Josef Maroušek

The Institute of Technology and Businesses in České Budějovice · Department of Technology

Waste management is undergoing a rapid transformation into the waste valorization industry, with biological and chemical refining methods currently emerging as the most appealing options. To maintain competitiveness, staying well informed about the latest advancements and promptly adapting to evolving trends is essential. However, not all stakehold...

The majority belief is that microalgae is the most promising potential feedstock for biodiesel production while it can also be used for treating wastewater. After the microalgae biodiesel is mixed with proper additives, it can even outperform some conventional fossil fuels, not to mention its environmentally friendly nature. Although the mainstream...

The aim of this review was to study why, despite large investments in research and development, algae biodiesel is still not price competitive with fossil fuels. Microalgal production was confirmed to be a critical cost item (84 up to 93 %) for biodiesel regardless of the production technology. Techno-economic assessment revealed the main cost driv...

Emission Pongamia methyl ester Heat release rate A B S T R A C T In this work, SICI mode (Split Injection Compression Ignition) was tested, using diesel as a split injected fuel along with the diesel and biodiesel main injection with various split injected ratios of 0.20, 0.40 and 0.60. Re-circulated Exhaust Gas has been used to analyse the variati...

Feeding cost is among the main drivers in the price competitiveness of intensively‐fed‐aquaculture (IFA) products. As soaring energy prices increase the costs of technologies used to increase the digestibility of plant protein feeds, there is an urgent call for comprehensive knowledge on the mass use of insects as fish feed. This review identifies...

Hydrogen has a negligible share on the global fuel market, yet it attracts a lot of investors. The main obstacle to the development of the hydrogen economy is its low cost-competitiveness. In order to meet energy demand and mitigate environmental damage, it is advisable to replace the existing fossil fuels with technologies that are more environmen...

There is a shared belief across latest literature that hydrogen and algae biodiesel are promising substitutes for fossil fuels. However, hydrogen infrastructure for everyday mobility is still in its early stage from a global perspective and there is no algae biodiesel refinery in operation. Despite all this, recent geopolitical developments have ca...

To date, no sustainable way of processing liquid packaging boards as a whole has been defined. The cardboard is occasionally recycled; however, there is no reliable demand for the resulting mixture of polyethylene and aluminum (PE-Al). Since Al leaching from landfills destroys both soil and water, it was proposed to prevent PE-Al landfilling by tra...

In this study the methane combustion was analysed with the TiO2 nanoparticles. A series of the simulation runs were performed by varying the fuel inlet velocity. However, the oxidizer and the nanoparticles spray were maintained constant for the entire run. The spray velocity varied from 100 m/s to 200 m/s with titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles....

This study investigates the effect of the injection pressure on the spray characteristics and atomization of the fuel. The novelty of the work lies in examining the injection pressure (IP) at four different scenarios such as 180 MPa, 200 MPa, 220 MPa and 240 MPa. A series of test conducted in the single cylinder engine at three different concentrat...

Air transport plays an inevitable role in the transportation sector. In the modern world, the aviation contribution is very immense to establish worldwide developments. However, the emission released by the aviation industry is massively high. Due to the sudden increase in the air traffic the contribution of global CO2 and CO have increased in rece...

The most common drinking water clarification technology worldwide is based on precipitation using the floccules of iron(III) oxide-hydroxide FeO(OH). The coagulation sludge obtained is usually mixed with biowaste and composted. Inexperienced farmers are interested in these composts, in the expectation that the smallest fractions of the precipitated...

Lignin is a natural biopolymer. A vibrant and rapid process in the synthesis of silica nanoparticles by consuming the lignin as a soft template was carefully studied. The extracted biopolymer from coir pith was employed as capping and stabilizing agents to fabricate the silica nanoparticles (nSi). The synthesized silica nanoparticles (nSi) were cha...

Research background: The issue of personnel risk management has received less attention from scholars than other types of managerial risks. Employees represent important capital for an enterprise, which can significantly influence its performance and success Purpose of the article: The aim of the study is to present and quantify significant factors...

Our research examined the attitudes of owners and managers of small and medium-sized enterprises in the V4 countries, who behave responsibly - they use corporate social responsibility in their managerial practice on issues focused on the market and operational area of business. The paper is based on a questionnaire survey with data collection from...

This study aims to evaluate the perception of bankruptcy by small and medium-sized enterprises from the V4 region. CSR implementation in business activities was selected as the comparison criterion. The research paper is based on a questionnaire survey of 1585 respondents. The data were collected from September 2019 to January 2020. The research hy...

