Electromobility and electric cars are the words that began to gain significance in the social discourse in Poland especially intensively since 2017. Then, along with the announcement of the „Plan for the Development of the Electromobility Market in Poland”, government declarations appeared regarding one million electric cars that are to be used on Polish roads by 2025. It is already known today that such a result in Poland is impossible to achieve in the assumed time. According to the report of the Polish Alternative Fuels Association-PSPA (Polish EV Outlook 2020), in the event of introducing subsidies for the purchase of cars or subsidies, such as the possibility of 100% VAT deduction by buyers of such vehicles, the number of electric cars in Poland in 2025 could be over 280 thousand pcs. Without such government support, the Polish electric car park will be twice smaller. High prices of electric cars are one of the key barriers limiting Poles in making decisions related to the purchase of a vehicle. The aim of this article is to analyse the current state of the social environment in relation to the topic of ecological, electric cars. To what extent is it beneficial for the potential car owner to change from a traditional (petrol or diesel) car to an electric car due to purely financial benefits and other aspects? The article consists of an overview – presenting aspects related to the socio-economic benefits of buying an electric car. It also contains specific calculations regarding the profitability of using such a car in Polish conditions.

The development of air transport affects elements of the aviation fuel market. In recent years an increase in both the number of passengers and the number of passenger operations has been observed. This phenomenon also concerns passengers and the number of operations served by Polish airports which translates into more and more fuel consumption in Poland. The authors of the study tried to approximate the characteristics of aviation fuels used in various types of aircrafts. The most important of them, from the perspective of the Polish aviation sector, include Jet. This type of fuel plays a key role in civil aviation. In the article, the enterprises operating in the analyzed sector were also reviewed. The empirical part of the article is devoted, in turn, to the analysis of changes in air passenger transport in Poland and changes in Jet fuel prices on the Polish fuel markets. The conducted research shows that the dynamics of changes in the number of passengers, as well as the number of passenger operations at Polish airports were characterized by an upward trend, and the increase in the number of passengers was driven not only by a larger number of available flights, but also by such factors as: increasing the capacity of aircraft and increasing the fill rate for seats. The authors have also attempted to examine the strength of dependence between the number of passengers deciding to use Polish airports and Jet fuel prices, which in recent years have undergone significant fluctuations. For this purpose, the value of Pearson’s linear correlation coefficient was used and the analyzed period covered the years 2011–2017. The data on passenger traffic used in the study came mainly from periodic reports prepared by the Civil Aviation Office (ULC).

The work presents results of research on the influence of micro materials on the thermal conductivity λ of gypsum. In the research, cellulose-based polymer and aerogel were used as the modifying micro materials. For the purpose of measuring the thermal conductivity, a non-stationary method was used based on the “hot wire method”. A very precise set of devices for measuring and recording the temperature of the heating wire was used. In the presented solution, a single measurement took only one minute. Measurements were recorded with the help of a computer measuring system, with a sampling time of 0.01s. During the 60-second-long test, 6000 measurements of the heating wire temperature were collected. A decrease of the thermal conductivity and density of hardened gypsum with added micro materials was observed due to modifications of the structure of the final product. Experimental values of the thermal conductivity of the gypsum specimens with the addition of polymer and aerogel were respectively over 23% and 6% lower than the non-modified gypsum specimen.

Mineral composition of bedrock is the main factor determining salt mineralization in the weathering zone of Seymour (Marambio) Island (maritime — Antarctic continent climatic boundary). Supply of salts by sea water spray can accelerate weathering process, modify chemical formula of salt minerals and give ephemeral efflorescences of easy soluble chlorides and partially longer lasting gypsum on the surface. Microbiologically mediated oxidation of sulphides and followed acid sulphate drainage formed K and Na jarosite, basic amorphous aluminium sulphate, gypsum, aluminium bearing ferrihydrite and ankerite in weathering zone of Paleogene sediments. Intense alteration of well-lithified, calcareous sandstones of unit 1 of the López de Bertodano Formation (Cretaceous) on old erosion surface led localy to surface mineralization comparable with that found in Antarctic Continent. Stones laying on the soil surface are covered by thin red film of ferrihydrite above the soil level and by light green crust of aragonite coloured by glauconite pigment on the underground side. Most of the Cretaceous sediment does not contain sulphides nor alteration susceptible silicates thus ephemeral sea salts efflorescences observed on its surface are more prominent than in another places.