Hydraulic fracturing of rocks boosts the production rate by increasing the fracture-face surface area through the use of a pressurized liquid. Complex stress distribution and magnitude are the main factors that hinder the use of information gathered from in situ hydraulic fracturing in other locations. Laboratory tests are a good method for precisely determining the characteristics of these processes. One of the most important parameters is breakdown pressure, defined as the wellbore pressure necessary to induce a hydraulic fracture. Therefore, the main purpose of this investigation is to verify fracture resistance of rock samples fractured with the assistance of the most popular industry fluids. The experiments were carried out using a stand designed specifically for laboratory hydraulic fracturing. Repeatable results with a relative error within the range of 6-11% prove that the experimental methodology was correct. Moreover, the obtained results show that fracturing pressure depends significantly on fluid type. In the case of a water test, the fracturing pressure was 7.1±0.4 MPa. A similar result was achieved for slickwater, 7.5±0.7 MPa; however, a much lower value (4.7±0.5 MPa) was registered in the case of carbon dioxide.

The aim of this paper is analysis of the possibility of determining the internal structure of the fibrous composite material by estimating its thermal diffusivity. A thermal diffusivity of the composite material was determined by applying inverse heat conduction method and measurement data. The idea of the proposed method depends on measuring the timedependent temperature distribution at selected points of the sample and identification of the thermal diffusivity by solving a transient inverse heat conduction problem. The investigated system which was used for the identification of thermal parameters consists of two cylindrical samples, in which transient temperature field is forced by the electric heater located between them. The temperature response of the system is measured in the chosen point of sample. One dimensional discrete mathematical model of the transient heat conduction within the investigated sample has been formulated based on the control volume method. The optimal dynamic filtration method as solution of the inverse problem has been applied to identify unknown diffusivity of multi-layered fibrous composite material. Next using this thermal diffusivity of the composite material its internal structure was determined. The chosen results have been presented in the paper.

This paper presents a test stand for the capture of CO₂ from flue gases arising due to firing pulverised hard coal. The stand, financed from the 2014–2021 Norway Grants, is installed at a Polish power plant. The innovation of the proposed CO₂ capture method, developed by the Norwegian partner in the project (SINTEF Industry), lies in the use of activated carbon in the process of temperature swing adsorption in a moving bed. The paper also presents preliminary results of numerical simulations performed using the General PROcess Modelling System (gPROMS) software. The simulations concerned the operation of a supercritical power unit combined with a system for capturing CO₂ from flue gases. Transient operation of the system was analysed, assuming rapid changes in the power unit load. Special attention was paid to the CO₂ capture process energy consumption at an increase in load by 5% of the power unit nominal capacity in 30 s. It is found that the proposed CO₂ capture method “keeps up” with such rapid load changes at the method energy consumption smaller than 2 MJ/kg CO₂.