Grupa Azoty (Poland)

Ammonium nitrate fertilizers have a tendency to cake during storage. The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of organic coatings for preventing the caking of ammonium nitrate fertilizers and to assess the influence of the composition and physicochemical properties of the anti-caking agents used as coatings for fertilizers on their effectiveness. CAN (calcium ammonium nitrate) and AN (ammonium nitrate) fertilizers were coated with three anti-caking agents. A GC–MS technique was used for the identification and quantitative determination of the composition of the organic coatings. The influence of the following physicochemical parameters of the preparations was assessed: density, viscosity, melting point, water content, and base number. The effectiveness of anti-caking agents was determined by measuring the force needed to crush the clumped uncoated and coated fertilizers, which were previously subjected to thermal cycles under load. Composition studies showed that all the tested preparations contained hexadecylamine and octadecylamine in comparable amounts and a slack wax. The results demonstrate that the key parameters of an effective anti-caking agent are low water content, appropriate viscosity, and appropriate content of fatty amines. This study can facilitate the development of innovative coatings with similar or higher efficiency, yet with a reduced negative impact on the environment.

Low solubility of terephthalic acid in common solvents makes its industrial production very difficult and not environmentally benign. Ionic liquids are known for their extraordinary solvent properties, with capability to dissolve a wide variety of materials, from common solvents to cellulose, opening new possibilities to find more suitable solvents for terephthalic acid. This work presents studies on the solubility of terephthalic acid in ionic liquids, and demonstrates that terephthalic acid is soluble in ionic liquids, such as 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium diethylphosphate, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate, and dialkylimidazolium chlorides up to four times higher than in DMSO. Additionally, the temperature effect and correlation of ionic liquid structure with solubility efficiency are discussed.

Wastes containing mercury and its compounds are formed in various branches of industry. The biggest environmental toxicity had types of waste—ashes from coal combustion and wastes from used discharge lamps, segregated and separately collected. In order to investigate the possibility of processing the above-mentioned waste, a laboratory installation was designed and constructed: (1) limiting mercury leaching from waste using sulphur and its compounds (sodium sulphide, sodium thiosulphate); (2) solidifying waste using a filter press. Ash samples originating from the thermal treatment of industrial sewage sludge and waste from the recycling process of the discharge lamps were collected for the tests. Mercury leaching tests were performed according to USEPA procedures, using the atomic absorption spectrometry method. The tests showed a decrease in the concentration of mercury in the solution of reagents from 15 to 2 μg · dm−3.

Streszczenie

Streszczenie: Cel -narzędziem wspomagającym proces zarządzania podatkami na szczeblu przedsiębiorstwa jest controlling podatkowy.Wykorzystywanie controllingu podatkowego w przedsiębiorstwie pozwala rozpoznać obszary działalności, które ze względu na swoją specyfikę wywołują skutki podatkowe,

One of the sources of “success” of the Foksal Gallery was beyond any doubt the functioning formula based on cooperation of artists and critics, who ran the critics’ gallery. This process can be apparently seen in the program manifests from 1966–1981, which fulfillment were the artistic activities led in and outside the Gallery. The mentioned cooperation was formed on the experience from the terrains of Lublin – the “Zamek” Group and the “Struktury” magazine (the second half of the 50’s), and Warsaw – apprenticeship at M. Bogusz in his Krzywe Koło Gallery (the beginning of the 60’s). Critics like W. Borowski, A. Ptaszkowska, M. Tchorek, focused later on such artists like T. Kantor and H. Stażewski, were able to start implementing their project of a gallery. In the text Introduction to a general theory of Place (1966) they declared that the gallery will be given to an artist, so it could become his own workshop, an open space. Exhibitions, such as environment checked in those postulates. In 1968, another manifest was formed – What we do not like about the Foksal PSP Gallery, which was immediately answered by the artists. Winter Assemblage (1969) was planned as a series of actions without any clear beginning and end. In the same year, after the actions taken on the Złote Grono symposium in Zielona Góra, in the New Regulations of Foksal PSP Gallery, there was a suggestion of transforming this institution into a type of information point, which was suppose to accept incoming information without any selection. However, the project led to a conf lict and Foksal collapsed. In 1970 on an Art Symposium Wrocław ’70, A. Turowski – who joined the Gallery at that time – presented the Centre of Artistic Searches project. The Centre was formed to “serve the artist and their work” in a modern way, by popularizing and documenting it, and simultaneously deter mining experimental searches. In subsequent theoretical propositions – Living Archive and Documentation (1971) – the authors postulated accepting a strategy defining the work of art in a moment, in which it was “neutrally present” and at the same time they were objecting to the domination of the documentation on artistic fact. The soon organized shows became the unmasking of the ways the institution worked – prolonged the lasting of an impermanent work of art, which were the new forms of artistic utterances. After 1981 the program activity of the Gallery was in a considerable degree limited.