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Waste water treatment

 Research and development  within the section “waste water treatment” is focussing on different projects:

For the treatment of municipal waste water a treatment strategy especially for small rural areas has been developed. The so called “Helme-Study” is now an important base for other projects within the newly-formed German states.

A new type of biopolymers (Immobilisierungskörper) are investigated to intensify the biological treatment process. The objective is to develop treatment processes which are able to remove organic carbon simultaneously to nitrification and denitrification prozesses.

A third major project is the removal of persistent organic compounds such as halogenated hydrocarbons from industrial waste water. Thereby oxidative pretreatment processes are combined with biological treatment processes. The aim is to establish economically and ecologically reasonable alternatives to conventional treatment processes.

Selected projects:

• Investigations      to apply no waste water generating production processes in the chemical      and pharmaceutical industry (UFOPLAN1999)
• Developing      a waste water treatment concept for the Helme region
• The      oxidative removal of brominated organic compounds in process water of the      pharmaceutical industry
• Oxidative      removal of diglyme (diethylene glycol dimethyl ether) from highly      concentrated waste water
• Elimination      of x-ray contrast compounds in hospital waste water by chemical oxidation
• Application      of porous silicates as Aufwuchskörper for micro organism  in the      biological treatment process
• Biological      removal of chlorinated hydrocarbons with immobilised micro organism
• Application      of biopolymers as Aufwuchskörper for micro organism in the waste water treatment processes
• Oxidative      elimination of halogenated hydrocarbons using heterogeneous catalysts.
• Treatment      of landfill leachate in an industrial waste water treatment plant.

Experimental devices:

• several      experimental set ups (lab scale) for waste water treatment by
  • ozon / H₂O₂
  • sonolyse
  • photolytic (UV) supported technology
• pilot      plant (lab scale) for biological waste water treatment
• leachate recovery facilities (Deponiesickerwasserbehandlung).

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