concentration and deposition as well as testing the changes in deposition resulting from future emissions reduction scenarios.

Contamination of the natural environment with petroleum pollution is still a frequent and particularly dangerous phenomenon, thus there is a need to remove these pollutants. Various types of mineral sorbents (silicate minerals, zeolites, perlite, diatomite, clay rocks) are highly valued in remediation processes due to their affordable, big selectivity and high efficiency. However, many sorbents are not resistant to moisture, which limits their use. The hydrophobization process improves the effectiveness of sorbents used in a humid environment. The DAMSORB produced by IM-POL was hydrophobized with a methanolic stearic acid solution. The use of cheap stearic acid as a modifier is economically advantageous. The evaluation of the hydrophobic properties of the modified material was performed on the basis of the results obtained from the tests: water absorption, floating on the water surface and the contact angles were determined. Tests of the sorption of petroleum-derived compounds were performed on the basis of three procedures: in accordance with the technical sheet of the leading producer of hydrophobic sorption materials in Poland, the Westighouse’s method in the oil layer and the Westighouse’s method on a flat surface. The modified sorbent floats on the surface of the water very well. The average value of the contact angle for the modified sample is 104 degrees. Material is super hydrophobic. In the water environment, the hydrophobized samples have a higher absorption capacity in relation to oil contaminations compared to the raw material. Features of the modified sorbent, such as good buoyancy on the water surface, low affinity to water and better absorption of oil from the solution, make it possible to use the material to remove petroleum contamination from water and highly moist surfaces.

The research system of soils for evaluation of the ecological state of farm-land soils in Poland is presented in this paper. Granulometrie composition, pH, organic matter content and the content of heavy metals (Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn) in soils were determined. On the basis of existing criteria (tab. 1) the state of soil pollution with heavy metals for separate provinces and whole country was estimated. The average heavy metal contents (mg/kg) in surface layer of soils in Poland are as follows: Cd-0.21, Cu-6.5, Ni-6.2, Pb-13.6, and Zn-32.4. The farm-land soils of Poland generally contain natural and slightly elevated level of the investigated heavy metals. This allows to produce high quality of agricultural materials appropriate for consumption and feeding of animals.

Due to more and more increasing role of pollution surface waters in environment - particularly in populous regions - in this paper the problem of the influence of the town of Nakło city on purity of the Noteć river has been presented. Hydrochemical investigation of the Noteć river in the region of the community Nakło indicated II and III water quality classification. The town of Nakło discharges very much pollution into this river. In spite of recent certain improvement in comparison to 1993-1995 years the annual amount of pollution flowing from the town into the river is still too large and it is 3149 Mg of suspended matter, 266 Mg of nitrogen and 69 Mg of phosphorus.

In the summer of 2022, an environmental disaster unfolded on the Oder River. Though the disaster was caused by humans, it was the river’s natural ecosystem that paid the heaviest price.

Plastic is present everywhere. What happens to it and what impact does it have on the world around us?

The research of the soil quality was made in Markowice, the district of Racibórz, the town situated in the South of Poland. The soils of Racibórz were expected to be contaminated with heavy metals after the heavy flood in 1997, which devastated great part of Poland, especially the town. The assays covered macroand microcomponents, contents of total calcium, iron, manganese, sulphur, bioavailable magnesium, potassium and phosphorus, contents of heavy metals (lead, cadmium, zinc, chromium, nickel and copper), electrolytic conductivity, pH of soil, and finally organic matter content in soil. The research showed that soils of the district of Racibórz have a natural content of heavy metals, but the soils have the deficiency of macrocornponcnts, such as phosphorus, magnesium and calcium.

This paper presents the results of the research aiming at determining content of selected anions in the samples containing precipitated water (rainwater and snowfall water) by isotachophoretic method. This work is a continuation of the complex pollution monitoring in the areas of Siedlce and Olecko (near Suwałki). The samples were collected from November 2006 to May 2007. Days of sampling depended on atmospheric conditions. Sulfate and hydrogen carbonate turned up to be the dominant anions in samples which were collected in city centers. Higher contents were observed in Siedlce. The content of nitrites in both cities was low. The highest concentration of sulfates and chlorides in rainwater was obtained in the samples collected near the Company of Thermal Energy (CTE) in Siedlce. Similar results of sulfate concentration were observed in Olecko. In samples of snowfall water (collected near to the CTE) sulfates and sulfites were the dominating anions.