Research staff of the AdMaS Center of the Faculty of Civil Engineering of Brno University of Technology led by prof. Petr Hlavínek, received another one-year project financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic in early 2023 entitled “Innovative use of biochar in substrates and underlying layers of green parking lots” from the Strengthening the capacities of public universities in developing countries program.

The main goal of the project is to strengthen and deepen knowledge of current findings in science and research in the sense of transferring experience from the Czech Republic (University of Technology in Brno, Faculty of Civil Engineering, AdMaS Center) to Bosnia and Herzegovina (University of Banja Luka, Faculty of Agriculture) in the area the use of a solid carbon product – biochar, produced from waste organic materials through pyrolysis/torrefaction technology for its subsequent use within the blue-green infrastructure of urbanized areas in accordance with the principles of the circular economy – specifically for the implementation of biochar in the substrates and cash layers of green parking lots.

The impact of project activities mainly assumes:

• preparation of the Ph.D. curriculum structure program with the University of Banja Luka,
• supplementing the education of university students and teachers in the area of the circular economy and their specific examples,
• increasing the qualifications of teaching and scientific-research workers and students in the field of blue-green infrastructure, specifically green parking lots, their innovative substrates and underlying layers including biochar,
• increasing intensive cooperation in research – implementation of biochar in the substrates and underlying layers of green parking lots in order to increase water retention, reduce surface runoff and create better microclimatic conditions in the built-up area,
• continuation of the evaluation of the findings from the testing of previously installed green roofs, solved in the framework of the previous project “Using biochar as materially transformed waste for extensive green roofs”,
• joint publication activity in the field of blue-green infrastructure.

From 28th till 31st May 2023, the first work trip of the research team took place to the University of Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina. As part of the international project solution, 3 experimental green parking lots were built, where the structural layer includes plastic grids made from waste (recycled plastic) and biochar (made from organic waste). Monitoring was installed (sensors in the body of the parking lot, Wi-Fi camera installation). Furthermore, there were meetings and partial negotiations with the management of the Institute and the University with the aim of starting work on a memorandum between the BUT in Brno and the University of Banja Luka. Expert training in circular economy and blue-green infrastructure for water management and biochar implementation took place. At the same time, the Faculty of Civil Engineering BUT was introduced and the possibilities of further cooperation were presented.

The currently resolved project follows on from the already initiated cooperation between the two educational and research institutions. The built green parking lot at the University of Banja Luka represents one of the elements of the blue-green infrastructure of cities and municipalities – its effectiveness will be monitored in the long term.

A “trunk” of three green parking spaces before installation; mounted grates made of recycled plastics

  

Completed three green parking spaces before grassing including installed monitoring system and signage

 

A snapshot of the construction and installation of the monitoring system

 

Sampling of experimental green roof modules built in 2022

Project REVOZIM for water recycling and waste management

 

In the AdMaS Center at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Brno University of Technology (BUT), the project REVOZIM – Recycling of water and waste within the green infrastructure of cities was completed last year. The project should help with technical solutions and strategies in the field of water and organic waste management. This area is more demanding for smaller towns and villages with up to 10,000 inhabitants than in the case of large cities, as they have limited human and financial resources for creating their own concepts. This opens up space for the involvement of research institutions.

 

Sewage sludge produced by wastewater treatment plants (WTP) is one of their essential waste streams. Following the conditions set by the new waste legislation, it is clear that some of the existing ways of using and removing CK will no longer be possible, and technologies for its efficient processing are still being sought and verified – optimally in the form of its material use in the sense of its useful properties, i.e. the content of nutrients and organic substances, but possibly also from the point of view of its energy potential.

One of the potential solutions is the thermal processing of sewage sludge into a solid carbonaceous residue/product intended for further use – biochar/biochar. The obtained product then appropriately combines the preservation of the original useful properties and adds a new one – stable carbon with an increased specific/specific surface area.

In the AdMaS Center, a proven technology for the production of a solid carbonaceous product, i.e. biochar/biochar, was processed by the process of microwave torrefaction, i.e. weak microwave pyrolysis, with regard to its material transformation.

