• Energy Research
• mechanical engineering close
• 13. Climate action close
• 12. Responsible consumption close
• PL close
• DE close

The article presents an innovative method of analyzing energy companies’ strategies, which aims to identify the strategic orientation of the entities subject to the research and, thus, to initially define the directions of strategic changes in the analyzed sector. The aim of the research, the results of which were used in this publication, was to identify the features of energy sector companies’ strategies in the European Union in the period of sector transformation caused by the new climate policy. The analysis area is the energy sector, i.e., the sector whose fundamental strategic goal is energy production. The research used a critical analysis of the subject literature and desk research method with the use of the researchers’ own analytical equipment, developed for the needs of this analysis. It was assumed in the conducted research that the primary source of information in the empirical study, the information subject to subsequent analysis, was the analysis of official documents (strategies, financial reports, etc.) posted on the websites of the surveyed corporations. The research results indicate the dominance of the resource-based approach in implementing strategic postulates of the surveyed companies. Nevertheless, the operational activity focuses on the implementation of innovative solutions towards decarbonization and climate neutrality.

Fans as industrial devices are among the most significant single recipients of driving energy. Therefore, they represent an important area of energy savings to reduce CO2 emissions. The ubiquity of fans and their operation under conditions different from the optimum provides an opportunity for more significant global reductions in the energy used to drive them. The second important aspect, besides energy efficiency, related to the operation of fans is the noise they generate. This article studies fans in various operating configurations, emphasizing improving operating efficiency and reducing noise emissions. The subject matter undertaken is based on the current trends and needs of the industry, notably the ventilation and power industry. The article attempts a detailed literature review taking into account just these aspects. The paper is divided into three main sections, with an analysis of the literature in the areas of energy efficiency, considering the operation of fans with the necessary instrumentation, the incidence of vibration, and noise optimization. The final area of analysis is the parameters and components of the plant in which the fans operate. This article identifies possible sites for further research and scientific work to improve and optimize the areas identified earlier.

Hydrogen as a carbon-free fuel is commonly expected to play a major role in future energy supply, e.g., as an admixture gas in natural gas grids. Which impacts on residential and commercial gas appliances can be expected due to the significantly different physical and chemical properties of hydrogen-enriched natural gas? This paper analyses and discusses blends of hydrogen and natural gas from the perspective of combustion science. The admixture of hydrogen into natural gas changes the properties of the fuel gas. Depending on the combustion system, burner design and other boundary conditions, these changes may cause higher combustion temperatures and laminar combustion velocities, while changing flame positions and shapes are also to be expected. For appliances that are designed for natural gas, these effects may cause risk of flashback, reduced operational safety, material deterioration, higher nitrogen oxides emissions (NOx), and efficiency losses. Theoretical considerations and first measurements indicate that the effects of hydrogen admixture on combustion temperatures and the laminar combustion velocities are often largely mitigated by a shift towards higher air excess ratios in the absence of combustion control systems, but also that common combustion control technologies may be unable to react properly to the presence of hydrogen in the fuel.

Financial liquidity and profitability are two critical phenomena present in the financial economy of a company, whose relations depend on each other and may course in different directions. At the same time, they are an example of the complexity of the problem, which demands a proper approach, allowing one to reconcile two opposing objectives of any enterprise, i.e., maximizing the benefits for the owners and minimizing the risk of losing financial liquidity. Until now, the relationship between liquidity and profitability has not been examined explicitly, using multidimensional methods in particular. Nevertheless, the links between profitability and financial liquidity maintenance ensure the sustainable development of enterprises in different branches. This paper formulates two aims: scientific and practical. The scientific one concerns adopting the canonical variate analysis method to visualize the differences and relationships between food industry companies regarding financial liquidity and profitability. The practical one relates to indicating the relationship between financial liquidity and profitability in different groups of food industry companies. To study the relationships between the selected groups of enterprises and describe them, the liquidity and profitability ratios were utilized, involving canonical variate analysis based on transformation by linear combination and singular value decomposition. The analysis found that the most important feature highlighting the group of the examined entities regarding financial liquidity was the cash conversion cycle. The research results showed the existence of multidirectional relationships between liquidity and profitability. The research indicates that they depend on indicators describing financial dependencies and the industries in which they operate. This led to a much deeper and broader interpretation of the assessment of the financial situation of companies to support their sustainable development.

The purpose of the article is to define the risk factors in cogeneration projects and to demonstrate that a lack of sufficient identification of risks in different phases affects project implementation. A theoretical study is conducted, which aims to identify risk factors in cogeneration projects, based on case studies of such projects in Poland. The study offers a view at CHP (combined heat and power) projects as extremely dependent on the external environment of the organisation. These projects are subject to many external regulations due to their environmental impact and dynamically changing technical aspects. The biggest technical errors occur at the planning and construction stages. The biggest economic and financial risks occur at the execution stage after 2% and 3% of additional design costs occur, respectively. The authors estimated the risks at different stages of the project and concluded that the total cost of failure in correct identification of the risks at the planning stage exceeded PLN 1.5 billion, which amounted to almost 60% of the total additional costs of materialised project risk. Consequently, the biggest challenges in the area of CHP project management at the planning stage are a thorough identification of risks, and the pricing and planning reactions to risk.

According to data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), in order to achieve net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050, approximately 306 million tonnes of green hydrogen (H2) must be produced annually [...]

The article aims to systematize the state of knowledge of and research on the inclusion of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) risk in companies’ business models, with a special stress on energy sector companies. Many publications address incorporating ESG, but only some deal with it from the perspective of business models. This paper fills that gap. The methods of incorporating ESG risk into a sustainable business model, identified on the basis of the literature review, were verified based on the examples of three companies from the energy industry. A two-stage review of publications from the WoS and Scopus databases was carried out, considering a more comprehensive (sustainability) and a narrower (ESG risk) range of keywords, and the period from 2000 to 2022. The result showed that SMEs and large enterprises consider ESG risk in their risk management systems (ERMs), while small enterprises and start-ups do not. In Europe, Asia, and Australia, it is common to include ESG risk in an ERM, while it is rare in Latin America. In developing countries, companies in the service sector are more likely to include ESG risk in ERMs than those in the manufacturing sector. These findings may be useful for policymakers who wish to provide support and financial incentives for companies transforming their business models toward sustainability.

This is the first attempt to combine disposed bottle caps and natural fibres into sandwich panels. A full factorial design is performed to identify the effects of the skin type (aluminium or coir fibre reinforced laminates) and bottle cap core packing (cubic and orthotropic) on the mechanical properties of the proposed panels. The coir fibre composite skin provides maximum core shear strength, 29 % higher than the aluminium-based panels, in cubic packing, while the flexural modulus is reduced by 45 %. An interlocking effect between the skin and the core is evidenced when coir fibre composites are used. In addition, the cubic cell packing increases the specific mechanical properties, even though with a higher density. The results highlight a promising association of green components and plastic bottle caps for secondary structural applications.