It is well known that pandemics not only change people's social habits but have also changed most activities related to energy consumption, especially industry and transport. Over the past year, a plethora of case studies have been published mapping the environmental impacts in specific locations in terms of changes in wastewater composition, noise...

The United Nations estimates the rate of deforestation over 10 million hectares per year, with additional infested wood available due to drought, bark beetle calamity and other damage vectors. Processing the hard-to-reach infested wood into biochar via mobile pyrolysis units seems to be a good option for fire prevention. However, since most biochar...

The economics of producing energy-valuable gases by fermenting phytomass is deteriorated by the costs associated with waste management of highly diluted (typically 95% water) fermentation residues (FR). Previously, no better solution was known than to plough FR into the arable land and claim that it is an irrigation with soil improving and fertiliz...

Research background: Deteriorating economic conditions and a negative outlook increase the pressure on financial management and the need to show high financial performance. According to Positive Accounting Theory, the growing risk of bankruptcy is associated with the phenomenon of earnings management. Bankruptcy risk and the quality of reported pro...

There is wide consensus that Spirulina can serve as a tool for wastewater management and simultaneously provide feedstock for biorefining. However, the economic aspects associated with its use remain a significant challenge. Spirulina cultivated in wastewater decreased the concentrations of both ammonia and nitrate and also served as a biodiesel so...

The purpose of the article is to assess the optimal ratio of environmental taxes in the context of national security. National security is defined as a complex parameter of indicators of economic, environmental and energy security, sensitive to the impact of environmental taxation, according to the method of Kolmogorov-Gabor. The environmental taxe...

Disc cultivators are a commonly used method in soil processing when growing maize in Central Europe. However, the slope of the land leads to soil losses through water erosion. Therefore, conservation technologies for soil treatment—strip-till and no-till—are recommended. The aim of this research was to assess these technologies in terms of the labi...

For several decades, researchers have been struggling to obtain minimum phosphorus (P) capture costs to meet the parameters for discharging wastewater into the watercourse. Findings from ongoing practices suggest that the Modified University of Cape Town process is currently the cheapest P capture method in the USA, whereas struvite precipitation s...

The amount of fermentation residues from biogas plants is rising rapidly worldwide. Nevertheless, farmers are losing their interest in its incorporation into soil since the level of nutrients as well as the agrochemical value of the organic matter present is low. Unlike combustion (carried out in the presence of oxygen), the product of which is ash...

This article focuses on the perception of the importance of business ethics among Czech and Slovak entrepreneurs (this includes business owners and managers) within the SME sector. The comparison is based on an analysis of the approach to business ethics according to a set of parameters, namely company size, years in business, and the gender and ed...

A great number of researchers argue that the development of large swathes of the global economy and competitiveness are influenced by fluctuations in international oil prices. The aim of this article is to determine to what extent those fluctuations in oil prices influence the value of the Euro relative to the value of USD. Data on the EUR/USD exch...

Foodwaste (hereinafter, FW) is the most voluminous solid waste and its amount is growing rapidly all over the world. The turning of FW into biogas via anaerobic fermentation is widely recognized as an environmentally responsible and economically reasonable option. Based on the knowledge obtained from agricultural biogas stations, the current method...

The warming climate results in higher losses in potato production, storage and processing, especially in developing countries. Feeding, anaerobic fermentation, combustion, composting and charring of potato peels with reject potatoes were analyzed on a pilot scale. It was revealed that feeding is the most promising alternative; however, additional e...

The share of renewables is rising rapidly, especially in developed countries. Biogas production from purpose-grown phytomass is undergoing the fastest growth. The trend is linked to the production of vast amounts of fermentation residues. However, it has been repeatedly and independently reported that intensive or long-term application of fermentat...

The shock wave apparatus is a device capable of deep intracellular disintegration on a purely mechanical basis. It does not increase temperature of the feedstock, and no additional reactants are needed. Current knowledge indicates that the best ways to generate these destructive forces are short circuits of high-voltage or wire explosions. The resu...

Biochar refers to the high-carbon, black fine-grained product of biomass pyrolysis. Independent studies repeatedly confirmed that its incorporation into arable land is a reliable carbon sequestration method that significantly improves soil quality. The latest development leads to a reduction in the production cost (− 10 to 30 USD t⁻¹); however, the...

