International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

Direct At the Technical University of Liberec, Faculty of Textiles, there was a cooperation between this state university and a small private company. The cooperation was created for the development of sustainable aids for menstrual periods. All development took place at the university, including the search for local production partners, and the private company financed the development. The output is a utility model owned by the university and the private company, and in addition the private company pays the license fee. Th e article describes in more detail this cooperation, as well as the development and the developed product, up to its actual commercialization.

Artificial intelligence become more widespread in all manufacturing subjects. In manufacturing artificial intelligence deals with such tasks as quality control, robot navigation, computer vision, processes controlling, etc. The area of maintenance in machining is a great prospect for implementing artificial intelligence tools for analysis, prediction of monitored parameters, optimization, and improvement of the quality of the maintenance process. In particular, the article refers to predictive maintenance as a modern trend in mechanical engineering. In this article, a quick review of using methods of artificial intelligence and predictive analytics in maintenance and one p ractical implementation case of NAR network for time-series prediction was provided.

The issue of decision-making on the formation and optimization of the investment portfolio is in the field of attention of both large investment companies and private investors. In the presented work the developed information system for investment portfolio analysis is offered. The proposed information system focused to new private investor and allows to independently assess the effectiveness of the investment portfolio by comparing the dynamics of growth of shares available on the financial market.

The instant paper deals with the mechanism for capacity provision, which is instrumental for the operation of the capacity market. The latter belongs to the wholesale electricity market and complements the energy only one. The capacity market is tasked with securing reliable power generation under the conditions of imbalance and stress for the energy system. Capacity and energy only markets interact in a consistent manner, thus their proper operation becomes crucial. The capacity market, however, seems to be expensive and few energy systems throughout the EU rely on it. Therefore, it is important to draw a line between different capacity mechanisms already set up and operated in terms of their most important features such as physical volume and clearing price setting. This analysis seems relevant for policy-makers’ decision to adopt or to dismiss the mechanism for capacity in Bulgaria.

In recent years, much attention has been paid to the recycling of Li-ion batteries (LIBs) [1, 2]. However, there are only few economic assessments on the recycling of LIBs even if, by 2030, it is possible to reach 2 million tons of spent LIBs/year worldwide [3, 4]. In this context, the present work aims to present a viable business model that is feasible and economically efficient and can be framed in a circular economic recycling technology of spent LIBs. The proposed business model uses literature data on the hydrometallurgical processing (HP) of spent LIBs. The business plan contains estimates of costs and revenues, and, also, estimates or projections concerning the state of the relevant markets and industries for the products resulting from spent LIBs.
Our work proposes a feasible and sustainable circular economy solution able to deliver critical materials such as cobalt, lithium, nickel, and copper for the supply chain of the LIBs manufacturing. From our estimate, valorising all recovered materials, the annual profit can reach around 600,000 $ for a commercial recycling plant that processes 125 tons/year of spent LIBs.

The features of the functioning and development of the domestic education system in the context of the requirements of the state strategy for sustainable economic development are considered. The need to improve methodological approaches to the educational process with an increase in research and socio-humanitarian components is shown. Education in all forms of its manifestation in the form of a target process or self-learning is a systemic process in which professional skills and abilities are an important, but not a determining component of a harmonious member of society, which, through its activities, contributes to its progressive development. The fundamental goal of education is to form a harmonious personality, in which the talents laid down at the gene level are manifested and developed to the full extent in adequate accordance with moral criteria based on universal human values and national mentality.

This article presents a calculation model based on the impact of tourism services and income of hotel enterprises, which have a special share in this service, on the gross product, GDP, labor resources, capital investment and working capital through econometric models. It assesses labor resources, GDP, investment in fixed capital and key indicators for the development of the tourism complex of the Republic of Turkey and provides relevant forecasts. In addition, the statistical significance of the model based on the Eviews software package was checked and its suitability for forecasting purposes was determined.

