Katarzyna Grzesik

• PhD, DSc, Eng. (Habilitation)
• Professor (Associate) at AGH University of Krakow

The reprint includes articles originally published in the journal Energies as part of the Special Issue entitled "Assessment and Analysis of Waste Treatment and Environmental Management." It comprises one editorial and eleven high-quality papers addressing diverse aspects of waste management and environmental protection. The topics covered range fr...

The waste management sector plays a crucial role within the broader environmental management system. This Editorial reviews selected articles and provides a detailed summary of several research papers in this field published as part of a special issue in Energies.

In this study the impact on air quality and on atmospheric aerosol optical depth (AOD) of selected waste fires in Poland in the last few years was assessed using measurement results derived from the public air quality monitoring (AQM) system and satellite observations of the MODIS sensor. Additional meteorological data from nearest ground stations...

Biowaste valorization is a means for tackling resource depletion and climate change, which gives rise to environmental benefits and economic growth. One of the most known technological routes to convert biowaste into bioproducts is pyrolysis, which may conduct with and without catalyst application. The purpose of this study was to investigate an ea...

Recent interest in reducing stress on the environment requires the use of renewable resources for addressing ever-increasing sustainability concerns. Rapeseed meal (RM) is a by-product of the production of rapeseed oil, which is a potential feedstock to produce fuels and carbon-riched products via thermochemical conversion. The study aims to invest...

Among the different alternatives for the production of biofuels, food waste could be a favorable bioenergy source. Using food waste as a feedstock has the potential to meet the expectations of the second generation of biofuels, in terms of environmental savings and revenue-generation, and which, along with other valuable co-products, can contribute...

Guest editors invite all potential authors to submit manuscripts to the Special Issue of Energies on topic "Assessment and Analysis of Waste Treatment and Environmental Management, Volume II". New deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 December 2023. For more information of the Special Issue: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/energies/special_issues/...

With regard to the growing emphasis on sustainability in recent years, evaluation of the environmental performance of drying is considered. This paper aims to analyze the environmental burdens associated with whole stillage drying in a biorefinery through Life Cycle Assessment(LCA) methodology. The results reveal that the ring dryer has fewer envir...

The substitution of fossil fuels started with biofuels produced from food crops containing starch or sugar as the first-generation biofuels. The conversion of food crops into bioethanol raised concerns about food security on a global scale Vohra et al. (2014). Therefore, second-generation biofuels based on non-food resources were considered. Over t...

In this study the impact on air quality of selected fires at waste storage sites in Poland in the last few years was assessed using measurement results derived from the public air quality monitoring (AQM) system, meteorological data, forward trajectory modelling, aerosol optical depth (AOD) data and satellite imagery analysis. The concentrations of...

Guest editors invite all potential authors to submit manuscripts to the special Issue of Energies on topic "Assessment and Analysis of Waste Treatment and Environmental Management".

So far, a lot of efforts have been put in life cycle assessments (LCA) of bioethanol production. There are many works that have assessed bioethanol production in different points of view to illustrate the environmental impacts. This study reviewed former LCA studies on bioethanol produced from various biomass resources by considering the effect of...

The aim of this study was to identify and assess the potential environmental impacts caused by mixed municipal solid waste management system based on mechanical-biological treatment technology in Rybnik, Poland. The study is based on life cycle assessment methodology, with application of EASETECH model. The system elements that were taken under con...

Rare earth elements (REEs) are considered as critical strategic resources. Their significance for the development of modern technologies provided an incentive to search alternative resources which include, among others, industrial tailings. Because of the low REEs concentration in ore from secondary sources and the difficulty in REE separating, the...

Rare Earth Elements (REEs) are identified as critical raw materials for the EU economy. The ENVIREE project aims at contributing to REE supply in Europe, by addressing the exploitation of tailings and mining waste. Two secondary sources: tailings from New Kankberg (Sweden) and Covas (Portugal) are promising and rich in REEs. Beneficiation is one of...

Rare Earth Elements (REEs) are identified as critical raw materials for the European Union economy. REEs are not currently produced in the EU, while there are several sources not properly addressed. Within the ENVIREE project tailings from New Kankberg (Sweden) and Covas (Portugal) were identified as rich in REEs and chosen for recovery processing....