In the last two decades, subsidised purchase prices for electricity produced from biogas generated from purpose-grown crops has seen the construction of hundreds of biogas plants across Central Europe in response. The resulting intensive cultivation of monocultures has had a negative impact on the environment and has been a waste of taxpayers’ mone...

Impacts of red beet consumption both on human and animal health are subject of intense research. In particular, products that are not heat-processed contain plethora of bioactive compounds that hold promise against numerous degenerative and aging-associated diseases. However, high level of nitrates (typically more than 2 g NO3⁻ kg⁻¹) whose health e...

The demonstrational comparative experiment with (round red) beetroot fertilized by sodium with the doses of 100 and 200 kg ha⁻¹ NaCl in addition to the basic NPK fertilization showed 29% reduction in the nitrate content in the fresh matter of the harvested beetroot. At the same time, the beetroot yield increased by 8.8%. The increase in the yield r...

Biochar refers to carbon-based dusty residues obtained from biomass pyrolysis. This recently rediscovered traditional soil improver is currently being glorified for its wide portfolio of favorable environmental aspects. With its lifetime of several centuries, it is being widely accepted as a promising method of carbon sequestration. Moreover, it ha...

Regarding the price of meat product filling in comparison with the negligible cost of the collagen casings, whole roll of the casings is discharged only on suspicion of a small cut during handling. Once the casings are designed to be biologically resistant, they represent relatively problematic waste that is nowadays rather transported to landfills...

Grape seed oil is recognized for its high quality bioactive compounds, however, these are sensitive to increased temperatures during manufacture. Technical and economical potential of the pretreatment in combination with the mixture of hydrolyzing enzymes have been analyzed. It was confirmed that the shockwave pretreatment significantly enhances th...

This paper focuses on compost use in overpasses and underpasses for wild animals over roads and other similar linear structures. In this context, good quality of compost may result in faster and more resistant vegetation cover during the year. Inter alia, this can be interpreted also as reduction of damage and saving lives. There are millions of to...

Regarding the developed countries, most of the meat products are packed into cellulose, respectively collagen casings. Minor defects or inaccuracies in threading of the shirred casings on the filling machines result in hundreds of meters of extremely lightweight waste. The logistics of such a waste is costly and other expenses are linked with the o...

This article describes the current stage in development of the phytomass disintegration apparatus based on the pressure shockwaves. Previous findings confirmed that the batch system provides disintegration to larger extents. However, the time delays connected with filling and discharging of the batch pressure vessel would naturally burden its comme...

Many cities face a long-term surplus of grass cuttings. Its management is usually financially demanding once many of the up to date technologies require high acquisition as well as variable costs. It was verified in a commercial scale if the newly proposed concept of anaerobic fermentation followed by continuous pyrolysis is technically and economi...

The advantages of biochar application in crop production, water treatment and more are well known; however, the manufacturing cost (roughly 500USD t−1) prevents its expansion into the commercial scale. The very first apparatus which continuously produces the biochar from the fermentation residue by utilizing waste heat from the cogeneration unit li...

Energy production from phytomass residues such as harvest leftovers is generally accepted as a sustainable way. Excellent results may be reviewed in papers based on laboratory observations. However, trials performed on a commercial scale show that without proper disintegration long retention times, huge fermenters, or various chemicals are required...

The current prevailing energetical utilization of grass silage is based on anaerobic fermentation. However, huge fermentors and long retention times are needed because only a part of the organic matter undergoes the anaerobic fermentation. System of complex energetical utilization of the grass silage based on partition of easily accessible organic...

Kinetic data regarding the intensity of maceration and subsequent pretreatment with pressure shockwaves (50 MPa to 60 MPa) are described in detail and evaluated statistically. Mass balances as well as the study on liquid environment are reported, allowing further process optimization according to financial aspects. It was verified on a laboratory s...

Biochar is a soil-improving substrate made from phytomass pyrolysis. In Southeast Asia, its application decreases due to the long-term growth of biochar cost and thus caused further prolongation of the payback period. In the Euro-American civilization the biochar application is already almost forgotten once it has been much earlier recognized that...

A brief report on the development of novel apparatus is presented. It was verified in a commercial scale that a new concept of anaerobic fermentation followed by continuous pyrolysis is technically and economically feasible to manage previously enzymatically hydrolyzed waste haylage in huge volumes. The design of the concept is thoroughly described...

Maize silage (Atletico, FAO 280) is being anaerobically fermented with cow manure (45 °C, pH 7.1, hydraulic retention time 67 days) in a commercial scale (8,210 MWh electric power and 8,700 MWh heat power per year). The fermentation residues are being mechanically separated into the liquid fraction and the solid pulp (0.9 % hemicelluloses, 8.4 % ce...

