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Car-sharing services are developing at an ever-increasing pace. Taking into account the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions and pursuit of the sustainable development of transport, implementing electric cars in car-sharing fleets is being proposed. On the one hand, these types of vehicles are referred to as emission-free, but on the other hand, their environmental friendliness is questionable due to the emission of carbon dioxide during the production of energy to power them. Although many scientific papers are devoted to the issue of reducing emissions through car sharing, there is a research gap concerning the real production of carbon dioxide by car-sharing vehicles during car-sharing trips. To fill this research gap, the objective of the article was to analyze the actual level of carbon dioxide emissions from combustion and electric vehicles from car-sharing systems produced when renting rides. The test results showed that the electric car turned out to be significantly less emitting. The use of electric vehicles in car-sharing fleets can reduce carbon dioxide emissions from 14% to 65% compared to using cars with internal combustion engines. However, the key role during car-sharing trips is played by the driving style of the drivers, which has been omitted from the literature to date. This should be properly regulated by service providers and focus on the proper use of energy from electric vehicle batteries, especially at low temperatures. The article provides support for operators planning to modernize their fleet of vehicles and fills the research gap concerning car-sharing emissions.

Abstract The supercritical power plant analyzed in this paper consists of the following elements: a steam turbine, a hard-coal-fired oxy-type pulverized fuel boiler, an air separation unit with a four-end-type high-temperature membrane and a carbon dioxide capture unit. The electrical power of the steam turbine is 600 MW, the live steam thermodynamic parameters are 650°C/30 MPa, and the reheated steam parameters are 670°C/6 MPa. First of all the net efficiency was calculated as functions of the oxygen recovery rate. The net efficiency was lower than the reference efficiency by 9–10.5 pp, and a series of actions were thus proposed to reduce the loss of net efficiency. A change in the boiler structure produced an increase in the boiler efficiency of 2.5–2.74 pp. The range of the optimal air compressor pressure ratio (19–23) due to the net efficiency was also determined. The integration of all installations with the steam turbine produced an increase in the gross electric power by up to 50.5 MW. This operation enabled the replacement of the steam regenerative heat exchangers with gas–water heat exchangers. As a result of these alterations, the net efficiency of the analyzed power plant was improved to 5.5 pp less than the reference efficiency.

The activity of enterprises in the energy sector is complicated by the complexity and capital intensity of the resources and processes used. In the current market conditions, an additional challenge is the implementation of sustainable development, including, in particular, environmental and social goals. These circumstances require efficient and effective management, and this is possible, inter alia, thanks to the use of the project management. However, this approach requires not only implementation, but also professional monitoring and control, which is considered and diagnosed in this article. The purpose of this article is to: (a) verify the programme management areas subject to the monitoring and control process; (b) identify and evaluate the effectiveness of the most frequently used methods in the process of monitoring and control of the programme implementation. A qualitative study using a structured interview was conducted among 21 experts involved in the implementation of programmes from the energy sector. The authors found that energy companies monitor and control programmes in key, but traditional areas such as lead times, costs, risks and benefits. They less often refer to ‘soft’ areas of management, such as: work, communication or quality. In terms of the monitoring and control methodology used, significant discrepancies were found between the methods considered effective and those that are most often used in practice. This requires decisive improvement actions. At the same time, it is worth emphasising that the majority of managers prefer compact and quantifiable forms of monitoring and control, such as: earned value method, Gantt chart and comparing plans to results in individual areas. The sector also lacks a systemic approach to programme management, which should be distinguished from single project management, which is why the authors presented their own approach to solving this problem.

