Energy and its Resources:
Producing energy as well as recognising and utilising energy resources is one of the main research areas at AGH-UST, as these subjects are of great importance to the country's economy. The following faculties of the university conduct works connected with recognising and obtaining energetic materials, as well as their utilisation: Faculty of Mining and Geoengineering, Faculty of Drilling, Oil and Gas, Faculty of Energy and Fuels, and to a large extent, Faculty of Geology, Geophysics and Environmental Protection. In addition, most university faculties have teams conducting research into different aspects of energetics. The activity of the university in the field of "Energy and its resources" comprises a wide range of research and application studies, which are presented below in nine subject groups.
Several faculties conduct research into the most fundamental issues of energetics, comprising thermodynamics, transportation, heat and mass exchange, and combustion processes. In particular, these are the issues of phenomenological and statistical thermodynamics, the issues of monitoring and controlling thermal processes, balancing technological thermal processes, modelling heat and mass flows in processes and devices, modelling and experimental research into turbulent flows, research into the combustion processes of solid, liquid and gas fuels. The basics of energetics are energy resources (solid, liquid and gas fuels). In this field, the university conducts research into recognising the geological reserves of hard and brown coal, gas and oil, their characteristics, and the technologies of extracting and exploitation of various energy resources. In addition, research is also conducted on the characteristics of energy resources and the technologies of their enrichment and purification. Obtaining energy resources is connected with the issue of environmental protection during the process of deposit mining, and the optimisation of waste management resulting from the processing of hard coal.
Other important subject areas are the development of technologies and the construction of devices serving the catalytic utilization of methane in the deposits of the Legnica region (Legnica W and Legnica E), as well as gas hazards connected with their future exploitation.
An important element in the process of obtaining energy are fuel technologies (coal-based, gas and liquid fuels). The university conducts research and the analysis of solid, liquid and gas fuels, research into the process of pyrolysis and the gasification of coal and biomass, research into the properties of oil-based liquid fuels and biofuels, engine-based tests of fuels and biofuels, and research into the processes of fuel combustion. This research is supplemented by the issues of environmental protection and modelling the processes of transportation and distribution of liquid fuels.
Energetics is also connected with energy devices and energy management. University teams have experience and achievements in the field of the construction and exploitation of electrical devices, transmission lines, different types of electrical devices, including mining and ventilation devices, as well as electrical equipment used in renewable power engineering.
A high interest and the prospects of alternative energy technologies are reflected in research connected with nuclear energy, such as: transmission of neutrons, transmutation of burnt nuclear fuel, dynamics of reactors, economics of nuclear energy, dosimetry of ionising radiation, coal and nuclear synergy, and utilising the heat of high-temperature reactors in industrial processes. Another area of research connected with alternative energy technologies is hydrogen power engineering,
comprising the production of hydrogen fuel with the use of coal and biomass gasification methods and water electrolysis, hydrogen storage, fuel cells (materials, kinetics and the mechanism of reaction, modelling), research into the structural, electric and transportation properties of ABO3 oxides as potential materials for the needs of hydrogen power engineering.
A particularly up-to-date and important research area is renewable sources of energy. The university has teams dealing with the subject of various renewable sources of energy: wind energy, including the devices for utilising wind power, combining the power engineering of wind and gas based on gas deposits in the Podkarpacie region, solar energy (photovoltaic cells and solar collectors), geothermal energy, including the recognition of geothermal deposits and the exploitation of geothermal springs, as well as utilising biomass (in the solid state, and biogas of liquid biofuels) in power engineering. A complement to this research is works on the conjunction of dispersed and renewable sources of energy with the transmission system, and in particular, wind power plants, as well as the creation of a database of renewable sources of energy in the Małopolska Voivodeship.
One of the key issues is the development of balanced energy. Within this area we conduct research into clean coal technologies, and in particular, the technologies of coal gasification, sequestration of carbon dioxide, emission-free power plants, and also the environmental protection in power engineering, air protection, adsorption methods of purifying waste gases and sewage. We are also working on the effects of energy sector activities, and forecasting the influence of power engineering on the environment.
Due to the growing demand for energy and diminishing resources of fossil fuels, effective utilisation and energy saving have become particularly important. Within a wide range of subjects connected with these issues, our researchers have undertaken the task of researching into increasing the efficiency of energy devices, saving energy, the analysis of complex questions concerning heat flow and transmission, the analysis of heat management in industrial plants, balancing technological thermal processes, the analysis of thermal efficiency in modern heating systems, the issues of monitoring and controlling thermal processes, utilising waste energy in industry, including the recovery of the heat of waste gases (furnaces, dryers, recuperators and regenerators), measurements and tests with the use of thermovision (thermal fields, heat losses etc.), research and thermodynamic analysis of heat pumps, determining the thermophysical properties of solid bodies, the identification of boundary conditions in heat exchange, the economic issues of environmental protection concerning the utilisation of energy, including the management of the demand for energy (Demand-Side Management).
A particularly important issue is the world and Poland's energy policy. Our research works in this field are: the analysis of the resources and energy market, energy security of the country, modelling energy systems, determining the forecasts for fuel and energy sectors, and integrated planning in power engineering. Our research works also encompass research into the external costs of energy production, which play an important role in the process of making decisions concerning the development of the energy sector.