 

In cooperation between the research teams of the BUT in Brno and the Czech Technical University in Prague, two useful samples were developed: Substrate for green roofs and Substrate for laying gravel carpets. The technical solutions of both useful samples are based on the use of recycled aggregate and biochar, i.e. pyrolyzed stabilized sewage sludge. The specific recycled material of both types of substrates is biochar. It can be produced in different ways from different organic wastes. In biochar, organic substances are stabilized and when they are added to the soil or substrate, their decomposition is significantly slower than in the case of organic matter that has not been stabilized.

 

You can read the entire article in Energie21 magazine issue 02/2023.

 

 

The addressed sub-project REVOZIM – “Recycling of water and waste within the green infrastructure of cities” aimed to address the needs of smaller cities with up to 10,000 inhabitants. residents and municipalities to comprehensively solve water and waste management and improve the quality of life in accordance with the principles of Smart City and the principles of the circular economy.

Tomáš Chorazy, Michal Novotný, Tomáš Macsek, Petr Hlavínek, Jakub Raček, Brno University of Technology, Faculty of Civil Engineering, AdMaS center, e-mail: chorazy.t@fce.vutbr.cz

 

The AdMaS Centre is been participating in the processing of partial parts of the visionary conceptual project internally called the Green Highway.

The Directorate of Roads and Motorways of the Czech Republic assigned the solution team consisting of the innovative company SATTURN HOLEŠOV spol. s.r.o., the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication Technologies and the Faculty of Civil Engineering – AdMaS Centre the preparation of an initial technical-economic study of a selected section of the planned D55 highway entitled “Highway gallery with integrated photovoltaics and use of rainwater from the gallery in the landscape”.

The subject of the preliminary technical-economic study will be the effective use of solar radiation and rainwater during the implementation of the construction “D55 – section of the bird area Bzenec – Bzenec, Přívoz – Rohatec – solution with a gallery”. The aim of the study is to prepare a comprehensive qualified basis for the subsequent assignment of the implementation project.

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.

 

 

 

 

This is an international project with ID: 22220131 with the financial support of Visegrad+ Grand, a grant program financed by the international Visegrad Fund, aimed at facilitating support from the V4 countries primarily towards the Eastern Partnership countries and countries of the Western Balkans. The project is therefore implemented by the V4 countries, i.e. the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia together with the Bosnia and Herzegovina, i.e. the Western Balkans countries, with a focus on facilitating the dissemination the know-how and best practices of the V4 countries, on democratization, civil society development, political, economic and social transformation, EU approximation and EU integration, good governance and regional cooperation.

The implementation of the project is planned for the period 20/9/2022 – 31/12/2023 with a total budget of € 32 950.

The main aim of this project is to improve a cooperation of leading wastewater management institutions, to exchange knowledge and experiences, and to create synergies in the conditions of Central Europe. The following three topics will be addressed:

• possibilities to reuse treated wastewater from municipal wastewater treatment plant;
• sustainable sewage sludge management including resource recovery (nutrients) in the blue-green infrastructure;
• integration of energy from wastewater.

The target group is university teachers, research and scientific workers, students (master`s and doctoral programs), government officials, representatives of municipalities (cities and towns), and commercial entities.

The ambition of the project is to involve at least 1,000 people from the project partner countries (the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Bosnia and Herzegovina). Of these, 700 will be people from V4 countries.

The applicant and coordinator of the project is the Brno University of Technology, Faculty of Civil Engineering, research centre AdMaS, represented by prof. Ing. Petr Hlavínek, CSc. MBA.

The project partners are Technical university of Košice, Rzeszow University of Technology, University of Miskolc, University of Banja Luka.

On August 12, 2022, the AdMaS Center joined the summer school program on the topic of urban engineering and urbanism. Students from 5 European countries participated in the summer school. An interesting program of professional excursions at the AdMaS Center was provided by Ing. Arnošt Vespalec in the field of 3D printing, from the field of mobile mapping dr. Zdeněk Krejza, from the field of blue-green infrastructure dr. Tomáš Chorazy, from the field of designing and testing concrete mixes, defects and breakdowns of road prefabs Ing. Denisa Jančaříková. The coordinator of the professional excursion was dr. Šárka Keprdová.