An efficient and effective waste management system is one of the key issues for urban areas. Such a waste management system should be effective and economically viable with minimal environmental impact. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology is an effective tool for identifying and assessing environmental impacts, it also enables comparing alt...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to perform the life cycle inventory (LCI) to continuous casting of steel (CCS) process in integrated steel plant (ISP) in Krakow, Poland. The present LCI is representative for year 2015 by application of PN-EN ISO 14040 (2009). The system boundary was labeled as gate to gate. The background input and output data...

The methodology of life cycle assessment (LCA) is a valuable tool for identifying and assessing the environmental impacts caused by waste management scenarios. The aim of this study was to perform a comparative LCA of two scenarios of municipal waste management system in Krakow, Poland. The assessment is limited to residual (mixed) waste. Under the...

The study proposes an stochastic approach based on Monte Carlo (MC) simulation for life cycle assessment (LCA) method limited to life cycle inventory (LCI) study for rare earth elements (REEs) recovery from the secondary materials processes production applied to the New Krankberg Mine in Sweden. The MC method is recognizes as an important tool in s...

Neodymium, cerium and lanthanum are commonly used critical rare earth elements in the last years. This study analyzes environmental impacts that may occur mainly from neodymium (Ne), cerium (Ce) and lanthanum (La) obtained from secondary sources, derived from the New Kankberg (Sweden) flotation tailings case study. The possibilities of extraction o...

Extraction of rare earth elements (REE) from mining wastes may change their physical and chemical properties thus affecting their usefulness for reclamation. The aim of this work was to assess the usefulness for reclamation of mine wastes used for REE production. Samples of mine wastes after an experimental benefication process (n=6) were delivered...

Currently the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology is more and more frequently used as a tool for evaluating the environmental performance of products or services. Conducting the LCA is particularly important and valuable for a new product, process or technology. That is also applied for research on the innovative solutions or process proposals....

The aim of this study is to quantify the environmental exchanges associated with the mechanical–biological treatment (MBT) of mixed municipal waste, for a specific MBT plant, based on the annual operation data for the year 2015. Modeling of environmental performance of the MBT technology is done on actual, real data of the operating plant, taking i...

The aim of this study is to identify and assess the potential environmental impacts caused by refuse-derived fuel (RDF) production from mixed municipal waste, in a mechanical–biological waste treatment plant in Krakow, Poland. The study is based on life cycle assessment methodology, employing EASETECH model. The system boundaries include only those...

Life Cycle Assessment, which is considered to be one of the most effective methods of environmental management, is a useful tool to evaluate the environmental aspects of waste management systems. The LCA procedure is a complex task and requires a precise definition of the scope of a research, acquisition of a variety of accurate data, as well as a...

The aim of the study is to conduct the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for the collection and transport stage in four scenarios of mixed municipal waste management in Krakow. The scenarios being considered are: refuse-derived fuel production, mechanical -biological treatment, incineration with energy recovery, landfilling with energy recovery from la...

Purpose The goal of this paper is to describe the life cycle inventory (LCI) approach to the cokemaking process in the Integrated Steel Plant’s Coke Oven Battery (ISPCOB) in Kraków, Poland. The system boundaries were labeled as gate-to-gate, covering the full chain process of coke production. The background input and output data from the coke produ...

Rapid technological development and reduction in cost of production and maintenance result in cars becoming a daily means of transportation for the European society. The increase in the amount of used cars has also raised of their impact on the environment. In order to reduce energy and resource consump-tion and maximize the recycling of end-of-lif...

The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology is considered one of the most effective management tools for identifying and assessing the environmental impacts related with waste management options. The aim of this study is the environmental assessment of three scenarios of municipal waste management system in Krakow city (Poland), limited to residual...

Effectiveness and viability of the planned municipal waste management system depends strongly on the organisation of logistic processes within such a system. The superior objective of any waste management system should be to minimize the negative effects of waste on human health and the environment. The preference of waste treatment technology shou...

The goal of this study is the quantification of the environmental impacts from the municipal waste management system in Krakow, state in 2010, and the identification of processes that significantly affect the environmental performance, applying the IWM-PL model, first Polish language application for LCA of waste management systems. In the first par...

In recent years laptops have become very commonly used, causing a significant environmental impact. In Poland about 2 million portable computers are sold every year. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool which evaluates the environmental impacts associated with a product throughout its life. In this paper, a screening life cycle assessment for a pe...

The goal of this paper of this paper is to give an overview of stochastic approach for Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) as the first step in performing a full Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) analysis in the steel industry. Further, it is concluded that the stochastic approach is a power full method for quantifying parameter uncertainty in LCA/LCI studies and...