A novel technique for continuous disintegration of oilseeds was designed. The operating principle consists of gasification of deshelled oilseeds mash using small amounts of gas. These were subsequently subjected to the pressure waves generated externally by underwater high-voltage discharges, which are then followed by expansion of the water plasma...

Overall effectiveness of the subsidy policy applied by the EU in the area of renewable energy in the first decade of the 21st century was assessed. The case study involved three renewable energy sources who received the subsidies. The detailed analysis of economic efficiency presented here was built on real cash flows data and holistic assessment o...

The lignocellulose-based rapeseed straw is usually burned. However, the presence of chlorine causes ash caking and potential risk of carcinogen formations. Because its natural form severely undergoes the anaerobic fermentation, it was subjected to various parameters of steam explosion technology. The dynamics of the processes were analyzed using th...

BACKGROUND Low yields of oil, hazardous organic solvents or demanding supercritical conditions hinder energy utilization of Jatropha Curcas L. RESULTSA new complex procedure for processing the oilseeds is presented. The method consists of deshelling, grinding, shockwave pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, oil expelling, anaerobic fermentation and c...

Background: Waste from public green areas represents large quantities of grassy phytomass. The grass is usually utilised by composting, combustion or anaerobic fermentation. However, the classical composts are time-demanding, the quality of accelerated composts is low, combustion is under increasing criticism and conventional anaerobic fermentatio...

Phytomass cultivation for energy use is increasingly popular in Europe for high profits guaranteed by subsidy. Although public interest in ecology is on an increasing level, direct combustion is still preferred even though scholars have been warning about formations of hazardous compounds for a long-time. However, the reduction of subsidies would n...

The pretreatment methods for enhancing biogas production from oat straw under study include hot maceration, steam explosion, and pressure shockwaves. The micropore area (9, 55, and 64 m(2) g(-1)) inhibitor formations (0, 15, and 0 mL L(-1)) as well as the overall methane yields (67, 179, and 255 CH4 VS t(-1)) were robustly analyzed. It was confirme...

A prototype capable of generating underwater high-voltage discharges (3.5 kV) coupled with water plasma expansion was constructed. The level of phytomass disintegration caused by transmission of the pressure shockwaves (50-60 MPa) followed by this expansion was analyzed using gas adsorption techniques. The dynamics of the external surface area and...

Development of techniques utilizing waste without any additional energy or rare catalysts is a starting point for becoming sustainable. In the present work, the complex utilization of greenhouse residues was studied on a commercial scale. Only the energy produced by the process (8%) was used to run the technology, thanks to multilevel heat recupera...

The removal of hardly fermentable ballast from the maize silage was investigated on a commercial scale to reduce the retention times, volumes of fermentors and associated heating requirements. The technology consisted of the under-hot-water maceration followed by decantation and the double-screw-press to separate the most labile pools of carbon fro...

Underwater high-voltage discharges (3.5 kV) resulting in 4.9 kJ shock waves (50-60 MPa) were studied at the laboratory scale as a Jatropha curcas L. seed disintegration method. Grinding and macerating in an excess of methanol (3.5:1) was advantageous because methanol acts both as a liquid carrier for the pressure shock waves and as a solvent that i...

The aim of this work is to verify the economic advantage of the upgraded steam explosion technology linked to the biogas station at a commercial scale for straw methanogenesis. New engineering (the pelletizer and mixer were replaced by an underwater grinding apparatus, a material heater was inserted before the continuous high-pressure reactor, and...

Sunflower stalks were subjected to commercial-scale pretreatment by hot-water maceration and steam-explosion technology to enhance biogas production. The technology involved does not require heavy construction nor does it consume any additional energy, chemicals, or rare catalysts. Process parameters regarding the mass flow, operating temperature,...

The aim of this study was to increase the efficiency of rapeseed oil recovery by pressure shockwaves and to asses the changes related to energetical utilization of the seedcake obtained. Mass balances and several design parameters (along with their manifestations on the seedcake) were analyzed to allow further optimization of the technology. It was...

Combining biochemical principles and mathematical methods were defined optimal extrusion (steam explosion) process conditions for pelleted hay resulting in maximal cumulative production of biogas (CBGP). Operating experiments were conducted on a continuous modifiable extruder. Variable parameters, the reaction time, pressure and dry mass were compa...