Department of problems of geotechnology of combustible minerals A head of the department: Candidate of Technical Sciences Bryk Dmytro Fundamental research of D. Sc., professor, Honored Scientist Emmanuil Bohdanovych Chekaluk became scientific grounds of the departments foundation. The department of problems of deep-seated hydrocarbons, organized by him in 1963, became the leading center for studying the origin of oil not only in the former USSR, but in the whole world. Works of professor Chekaluk E. B. on geotechnology of oil production, the process of extraction of residual deposits became a handbook of the most generation of oil-industry workers up to the present. The next head of department after E. B. Chekalik, was Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor Yuri Stefanyk (1947-2013). Under his leadership, the department of the problems of the geotechnology of combustible fossils (as it began to be named since 1988) took up, in addition to the genesis of oil and gas, the issues of rational use of non-standard reserves of combustible minerals - underground gasification of coal and the problems of oil shale. Since 2013, the department is headed by a leading researcher, Candidate of Technical Sciences Dmytro Bryk. There are 9 employees working at the department of problems of geotechnology of combustible minerals, among their number are 4 Candidates of Science, 5 engineering-technical workers: geologist, chemist, physicist, mathematicians. The mains directions of scientific researches:

• the theory of oil and gas formation and the formation of oil, gas, methane in coal beds and "shale gas";
• formation and placement of oil and gas deposits in the earth's crust;
• underground gasification of non-standard coal beds;
• geoecology and the development of scientific principles of energy-efficient technologies.

Principal achievements: The concept of obtaining liquid synthetic products from waste products (low-quality coal, biomass, waste from the oil industry, etc.) was created. The complex of geological criteria of suitability of coal beds for underground gasification was established based on the example of the Lviv-Volyn basin. Thermodynamic conditions of the formation of oil-like system in the bowels of the Earth were established based on the isotope composition of carbon. The “Working project of research-commercial polygon on biogas diversion” was developed for the Lviv polygon of solid domestic waste. Feasibility study “Creation of additional productive zones at the existing Lviv municipal waste landfill at the expense of rehabilitation of tar collectors” was developed. Integrated assessment of sanitary conditions in soil of the territory of the polygon of solid domestic waste of the Stryi-Drogobych region was given. An appreciation was given for the suitability of the area for building of the enterprise for industrial waste processing with output of 100 th ton per year for the towns of Chervonorad, Sosnivka and the settlement of Hirnyk (Lviv Region). Proposals were developed for the Programme of co-operation between the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Lviv Regional Council on the theme “To inculcate the technologies of the control over domestic waste and rehabilitation of the Lviv sanitary waste landfill and releasing of collectors of acid tars using energetic landfill gas”. Technology of the biogas obtaining was introduced at the Lviv sanitary waste landfill. Scientific co-operation with the Institute of Oil and Gas (Cracow, Poland) within, the framework of the program of friendly relations INTERREG IIIA, 2006-2007, developed into the theme in common: “Ukrainian-Polish centre of co-operation in gas control at the sanitary waste landfills”. At present efforts of the employees of the department are directed to the development of geotechnology for obtaining lignin synthetic fuels and high-energy gas from non-conditioned deposits of the Lviv-Volyn coal basin. The department has an experimental installation modelling the processes of underground gasification of coal, obtaining synthetic-gas CO and H₂ and synthetic oil-like hydrocarbons. The department carries out work on the inclusion in the energy balance of biogas solid waste landfills. The department continues to study the thermodynamics of the genesis of fossil hydrocarbons. For the last years the employees of the department have published 252 papers, one monograph, have taken out 30 patents of Ukraine. The department carries out a great amount of patent-licence work that is proved by the awarding of prize-winning places during the last seven years. igggk.geotechnology@ukr.net