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool for evaluating environmental aspects and potential environmental impacts, initially developed for evaluation of a product’s life cycle. LCA could be also employed for evaluating environmental performance of the waste management systems. The assessment time frame stretches from the moment, when waste is generate...

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a technique for evaluating environmental aspects and po-tential environmental impacts, also employed for evaluating waste management systems. So far several waste LCA tools have been developed to model the environmental impact of waste man-agement systems. In 2011 a first Polish language application, the IWM-Pl model,...

In the recent years, printers, especially inkjet printers, have become very commonly used in households, causing significant environment impact. In this paper, a life cycle assessment for an inkjet printer - model HP DeskJet D1360 manufactured in Taiwan, used and disposed in Poland was performed. The system boundaries of this study includes also co...

Life cycle assessment is an important tool to evaluate possible impacts associated with products. LCA is a “cra-dle-to-grave” approach, it addresses the environmental aspects and potential impacts throughout a product’s life cycle from raw material acquisition through production, use, end of life treatment, recycling and final disposal. The goal of...

Hard coal resources in Poland are one of the biggest in the world and the biggest in Europe. In 2008, 84 million tons of hard coal were extracted in Poland. The production of 1 ton of hard coal generates 0.4 ton of extractive waste: waste rock and tailings. In the new investment of coal mine ‘Debiensko I’, extractive waste will be treated in the po...

The landfill site for metallurgical slag and other solid waste in Krakow-Pleszow, Poland, is one of the biggest industrial landfill sites in the Malopolska region and the only site for solid waste generated in production processes in the ArcelorMittal Unit in Krakow. To comply with the European IPPC Directive and Polish regulations, the Pleszow sit...

For the Bydgoszcz – Torun Metropolitan Area (BTMA) inhabited by 760 thousand residents, it is planned the municipal incineration plant. The investment of the incineration plant, which will cost about 400 million PLN requires the working – out the analysis and long – term prognosis of municipal wastes generation for the project covered area. Simple...

In this paper were shown the main objectives of the waste management plans and their realization in the communes located in the neighbourhood of Krakow city: Liszki, Zabierzow and Wielka Wies. The communes fulfilled the objectives only partly. Easier tasks were legal and educational actions. The aim, which communes failed to complete was organizing...

The act on waste of 2001, for the first time in Poland introduced the obligation to draw up waste management plans on national, regional (voivodship), county (poviat) and local (commune) level. This is particularly important element of legislation, because the basis was created for improvement the waste management, especially municipal waste, in sy...

The coal mine Debiensko, closed in 2000, deposited over 37 million tons of waste rock and tailings on the 140 hectares heap. The heap comprises of 2 conical heaps, a huge flat heap and 4 ponds. For this land the rehabilitations projects planned the green as well as sport and recreation area. At the same time on part of the heap 2 waste recovery fac...

In 2000 the coal mine ‘Debiensko’ was put in the state of liquidation. The reasons for such a drastic decision for community of Czerwionka-Leszczyny municipality, were unsatisfactory financial outcomes of the mine in 90-ties. The mine was closed in spite of efficient coal resources, which could be exploited for the next 100 years. Karbonia company...

The integrated permission is a modern legal instrument, which regulates the principles of introducing pollution to the environment. The permission includes all the significant aspects of environmental impact among others waste management. The principles of specifying the terms of waste generating and treatment are defined in the Act on waste and th...

The integrated permission is a modern legal instrument, which regulates the principles of introducing pollution to the environment. The permission includes all the significant aspects of the environmental impact among others: waste management. The principles of specifying the terms of waste generating and treatment are defined in the Act on waste a...

The aim of Life Cycle Assessment is studying the environmental impacts associated with a product, throughout the whole product’s life, “from cradle to grave”, including raw material acquisition, raw material treatment, production process, transportation, distribution, usage, reuse, recycling, and ultimate waste disposal. LCA technique includes 4 ph...

In the paper the problem of environmental impact assessments for waste management plans on commune level was introduced. The law requirements for the waste management plans and the environmental impact assessment procedure were described. An environmental impact assessment for a waste management plan on commune level is strategic, short simplified...

Nowy Targ is famous from reach and long tradition of fur craft. There is well developed leather production in town and based on it: fur, shoe and purse industries. About 300 small enterprises operate in the fur and tanning trade. Most of them are located in the town centre. From fur and tanning activity come several types of waste such as: tanning...

