Global warming is not a myth, there is solid scientific evidence for it. If humanity opts to ignore it, it will come to a catastrophic end.

The caliber of modern-day scholarly pursuits hinges not only on research now being carried out, but also on the careful nurturing of scientific heritage - the preservation and study of documents that trace the development of past achievements.

The Bulletin of the Polish Academy of Sciences: Technical Sciences (Bull.Pol. Ac.: Tech.) is published bimonthly by the Division IV Engineering Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences, since the beginning of the existence of the PAS in 1952. The journal is peer‐reviewed and is published both in printed and electronic form. It is established for the publication of original high quality papers from multidisciplinary Engineering sciences with the following topics preferred: Artificial and Computational Intelligence, Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology, Civil Engineering, Control, Informatics and Robotics, Electronics, Telecommunication and Optoelectronics, Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, Thermodynamics, Material Science and Nanotechnology, Power Systems and Power Electronics.

Journal Metrics: JCR Impact Factor 2018: 1.361, 5 Year Impact Factor: 1.323, SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) 2017: 0.319, Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) 2017: 1.005, CiteScore 2017: 1.27, The Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education 2017: 25 points.

Abbreviations/Acronym: Journal citation: Bull. Pol. Ac.: Tech., ISO: Bull. Pol. Acad. Sci.-Tech. Sci., JCR Abbrev: B POL ACAD SCI-TECH Acronym in the Editorial System: BPASTS.

The profile of the Polish foundry engineer in the Industry 4.0 age is presented in the present paper. The presented results were obtained by means of three research methods consisting of: analyses of professional expertise documents, questionnaires filled-up by the executive staff of foundry enterprises and analyses of work offers for the foundry engineer position. The investigations indicated the key competences of the foundry engineer, demanded currently by employers and meeting the requirements of the Polish foundry sector. The obtained results were discussed in relation to the fourth industrial revolution and its requirements with regard to the engineering staff. This concept is based on information technology and robotizing, which means the total automation of industrial production processes as well as the widespread access to data and machines. Such an approach requires changes in applied machines, technologies and employees’ competencies. The competences of employees constitute the element deciding on the company success, aimed at obtaining a competitive advantage. Therefore adjusting the employees’ competencies to continuously changing reality is so essential.

The paper presents multi-criteria optimization method allowing for selection of the best production scenarios in underground coal mines. We discuss here the dilemma between strategies maximizing economic targets and rational resources depletion. Elaborated method combines different geological and mining parameters, structure of the deposit, mine’s infrastructure constrains with economic criteria such as the net present value (NP V), earnings before deducting interest and taxes (EBIT ) and the free cash flows to firm (FCFF). It refers to strategic production planning. Due to implementation of advanced IT software in underground coal mines (digital model, automated production scheduling) we were able to identify millions of scenarios finally reduced to a few – the best ones. The method was developed and tested using data from mine operation “X” (a real project – an example of a coking coal mine located in Poland). The reliability of the method was approved; we were able to identify multiple production scenarios better than the one chosen for implementation in the “X” mine. The final product of the method were rankings of scenarios grouped according to economic decision criteria. The best scenarios reached NP V nearly 50% higher than the Base Case, which held only 52. position out of 60. According to EBIT and FCFF criteria, 10 scenarios achieved results higher than the Base Case, but the percentage differences were very small, below 2 and 4%, respectively. The developed method is of practical importance and can be successfully applied to many other coal projects.

Silica multichannel monoliths modified with zirconia, titania and alumina have been used as reactive cores of microreactors and studied in chemoselective reduction (MPV) of cyclohexanon/benzaldehyde with 2-butanol as a hydrogen donor. The attachment of metal oxides to the silica surface was confirmed by FT–IR spectroscopy, and dispersion of metal oxides was studied by UV–Vis spectroscopy. the catalytic activity of the lewis acid centres in both chemical processes decreased in the order zirconia > alumina > titania. This activity is in good agreement with dispersion and coordination of metal species. good stability of zirconia-grafted reactors was confirmed. high porosity of the monoliths and the presence of large meandering flow-through channels with a diameter of ca. 30 mm facilitate fluid transport and very effective mixing in the microreactors. The whole synthesis process is perfectly in line with trends of modern flow chemistry