• Energy Research

The purpose of this work is to determine the impact of selected silage maize cultivation technologies, including energy inputs in the production chain (cultivation, harvesting, heap placing), on energy efficiency. The analysis of energy inputs, energy efficiency for the silage maize production technology were estimated. The research was performed for 13 farms producing silage maize. The data from the farms covered all the activities and the agrotechnical measures performed. The calculations of energy inputs made for the silage maize production for selected technologies were performed using the method developed by the Institute of Construction, Mechanization and Electrification for Agriculture (IBMER), once the method was verified and adapted to the needs and conditions of own research. Based on the accumulated energy production and the energy accumulated in the yield, energy efficiency index values for 13 silage maize cultivation technologies were calculated. The greatest impact on the results of energy efficiency calculations was shared by fertilizer and fuel inputs. In conclusion, it can be stated that, in terms of energy efficiency, maize cultivation is justified and it can generate energy benefits.

This article presents how selected factors related to forest biomass affect enterprise development in rural areas. The study used a multivariate analysis of variance (ANOVA), as well as the AHP operational research method. The following factors were selected for analysis: conifer timber harvesting, sales of renewable fuel in the form of briquettes to selected customers, and the number of the given company’s regular customers. Their selection was determined by the fact that using plant material for energy purposes has become significantly more popular in recent years. This particularly includes forest biomass, which is increasingly used as an energy commodity in the Polish heating industry. Forest biomass is a biodegradable raw material generated in the form of waste during wood production and processing, as well as during sanitation cutting. The study was conducted using a diagnostic survey method with a survey questionnaire in the first quarter of 2020. It included 614 owners of small and medium-sized enterprises operating in various rural areas across all of Poland’s voivodeships. The study was conducted using the CATI method. Analyses defining the dependence of specific factors on the examined parameters and supporting the priority nature of the given actions may show the development of particular pro-ecological actions in a given area. In one case, the critical level of significance determining the assignment of the analyzed factor to a specific homogeneous group was below 0.05. This means that there was a correlation between the sales of renewable fuel in the form of briquettes to selected customers and the number of enterprises in the voivodeship. Therefore, due to the sales of renewable fuel in the form of briquettes to selected customers, the greatest development prospects for wood industry companies existed in the Małopolskie, Mazowieckie, Śląskie and Wielkopolskie Voivodeships.

The first European COVID-19 infection was recorded in February 2020, and Poland followed in mid-March. Restrictions were imposed on traveling between states and using public space. These movement restrictions forced a search for new, often innovative, forms of tourism. Google Earth virtual reality (VR), Google Street View, and the Chernobyl VR Project are just some of the selected opportunities to create virtual tours. Different activities using VR mean that people can experience the illusion of travelling in time and space, outside of their everyday surroundings, in a digitally constructed three-dimensional (3D) environment, for cognition or entertainment. Therefore, this study aimed to present virtual and space tourism as new traveling trends during various crises, such as health, economic, etc. A diagnostic survey with a developed questionnaire was conducted in June and July 2021 in Poland. A total of 564 fully answered responses were collected from randomly selected respondents. We found that around 82% of Polish people were aware of VR technology, and 70% believed that new technologies determine VR tourism development. VR presents the possibility of travelling to places that no longer exist in their original form, but have been reconstructed only in VR. Around 75% of the respondents agreed that VR tourism plays an essential role in tourism promotion in Poland and throughout the world. Moreover, VR and augmented tourism lets us visit fictitious and dangerous, politically restricted, and geographically as well as economically difficult destinations. For example, our results revealed that many people want to experience North Korea, the USA, Antarctica, Syria, etc. At the same time, people recommended the NASA space station as a visiting destination using VR and augmented reality. VR offers an alternative form of tourism during crises and pandemics such as COVID-19. We found over 26% of the respondents were satisfied with contemporary tourists’ cognitional needs during VR sightseeing. More than 87% of the respondents believed that VR tourism cannot substitute real-world tourism in the long run. However, VR tourism will be more beneficial for developing countries facing difficulties in economic aspects, and easier than attaining visas to enter developed countries. Furthermore, virtual sightseeing may also constitute an alternative for people who are disabled or sick, and who cannot undertake the effort of active tourism and explore tourist resources of the world on their own.