The element of sustainable development of the country and harmonizing the economic and social aims with the environmental protection aims is the national environmental policy. The high-level goal of the policy in waste management is prevention, reduction, recovery and environmentally safe final treatment. The extensions of Second National Environme...

The current situation in waste oil management system in Podkarpacki region was presented in the article. The volume of produced waste oils along with perspective future figures till the year 2014 were taken into account. The collection system of waste oils as well as the technology of oil recycling were described in detail. Consortium of Waste Oils...

In the paper have been presented management principles of hazardous waste occurring in the area of Podkarpackie Voivodship, such as asbestos waste, waste containing PCB, medical and veterinary waste. A special attention has been paid to waste oil, their system collection and method of utilisation. Asbestos waste can only be treated though disposal....

Recent important changes in the Polish environmental regulations, have created the basis for waste management improvement. The present situation in waste management, especially household waste management is far from satisfactory. Law regulations introduce the obligations to work out the waste management plans for the country, voivodships (regions),...

New legal regulations have imposed high demands on environmental protection authorities, particularly, on poviats. The act on implementing the act on waste has obliged starostas for the issue of decision on presenting environmental assessments of landfills. Besides, it resulted from regulations, that on the base of those assessments, starostas were...

The Act of 27 July 2001 on Enter into force the Environmental Law and the Waste Law, art. 33 obliges landfills managers to submit of the Environmental Assessment till 30 June 2002 to Starosta (local authorities). That makes convenient opportunity to identify the conditions of waste disposal. The identification includes: legal aspects (permits), neg...

Municipal waste management in Poland is still not perfect, there is not enough separate collection activities. Car-batteries, cadmium-lithium batteries, toxic-products packages, medicines etc. are not separated from the municipal waste stream. There is no system operating which collects hazardous waste from dispersed sources such as households, sma...

The Act of 27 July 2001 on Enter into force the Environmental Law and the Waste Law, art. 33 obliges lanfills managers to submit of the Environmental Assesment till 30 June 2002 to Starosta (local authorities). That makes convenient opportunity to identify the conditions of waste disposal. The identification includes: legal aspects (permits), negat...

W Polsce brak jest danych doświadczalnych o ilości i strukturze komunalnych odpadów niebezpiecznych. Istnieją jedynie wyliczenia szacunkowe. Od 1997 roku w Akademii Górniczo – Hutniczej prowadzone są badania doświadczalne, których celem jest określenie ilości odpadów niebezpiecznych pochodzenia komunalnego oraz ich struktury. Badania te prowadzone...

In this paper the management systems of hazardous waste from households and other small sources such as garages and workshops in some European countries have been described. These systems are based on separate collection "at the source" - that is in every household. The systems of hazardous waste collection depend on local conditions as well as the...

In this paper mandatory Polish, European and international law regulations considering waste management are described, particularly waste classification and differences between Polish and European regulations. In the paper Basil Convention as a main act, which regulates international hazardous waste translocation, is included. The implementation of...

W artykule przedstawiono program gospodarki odpadami komunalnymi dla gminy Słomniki opracowany w 1995 roku, aktualny stan gospodarowania odpadami w gminie oraz propozycje zmian uwzględniające także odpady niebezpieczne zawarte w odpadach komunalnych. Gminny system gospodarki odpadami niebezpiecznymi powinien obejmować: - zbiórkę niektórych odpadów...

According to the Environmental Protection Minister Decision on waste classification there are only five types of hazardous waste in the municipal wastes category i.e.: paint, inks, adhesives and resins, solvents, photo chemicals, pesticides, fluorescent tubes and other mercury containing waste. But so far there has been no experimental data definin...

Industrial hazardous waste is well known and treated, but the problem of household hazardous waste is hardly recognised. There are only some calculations of hazardous waste percentages in municipal waste stream. So far no research has been done. Since 1997 the household hazardous waste study has been conducted at ten landfills in Małopolski, Podkar...

Składowanie odpadów jest obecnie podstawowym ogniwem w systemie gospodarki odpadami komunalnymi, a często jedynym sposobem ich utylizacji. Stąd ogromnie ważną rolę odgrywają wysypiska, które powinny być właściwie zorganizowane, przygotowane i eksploatowane. W referacie omówiono 7 składowisk, funkcjonujących na terenie obecnych województw: małopolsk...