In Albania, prior to the 1990’s, the industrial sector was the leading energy consumption sector but actually, the main cause of pollution especially in urban areas, carcinogenic, respiratory and heart diseases come from road transport sector. The environmental situation in Albania after 30 years has undergone major changes due to factors that directly or indirectly influence the degree of its pollution which still remain an unresolved issue. Tirana’s fleet vehicle shares around 35% of the total car fleet registered in Albania. DCI vehicles constitute approximately 71% and the rest petrol powered engine, while the number of EV and other friendly fuel sources is almost zero. The proposed work aims at developing different transport scenarios contributing to the mitigation of GHG in Albania. Using EnergyPLAN model, 3 different scenarios are proposed, considering both most prominent national documents firstly: “Albanian Energy Strategy 2018- 2030” which requires a reduction level of CO2 by 11.5% in 2030 referring to 2006 to attain a RES share of 42% to the TPES and secondly to create a sustainable transport sector as foreseen in “National Sector Strategy for Transport 2016-2020”. This modelling framework analyse the actual transport situation and can address some beneficial values and solution which can be used from policy makers in the country to better assess the potential for a sustainable, environmentally friendly and cost-effective transport sector based on RES.

This article analyses the factors affecting the cost of electricity from geothermal power plants. Geothermal power is a capital – intensive technology and the installation costs are highly site sensitive. The costs of geothermal electricity are influenced by the thermal properties of the reservoir, the costs of site exploration and wells drilling, the number and depth of the wells, the power plant type. The choice of the power plant type depends on the properties of the geothermal resource, its temperature, quantity and quality. Being site- and technology-dependent, the installation costs for geothermal power may be as low as 2000 US$/kW and as high as 7000 US$/kW, with the global weighted average at 4000 US$/kW. This wide range of installation costs translates into levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) between 40 US$/MWh for upgrade and expansion projects and 170 US$/MWh for greenfield projects. The global weighted average LCOE is estimated at 70 US$/MWh. Further costs reductions may be accomplished through the research and development of more innovative and low-cost techniques for site exploration and drilling as well as with advanced exploitation methods for geothermal reservoirs.

The subject of the article is organizational conditions of creating and developing energy clusters in Poland. The aim of energy clusters is the development of distributed energy. They are used to improve local energy security in a way that ensures economic efficiency, as well as in an environmentally friendly way by providing optimal organizational, legal and financial conditions. Energy clu sters also allow the use of local resources and domestic energy potential. The effectiveness of energy clusters depends on the rational and effective use of potential, i.e. locally available energy resources, renewable energy sources, innovation, entrepreneurship in the area of man ufacturing, industry, distribution, as well as management of energy consumption. The aim of the article is to analyze the formal conditions of clusters, in particular the essence of their existence, the tasks that the cluster performs and the role of key cluster participants. As a result of this paper the autor shows the the process of creation and functioning of a energy cluster.

The market of precious metals in the world is studied. The requirements for the standard of gold, silver and platinum ingots are named. Factors influencing the world market of precious metals are revealed. Forms of market organization are described. The dynamics of gold, silver, platinum and palladium production in 2010 – 2019 are given. The tendencies of development of the world market of precious metals and the market of precious metals in Ukraine are named

This work is focused on CO2 credit rate impact application as one of the most feasible technology to make the wind turbines cost effective for power generation. Wind energy is clean, infinite and environment friendly source of energy. However, wind energy systems, alone or hybrid systems have a high potential to reduce CO2 emissions, fuel and total cost of the system compared to the other options applied historically in power sector. Such systems are foreseen to play a key role in a stable, costless and emission-less way especially in large scale applications. The performance, availability, costs and carbon intensity of wind power indicate that CO2 credit rate can make a very substantial contribution to reduce carbon emissions and gain the security of investment of RES technologies. The other options applied would deliver only partial emission reductions, therefore, are not sufficient to attain the 2030 national energy goals so they have to rely on renewable energy technologies. Policy makers and interest parties/investors need to focus unerringly on scaling up the actual developed few options consistent with reaching the zero-emission goal.