Methane production by fermentation is a complex biochemical process, in which micromolecular organic substances are broken down by anaerobic bacteria into simple stabilized chemicals—mainly methane CH4 and carbon dioxide CO2. The organic matter of the slurry consists mainly of fats, proteins and carbohydrates. As a result of biochemical changes in the process of anaerobic decomposition, some of this matter is mineralized to simple chemical compounds. Cattle and pig husbandry offers enormous potential for useable biogas plant substrates. As a result of the constantly increasing amounts of animal husbandry products, and increasingly stringent environmental protection requirements aimed at reusing natural fertilizers, it is necessary to look for alternative processing methods. The need for efficiency in obtaining biogas from substrates (e.g., manure) was met by the laboratory stand presented in this article, for which the Polish patent No. 232200 was obtained. The new technology also allows leaching of the organic liquid, e.g., from manure, and subjecting it to methane fermentation. The solution allows the individual elements of the technological line that determine the fermentation process to be tested under laboratory conditions. It also allows testing of the substrates in terms of fermentation, to determine their physical and chemical characteristics, and then to characterize the fermentation process in terms of the quality and quantity of the resulting biogas and the quality of post-fermentation residues. Compressing biogas for local distribution was also proposed. As part of the research, using a laboratory stand, the organic matter was leached from manure, for the purpose of biogas production. In addition, the biogas yield from manure at varying degrees of maturity was assessed. The best properties in terms of biogas yield forecasting were demonstrated by manure composted for 4–8 weeks.

The aim of the article is to present the spatial diversity of tourism in the countries of the European Union (EU). The main objective of the article can be divided into three immediate goals, each of which is to determine countries that are similar by means of: (1) accommodation base; (2) tourism traffic; and (3) tourism-related expenditures and revenues. In order to group countries, Ward’s cluster analysis method is used. The aim is verified with the use of 2017 United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and Eurostat data. The analysis covers all EU member states. The research conducted confirms, inter alia, the key role of the accommodation base in the development of tourism in those countries.

The article is aimed at presenting the survey respondents’ involvement in tourist activities, taking into account certain factors at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. The main objective may be divided into three direct aims, each of which consists of the determination of the factors that can influence the choice of tourist journeys: (1) organizational factors, (2) social-economic ones, and (3) sustainable development. The authors’ own research findings are used to verify the objective. The research was conducted in April and May 2020 with the use of a diagnostic survey method and a questionnaire. Five-hundred sixty-four respondents from Poland (Podlaskie, Masovian, and Lesser Poland Voivodeships) and 133 respondents from the US (New York State, New Jersey, and Illinois) took part in the research. It was divided into organizational, social-economic, and sustainable development related factors. The research confirmed, inter alia, a great impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the organization of tourist travels by the respondents in 2020. The issue presented in the article is a new one; it has not yet been a subject matter of research. That is the major reason the authors aimed to conduct it. What is a new methodological element in the article is the organization of some concepts concerning tourism and a presentation of the influence of COVID-19 on tourism. In the authors’ opinion, the issues presented are new and have a considerable impact on new trends in the development of tourism at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. The issue discussed is very broad, and the article does not exhaust it. The research findings are compared to the research findings reported by other authors, and standard deviations are calculated.

The aim of this study was the investigation of the effect of growth conditions of energy willow (Salix viminalis L.) on its physical and chemical parameters towards lignocellulosic biofuels. This work is linked to the global trend of replacing fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas) with energy and renewable fuels. This energy transition is dictated by the reduction of the human-induced greenhouse effect (to the greatest extent by industrial development). Changing from traditional to renewable energy sources results in industry becoming less dependent on fuels whose sources are beginning to run out, and in energy processing being broken down into smaller sectors with greater flexibility to change and less susceptibility to failure. The use of lignocellulosic raw materials such as wood, straw, food industry waste, wood, and post-consumer products such as old furniture for energy purposes allows the use of substances which bind the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in their cellular structure during growth. In order to optimise the costs of producing such energy and minimise its impact on the environment, these plants should be located as close as possible to the source of raw materials. One of the most important characteristics for the profitability of energy production from woody biomass is a high biomass yield. For this purpose, the raw material used for this study was energy willow (Salix viminalis L.) seedlings, which are often used for energy crops. Due to the moisture-loving nature of the substrate, the effect of the addition of the active substance prednisonum as a catalyst for water adsorption from the substrate was investigated. In order to determine the substances formed during the thermal decomposition of energy willow (Salix viminalis L.) wood, a pyrolysis process was carried out at 450 °C using pyrolysis gas chromatography mass spectrometry (PY/GC-MS).