Saint Petersburg Mining University (Russian: Санкт-Петербургский горный университет), is Russia's oldest technical university, and one of the oldest technical colleges in Europe. It was founded on October 21, 1773, by Empress Catherine the Great, who realised an idea proposed by Peter the Great and Mikhail Lomonosov for training engineers for the mining and metals industries. Having a strong engineering profession was seen by many Russian rulers as a vital means of maintaining Russia's status as a great power. As historian Alfred J. Rieber wrote, "The marriage of technology and central state power had a natural attraction for Peter the Great and his successors, particularly Paul I, Alexander I and Nicholas I". All three had had a military education and seen the achievements of the engineers of revolutionary and imperial France, who had reconstructed the great highways, unified the waterways and erected buildings throughout Europe in a more lasting tribute to the French than all of Napoleon's victories.Though located in St. Petersburg, the university is on a federal rather than local level, and has partnerships with global oil, gas and mining companies and governments. Its museum is home to one of the world's finest collections of gem and mineral samples and the university building is a Neoclassical masterpiece by Andrey Voronikhin.
Many companies in the mining industry include decarbonization of production among their key strategic goals as part of their internal sustainability strategy. This need is driven by a number of factors: stricter regulation in the area of carbon footprint (introduction of carbon taxes, emissions quotas, reporting requirements); sustained growth in demand for electricity and rising market prices; economic feasibility—the need to optimize operating costs and improve energy efficiency. This study provides a comprehensive technical and economic justification for implementing a hybrid power supply system—combining a solar power plant (SPP) and a gas engine power plant (GPP)—at Solidcore Resources’ Varvarinsky hub in Kazakhstan. The methodology includes modeling the energy balance of the real asset (156.9 GWh of annual energy consumption), calculating the output of a 22.6 MW SPP based on local GHI/PR/η parameters, forming and determining the adaptability coefficient Kₐ (proportion of PV in total monthly electricity generation), conducting an economic assessment (NPV, payback period, sensitivity), and inventorying CO2 emissions under Scope 1–2. The SPP provides approximately 41.3 GWh of electricity generation per year, with an average annual Ka = 0.263; the 40 MW installed capacity of the gas piston power plant covers the residual demand, forming a stable daily and seasonal balance. The project demonstrates a positive NPV (After Tax) = USD 23.65 million with an estimated payback period of 10 years, while the cost of energy in extraction and processing is reduced by almost three times, and the total reduction in CO2 emissions will be 51%. Thus, hybridization of energy supply systems is a practical compromise between reliability and decarbonization. Determining the adaptability coefficient Ka allows the flexibility of the system to be taken into account, shows how effectively the new energy system uses renewable energy sources, and can be used to optimize the operation of the energy system to achieve the company’s internal sustainable development goals.
The quantity of waste produced by the food industry is on the rise annually. Among the most prevalent types of waste classified as Class I hazardous substances, posing a significant threat to the environment, is used cooking oils, necessitating proper disposal methods. Concurrently, the combustion of petroleum resources generates substantial greenhouse gas emissions, acting as a primary driver of global warming and associated climatic disruptions. To address the issues mentioned above, food industry waste has been processed into biodiesel fuel. The production involved transformation of sunflower and waste cooking oils with ethanol, with the reaction duration incrementally adjusted between 2 and 7 h in 30 min intervals to determine its effect on biofuel yield. The analysis revealed a pronounced disparity in ester yield between the feedstocks, with the primary component derived from sunflower oil exhibiting a yield 5,81% lower than that obtained from waste oil. For the waste oil substrate, the total ester yield varied from 77.45% (at a 3 h reaction duration) to a maximum of 95.49% (observed at 6.5 h). The temporal evolution of ester release demonstrated a complex, non-monotonic trend, characterized by periodic oscillations superimposed upon a parabolic profile. The confidence interval for the temporal yield data was determined to be ±10%.
