On 15/11/2022, a training session was held on how to proceed in the event of a real fire. The practice fire alarm training took place under the supervision of Bc. Zdeňky Jandové (OZO for BOZP and PO). The obligation to organize these drills is mandated by law for every building in which an increased fire risk can be assumed. In the case of the AdMaS Center, these were objects P2 and H.

Practice alarms are intended to alert everyone who uses the building in any way to the risk of fire and how to protect their own life and the lives of others. In the event of a fire, it is necessary to evacuate the building before the arrival of the Fire and Rescue Service units.

In addition to practicing the evacuation of all people from buildings, practice alarms also provide a practical test for fire patrols. Alarms, thanks to the simulation of a real situation, help to detect any deficiencies in fire protection.

The technicians verified the functionality of the evacuation system in full operation and were able to identify any deficiencies in the escape routes, which should be permanently passable and free. One of the frequent problems is the accessibility of firefighting equipment directly to buildings, which can be complicated by badly parked vehicles or test samples, placed outside the designated places, which then prevent the passage of firefighting vehicles.

The evacuation of all persons from buildings P2 and H took only 5 minutes.

Regular fire alarm training is important because it prevents injury to health and the occurrence of greater damage to the property of the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the University of Technology in Brno.

 

 

 

KICK-OFF MEETING

 

International project reg. no. 22220131 with the financial support of the Visegrad+ Grant of the Visegrad Grant Fund was launched in the form of a video conference with the participation of all partners on 3^rd November 2022. Representatives of the universities of 4 countries of the Eastern Partnership, i.e. the Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, and the university of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which represents the country of the Western Balkans, are collaborating on the project.

Dr. Raček, who represented the applicant and the project coordinator, presented the solution team and the activities of the AdMaS research centre, Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Brno University of Technology in the form of a presentation, and then invited the other partners, which are Technical university of Košice (Slovakia), Rzeszow University of Technology (Poland), University of Miskolc (Hungary), University of Banja Luka (Bosna and Hercegovina), to make a short presentation.

Further, Dr. Raček in the presentation listed the goals of the project. A total of 3 workshops will gradually be organized in Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and finally in the Czech Republic. Furthermore, the topic of the project, which is the circular management of wastewater, will be presented and discussed in the form of 5 impact articles. Another joint output of the project will be a website. After the presentation, a discussion took place, the places and times of the workshops were agreed upon. The next video conference of the project partners will take place on December 8, 2022.

The above-mentioned platform will connect the solution teams and other persons and thus a multidisciplinary network will be created, which will spread the current knowledge and technical knowledge of the challenges of wastewater treatment and utilization, the utilization of organic wastes from wastewater treatment (so-called biosolids) and, finally, the utilization of energy potential from wastewater. In addition to the technological perspective, the impact on public health and the environment will also be considered, from the point of view of cross-border cooperation, experiences and approaches.

The project is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grant No. 22220131 „Circular Waste Water Management in conditions of 4 countries: concepts, approaches and technologies“ from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.

 

In accordance with the sub-tasks of the international project “Use of biochar as materially transformed waste for extensive green roofs”, Reg. No. 22-PKVV-1, financed from the program Strengthening the capacities of public universities in developing countries by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic between the Czech Republic and Bosnia and Herzegovina, on October 5^th – 7^th,2022, a training aimed at increasing the qualifications of the teaching staff of the University of Banja Luka was implemented.

On the first day of the training, an informal meeting was held. There was discussed the education system in the Czech Republic and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the number of students in various study programs, employment of graduates on the labor market, etc.

On the second day, the research team of the AdMaS centre, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Brno University of Technology led by prof. Hlavínek, prepared an educational program for selected teaching staff of the University of Banja Luka. The theoretical part took place in the AdMaS centre, where current trends in municipal wastewater treatment and the use of treated water (including greywater) in blue-green infrastructure applications – green parking lots, green roofs and facades, etc. were presented and discussed in the form of presentations. Furthermore, still at AdMaS centre, an excursion of the installed wastewater treatment technologies (membrane technologies), the use of energy from wastewater (vertical and horizontal heat exchangers), as well as waste (including sewage sludge) heat treatment technologies (medium-temperature and microwave pyrolysis) and its output in the form of biochar took place. After that, the excursion focused on pilot experiment installations (again at AdMaS centre), where biochar, which represents materially transformed sewage sludge, is already applied – green parking lots and extensive green roofs.

