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Our focus

Activities covered by our group are focused on an actual topic of effective utilisation of waste and energy in the field of municipal and small industry energy-provision sector:

• complex analysis in waste management based on applications of sophisticated calculation tools
• optimum integration of unit for thermal processing of waste into existing a new energy-producing plants
• forecasting of future production, waste composition, and lower heating value for household waste and industrial waste produced in the Czech Republic.
• waste logistic and its assessment and optimisation, analysis towards the selection of the most convenient system from the particular producer point of view.
• industrial processes optimisation aiming at reduced energy consumption employing a comprehensive analysis of gathered data and simulation model building.

Research strategy

• conceptual approach: input data – simulation – optimisation – solution
• an application of computational tools involving advanced statistics and operational research methods for solving real-life problems (for example see NERUDA and Justine or other tools here).

Research projects – selected (examples)

The core activities of this research group are bound with the following national research projects, where it focuses on utilization of waste for secondary materials and energy production:

• “SPIL Sustainable Process Integration Laboratory, provider: The Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports of the Czech Republic, European Research and Development Fund, CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0­.0/15_003/0000456, 2017–2022
• NETME CENTRE PLUS, provider: The Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport of the Czech Republic, National sustainability program I, LO1202, 2014–2018
• Waste-to-Energy (WtE) Competence Centre, provider: Technology Agency of the Czech Republic, Competence Centres Programme No. TE02000236, TE02000236, 2014–2018

The group vision is to focus on research motivated by industrial demand and produce research results, which are applicable. This is confirmed by increasing number of cooperating subjects from industry and from the municipal sector (municipalities as waste producers, regional representatives, waste-to-energy plants operators and investors of projects under preparation (see bellow „Cooperation with industry“). It is worth mentioning that our group participated on several strategic studies in the field of waste utilisation for the Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic (MŽP) and Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic (MPO) (see bellow).

Cooperation with industry – selection (examples)

Beside long-term strategic projects, our group is keen to solve projects defined by industry, where our knowledge and tools are utilised. The following recent projects are mentioned as references:

• “Short-term cogeneration planning utilising stochastic modelling approach“, customer: Pražské služby, a.s. -operator of largest WtE Plant, ZEVO Malešice, Prague (2017).
• “Project „Preparation of information for investment support in the field of waste management“ for the Ministry of Environment of the Czech republic, waste-to-energy related expertise and design of optimal network for processing of selected types of waste, contractor: EY (2015)
• Conception development of an optimal solution for residual waste processing for two regions and two micro-regions of the Czech republic (2015, 2016)
• coordinator of conceptual study for new waste-to-energy plants in different localities in the CZE for one of leading electricity conglomerates operating in the CZE (2012, 2013)
• “Feasibility study of building new centre for alternative fuels preparation including sewage sludge for Heating Plant Plzeňská teplárenská, a.s., City of Pilsen, CZE (2009)

Research papers – selection (examples)

• PAVLAS, M.; ŠOMPLÁK, R.; SMEJKALOVÁ, V.; NEVRLÝ, V.; ZAVÍRALOVÁ, L.; KŮDELA J.; POPELA P.. Spatially Distributed Production Data for Supply Chain Models – Forecasting with Hazardous Waste. Journal of Cleaner Production 161C (2017) pp. 1317–1328,
• FERDAN, T. ŠOMPLÁK R, ZAVÍRALOVÁ L, PAVLAS M., FRÝBA L. A waste-to-energy project: A complex approach towards the assessment of investment risks , Applied Thermal Engineering, 2015, vol. 89, no. 1, p. 1127–1136. ISSN: 1359– 4311. doi:10.1016/j­.applthermalen­g.2015.04.005
• TOUŠ M., PAVLAS M., PUTNA O., STEHLÍK P., CRHA L.,Combined heat and power production planning in a waste-to-energy plant on a short-term basis, Energy. 2015. Volume 90, Part 1, October 2015, Pages 137–147,
• ŠOMPLÁK, R.; FERDAN, T.; POPELA, P.; PAVLAS, M.: Waste-to-energy facility planning under uncertain circumstances, Applied Thermal Engineering, Vol.61, (2013), No.1, pp.106–114, ISSN 1359–4311
• PAVLAS, M.; TOUŠ, M.; KLIMEK, P.; BÉBAR, L. Waste incineration with production of clean and reliable energy. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2011. 13(4). p. 595 – 604. ISSN 0959–6526
• TOUŠ, M.; PAVLAS, M.; STEHLÍK, P.; POPELA, P. Effective biomass integration into existing combustion plant. Energy. 2011. 36(8). p. 4654 – 4662. ISSN 0360–5442
• PAVLAS, M.; TOUŠ, M.; BÉBAR, L.; STEHLÍK, P. Waste to Energy – An Evaluation of the Environmental Impact. Applied Thermal Engineering. 2010. 30(16). p. 2326 – 2332. ISSN 1359–4311.
• PAVLAS M., STEHLIK P., ORAL J., KLEMES J., KIM J. K., FIRTH B., Heat-integrated Heat Pumping for Improved Energy Management Case Study: Biomass Gasification in wood processing plant. Applied Thermal Engineering 30 (2010), pp. 30–35

Contact

In case of your interest in cooperating with us do not hesitate to contact:

Dr. Martin PAVLAS
Energy&Simulation Research Group coordinator
Insitute of Process Engineering, Brno University of Technology
building A1, 9^th floor, office 924
e-mail: pavlas@fme.vutbr.cz
orcid.org/0000–0002–2300–953X