The application and utilization of the industrial wastes and by-products in the construction industry is a key issue from an environmental and economic point of view. The increased use of lignite has substantially increased the available quantities of lignite fired power plant fly ash, which can be main- ly classified as class C fly ash. The utilization of such raw material however has some difficulties. In the present paper lignite fired power station fly ash and metallurgical converter slag were used for the pro- duction of geopolymer concrete. The fly ash was used as a geopolymer based binder material, and a con- verter slag as aggregate, thus created a geopolymer concrete which contains mainly industrial wastes. As preliminary test experimental series were carried out using andesite as aggregate. The optimal aggre- gate/binder ratio was determined. The effect of the amount of alkaline activator solution in the binder, the aggregate type on the geopolymer concretes' compressive strength and density was investigated. Fur- thermore, the physical properties - freeze-thaw resistance and particle size distribution - of the applied aggregates were measured as well. As a result of the experiments it was found that physical properties of the andesite and converter slag aggregate was close. Therefore andesite can be replaced by converter slag in the concrete mixture. Additionally, geopolymer concrete with nearly 20 MPa compressive strength was produced from class C fly ash and converter slag.

The paper presents a GIS-based method for selecting an optimum location of wind farm on the case study of the Prusice commune in Lower Silesia (SW Poland). The adopted multi-criteria approach utilises the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Weighted Linear Combination (WLC) methods to determine weights of sitting criteria (factors and constraints), and to develop a composite suitability map from single-factor maps representing these criteria. The adopted sitting criteria have been identified based on literature review, and include: technical, spatial, social and environmental aspects of wind farm devel- opment, and also address specific geographical constrains of this part of Poland. The most suitable and suitable areas have been presented on a wind farm suitability map for the com- mune. The area size of the largest suitable spots (14) varies from 10 to 64 ha. The proposed method and the results of this work can be used to support sustainable spatial policy and spatial development on all levels of public administration related to renewable resources use.

The objective of this paper was to determine the Critical Coalescence Concentration (CCC) of surfactants such as N(dodecyloxycarboxymethyl) N,N,N-(trimethylammonium) bromide (DMGM12), N-[2-(dodecyoxycarboxy)ethyl] N,N,N-(trimethylammonium) bromide (DMALM-12) and N-[3(dodecanoyloxycarboxy)prophyl] N,N,N-(trimethylammonium) bromide (DMPM-11). The surfactants used represent quaternary ammonium compounds containing a hydrophobic moiety with an ester group (commonly known as “esterquats”). The CCC value was determined by analysis of the relationship between concentration of surfactant and average air bubble diameter. The values of the critical coalescence concentration (CCC) were estimated using a graphical method.