Next, the training participants went on an excursion to the Faculty of Civil Engineering and visited the municipal wastewater treatment plants – the large WWTP Brno – Modřice (including a tour of the installed paddle dryer of sewage sludge or tertiary wastewater treatment systems) and the smaller WWTP Lednice.

On the third, final day of the training, the pedagogical staff of the University of Banja Luka completed the so-called research part of the training. A program was prepared in Velké Bílovice where the results of Czech and international research projects in the fields of waste water management, the use of sewage sludge, and the removal of micropollutants from waste water were presented. Dr. Milan Šipka also presented one international research project implemented at the University of Banja Luka called SMARTWATER. The training program was subsequently concluded with a discussion on possible research topics where both educational and research institutions could be involved.

 

 

 

 

Research staff of the AdMaS center of the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Brno University of Technology (VUT in Brno) led by Dr. Jakub Raček, received in early 2022 a two-year project financed by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports entitled “Circular economy in water management” from the activity of international cooperation in research and development to support the mobility of male and female researchers with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), Department Water-Atmosphere-Environment.

In 2022, research activities are focused on basic principles, where available relevant national and international literature is primarily used to identify available and promising approaches and technologies for wastewater management in accordance with the principles of the circular economy. The priority is the use of waste as a resource and the energy balance of processes.

In 2023, the project is focused on identifying application possibilities, where the theoretical output from the first year will be transferred into a practice-oriented context with regard to local (national) specific boundary conditions.

On June 7-9, 2022, a “kick-off” meeting of the international project was held in the AdMaS center with the participation of BOKU representatives and the current activities of the AdMaS center were presented. At the same time, the Faculty of Civil Engineering BUT was introduced and the possibilities of further cooperation were presented.

On September 5-7, 2022, a second meeting took place in Vienna at BOKU with the participation of AdMaS representatives incl. personal participation of Mr. Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering BUT in Brno doc. Dufek with a focus on the current activities of colleagues from BOKU in the field of science and research, but also in the field of teaching programs. At the second meeting, among other things, mutual mobility of Ph.D. students and preparation of joint COST Action and Interreg V-A projects.

 

Research staff of the AdMaS Center of the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Brno University of Technology (VUT in Brno) led by prof. Petr Hlavínek, on August 8-10, 2022, during their second trip to the University of Banka Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in cooperation with colleagues from the local university, they completed the installation of experimental green roof modules and put the online monitoring system into operation.

Following the goals of the international project financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic entitled “Using biochar as materially transformed waste for extensive green roofs” from the Strengthening the capacities of public universities in developing countries program, the staff of the AdMaS center (Dr. Raček, Dr. Chorazy and Ing. Novotný) completed the installation of experimental modules of green roofs and thus started an intensive research collaboration in the field of testing substrates with biochar content in green roofs under the weather conditions as well as the partial use of recycled materials in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

As part of the testing, the effect of biochar on the substrate and on the vegetation of green roofs is now being investigated as a priority, the development and condition of the vegetation during the observed period of 1-2 years will also be documented. At the same time, the water retention capacity of individual substrates will be evaluated with regard to the measured rainfall and evapotranspiration from the vegetation areas will be calculated. The thermal properties of individual substrates are already being compared on the basis of temperature sensors placed at different depths in relation to the measured air temperature and solar radiation. Subsequently, physico-chemical analyzes of the organic component of the substrate, i.e. biochar, will be carried out and physico-chemical indicators of leachates from the artificial rain runoff of the individual modules will be evaluated.

In addition to the above, the experiment verifies the effectiveness of Czech utility model No. 34 637 “Substrate for green roofs“ developed by the author team of the Czech Technical University in Prague and the Technical University in Brno.

Apart from the work on the experimental modules of green roofs, further meetings took place with representatives of the University of Banja Luka, and research topics and possibilities for the mobility of master and Ph.D. students were discussed.

The complation of the second trip at the University of Banja Luka was a meeting with representatives of the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Sarajevo, which is responsible for this international project. The team of researchers from the AdMaS center, which was also accompanied on this trip by the vice-dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, doc. Zdeněk Dufek, Ph.D., presented his goals and the current status of the project solution. Representatives of the Czech Embassy, ​​namely the consul and head of development cooperation Mgr. Štěpán Šantrůček and the coordinator of development cooperation Mrs. Nejra Bučo discussed with the project team and representatives of the University of Banja Luka other possibilities that are offered as part of the Czech Republic’s development aid to Bosnia and Herzegovina, in particular the scholarship program for studying at Czech public universities.