Hydraulic fracturing raises concerns regarding possible contamination of groundwater resources, adverse effects on air quality, potential leaks of gas and other substances, treatment of waste material and various direct and indirect health hazards. Water used in hydraulic fracturing contains roughly 0.5 % of chemical additives including agents for reducing friction, preventing corrosion, eliminating microorganisms, gels and lubricants used for cooling the drill head etc. Serious debate concerning potential risks of commercial shale gas mining is taking place today throughout Europe.

The paper deals with modelling and experimental validation of the heat pump model with cooler of the vapours and aftercooler. The first part describes model of the individual components and the whole cycle, including boundary conditions. The constructed prototype and measuring circuits are described in the second part, including placement of individual sensors. The model of the heat pump has been verified by experiments on the prototype. The mathematical model shows high correspondence with measurement for most of the operational conditions. The mean deviation of measured and calculated power outputs is 4 % for standard configuration (only evaporator and condenser). For multi-exchanger configuration the model differs from the experiment by 10 %. The validated model can be further used for optimization and simulations in another computational programs.

Shales are sedimentary rocks. They are typically found in horizontal formations. Shale gas extraction therefore requires that miners “bend“ the drill head when approaching the layer with shale deposits and drill horizontally. It is also necessary to create large number of small cracks in the rock which allow the gas to escape. This is achieved by pumping large amounts of water with sand and other additives under pressure into the well. This process is called hydraulic fracturing or fracking.

Visit and familiarization with the Engineering Test Institute. The process of certification of automatic boilers for solid fuels – for wood pellets. Description of the activities thermal and environmental testing equipment.

Total recoverable shale gas reserves in China are currently estimated at 31.5 trillion cubic meters, which amounts to second largest (after USA) shale gas reserves in the world. Other Asian shale gas resources are located in India and Pakistan, Indonesia, Australia and Russia. Deposits of shale gas with potential for mining are also found in North and South Africa, Middle East and throughout Europe.

Second part of serial focuses on solar collectors. Basic axioms of solar thermal engineering are lost if designer or installation company wants to supply the a solar system at all „costs“. It is not easy to recognize the quality of solar collector at first sight. But i tis simpler and less expensive to make a cross-check of the solar collector than to replace one after another by new ones because of low heat output.

During the manufacturing of plastic products a waste heat rises. This energy is usually liquidated. Energetically and ecologically more efficient is to reuse the waste heat as it does in company IMS Drašnar Inc. located in Česká Třebová, Czech Republic. The usage of the system of waste heat recovery is described below.

First part of serial aims at general quality of suppliers and above all at purpose of the solar system installation. It is very difficult to identify the purpose of solar system supply for installations without any planning and energy yields calculations.

There are no indicators (ie not an individual) that would measure the consumption of heat. The ones that are declared various lobbyists and some officials of ministries the term "devices registering heat energy supply", registering an ordinary temperature, according to which no one is able to determine the individual consumption of heat. Neither exactly nor approximately!

The article gives an overview of heat pumps installed in houses. For air/water heat pumps is important to observe the temperature range at which the device is able to operate and on the parameters of noise. For ground/water heat pumps are given the required depth of the borehole and surface area of the collector. The price for a complete installation of the heat source with heat pump varies from 150 000 to 500 000 CZK.

First shale gas mining activities started in Appalachian mountains in United States of America in 1821. Since the start of 21^st century shale gas has become an increasingly important source of natural gas in the United States. The focus on unconventional gas resources gradually spreads also to other parts of the world. Shale gas reserves worldwide are estimated at 331 trillion cubic meters. The largest producer of shale gas today is USA, but plans to develop shale gas mining are considered also in other parts of the world – from Europe to South Africa, from China to Argentina.

The heat transfer between apartments operated on various internal temperatures objectively exists and under certain circumstances this may represent an important proportion of the total heat loss of the apartment. Is it possible to quantify the financial impact of the heat parasitism?

The article describes a procedure for sizing of heat pumps. These devices are often dimensioned for economic reasons only approximately 70 % of the heating load of the building. Variability of heating capacity and power input can be seen from the heating capacity performance curves. Declared heating capacity of heat pumps is given in the parameters of the standard EN 14511. For the purposes of sizing is necessary to work with a heating capacity at maximum heating load.

Shale gas is natural gas that is found trapped within shale formations. Main source of organic matter for genesis of oil and natural gas was plankton. Gradual and lengthy process of oil formation took place in past geological periods and lasted millions of years. Movement of emerged oil and natural gas from source rock to other geologic formations is called migration. We distinguish between primary and secondary migration. The deposits of hydrocarbons are usually divided to conventional and unconventional.

Do you want to save fuel and reduce emissions from your chimney? SMOKEMAN teachs you how to do it.

The understanding of central heating decides compliance of calculation methods with physical reality. The paper demonstrates how complex parametric calculations of heating eliminate false prerequisites and opinions about the dynamic operation of heating systems.

In the last article on the regeneration of residential buildings, I said that additional contributions will be more focused on topics that are crucial for the effective functioning of the heating system, or which are controversial perception among the general public. The first topic that fully meets the two criteria is the heat transfer between the different flats in apartment houses.