The tightening of environmental requirements for shipping raises the issue of optimizing residual marine fuels (RMF). The incorporation of biocomponents into RMF contributes to addressing this challenge, while simultaneously heightening the need to study the impact of fundamentally new fuel systems on their operational suitability, particularly concerning the bacterial contamination, which can lead to biocorrosion of equipment and instability of marine fuel. This work is dedicated to investigating the influence of biocomponents based on recycled waste cooking oil (RWCO) on the microbiological contamination of residual marine fuels, as well as the possibility of controlling it through the use of a biocidal additive for diesel fuel. The study found that the most effective suppression of the microbiological contamination occurs when the biocidal additive is added directly to the biocomponent rather than to the fuel composition of marine fuel. Incorporating 1500 ppm of the additive into the RWCO before mixing with RMF reduced the amount of additive needed by ten times and decreased the initial concentration of colony-forming units (CFU) in the bio-marine fuel by twenty-one times. When producing bio-marine fuel with the inclusion of a biocidal additive in the biocomponent, its compatibility with the medium RWCO should be considered, opening a new avenue for research in this field. The inhibiting properties of the biocidal additive were demonstrated in samples of fuel RMD 180 + (RWCO + 1500), RMD 180 + RWCO + 1500, and RWCO + 1500 over a storage period of five months, and in samples of fuel RMD 180 + (RWCO + 750) and RMD 180 + (RWCO + 150) over a week of storage at temperatures of 50 °C and − 10 °C.
The influence of iron on the flotation activity of ethoxylated phosphoric acid esters with different structures and sodium oleate in the enrichment of phosphate ores has been investigated. It was found that the presence of iron reduces the contact angle of apatite wetting by 15.26-27.42 degrees. The greatest reduction in hydrophobicity (Delta theta = 27.42 degrees) is observed for aromatic ethoxyphosphate Ar-EP-6. Aliphatic ethoxylates (EP-6 and EP-10) exhibit the least sensitivity to iron, maintaining high flotation activity (apatite recovery degree up to 70 %). Flotation test results show that aliphatic ethoxyphosphates have higher flotation activity compared to their aromatic analogs and traditional collectors, which can be explained by the specific structure of molecular aggregates in the adsorption layer. At a concentration of Fe3 + = 5.31 x 10-4 M in the aqueous phase suspension, apatite flotation is almost completely suppressed for all collectors. The obtained data can be used to optimize reagent regimes during the processing of complex phosphate ores.
Decades of intensive exploitation of the Russian Arctic’s exceptional economic potential, coupled with limited consideration of the environmental impacts of industrial activity, have led to the accumulation of significant legacy pollution across the region. In view of the Arctic’s strategic importance to the national economy, there is an urgent need to enhance organizational and management frameworks for assessing and remediating legacy environmental sites, while accounting for the distinctive environmental, geographic, and socio-economic characteristics of the macroregion. The relevance of this study stems from these challenges. The study’s purpose is to analyze the problems and prospects associated with organizing remediation efforts in the Arctic and to examine the application of innovative technological solutions for addressing legacy pollution at Cape Chelyuskin. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the systematization of the environmental and socio-economic impacts generated by legacy environmental sites in the Arctic, as well as in the identification of gaps in the existing system of public administration responsible for their remediation. The findings substantiate the need for greater coordination among government authorities and civil society organizations in implementing environmental initiatives in the region. The paper analyzes the experience of an autonomous non-profit organization dedicated to environmental improvement and the development of the Clean Arctic volunteer movement in organizing an expedition to remediate the territory of Cape Chelyuskin affected by past economic activities. The tested technological solutions may serve as a basis for developing practical recommendations for organizing waste collection and removal in remote and hard-to-access areas. These recommendations can inform relevant ministries in refining the regulatory framework and elaborating strategic planning documents aimed at eliminating legacy pollution in the Arctic. Future research should focus on assessing the socio-economic effects of remediation projects implemented in Arctic regions.