In this article, an investigation of a free-piston Stirling engine-based micro-cogeneration (μCHP) unit is presented. This work is a step towards making the system calculations more reliable, based on a data-driven model, which enables the time-domain simulation of the μCHP behavior. A laboratory setup was developed that allowed for the measurement of a micro-cogeneration unit during long-term operation with a variable thermal load. The maximum efficiency of electricity generation was equal to 13.2% and the highest overall efficiency was equal to 95.7%. A model of the analyzed μCHP system was developed and validated. The simulation model was based on the device’s characteristics that were obtained from the measurements; it enables time-domain calculations, taking into account the different operating modes of the device. The validation of the system showed satisfactory compliance of the model with the measurements: for the period modeled of 24 h, the error in the heat generation fluctuated in the range 0.31–4.50%, the error in the electricity generation was in the range 2.48–4.70%, the error in the natural gas consumption was in the range 0.26–4.59%, and the engine’s runtime error was in the range 0.14–8.58%. The modelling process is easily applicable to other energy systems for detailed analysis.

Sustainable development requires ensuring the mobility of residents and must not cause deterioration of the quality of the environment in the selected area. The purpose of this study is to verify if the construction of a cross-regional highway through the city centre affected air quality in the neighbourhood of a newly built road. Air quality was assessed based on measurements of concentrations of nitrogen dioxide, which is considered to be typical for automotive sources air pollution. The spectrophotometric method with passive sampling was used in the 24 h NO2 measurements. The calculated mean NO2 concentrations in the periods before and after road construction were within the ranges of 23.2–31.9 μg/m3 and 22.3–28.9 μg/m3, respectively. The relative NO2 concentrations determined in the study for 10 out of 11 sampling points were lower than the unity, including 5 points markedly lower (0.82–0.89). The obtained results indicate that the construction of the new artery by the city centre, using appropriate technical solutions and traffic organization (tunnel, noise barriers, roundabouts, speed limit) likely contributed to an overall reduction in NO2 concentrations. The presented solution may serve as an example for other cities struggling with problems of low air quality associated with inefficient transportation systems.

This article presents selected methods of limiting the bearing voltages of synchronous machines with permanent magnets supplied from power electronic converters. The authors analyzed methods based on the use of various shielding windings placed in slot wedges and mounted in the stator end-winding region. The values of the parasitic capacitances of the machine, on which the levels of bearing voltages depend, were determined using the finite element method. Three-dimensional simulation models were used for the calculations. The analysis of the influence of the shielding windings on the bearing voltage waveforms was conducted on the basis of circuit models with two- and three-level converters. The obtained calculation results indicate a high potential in limiting bearing voltages.

This article presents the concept of renewable methanol production in the gas turbine cycle. As part of the work, an analysis was performed, including the impact of changing the parameters in the methanol reactor on the obtained values of power, yield and efficiency of the reactor, and chemical conversion. The aim of this research was to investigate the possibility of integrating the system for the production of renewable methanol and additional production of electricity in the system. The efficiency of the chemical conversion process and the efficiency of the methanol reactor increases with increasing pressure and decreasing temperature. The highest efficiency values, respectively η = 0.4388 and ηR = 0.3649, are obtained for parameters in the reactor equal to 160 °C and 14 MPa. The amount of heat exchanged in all exchangers reached the highest value for 14 MPa and 160 °C and amounted to Q˙ = 2.28 kW. Additionally, it has been calculated that if an additional exchanger is used before the expander (heating the medium to 560 °C), the expander’s power will cover the compressor’s electricity demand.

The operating costs of breaking coal particles into fine powder, to achieve optimum combustion for the boilers in a power plant, are made up of power input to carry on an energy intensive comminution mechanism and to overcome friction losses within pulverising machines. The operating costs also include the cost of the replacement of the processing system’s components due to wear. This study presents the development and application of an attrition test machine that enables an investigation of the factors that influence pulverizing efficiency. The attrition tester simulates grinding conditions in real vertical spindle mills. In this kind of mill, as with the tester, the size reduction process results from a shearing action during the redistribution of the coal particles. The redistribution and attrition within the coal bed are forced by movement of the rollers (or by a disc rotation, in the case of the tester). The testing method was oriented toward mechanical properties, i.e., internal friction shear strength, abrasiveness and grindability. This method enables facilitated testing procedures and a more exact simulation of grinding in vertical spindle coal mills. Ball-race mills and Loesche roller mills were used.