Matthias Barjenbruch

Phosphorus recovery from municipal and fertilizer wastewater: China's potential and perspective

Phosphorus (P) is a limited resource, which can neither be synthesized nor substituted in its essential functions as nutrient. Currently explored and economically feasible global reserves may be depleted within generations. China is the largest phosphate fertilizer producing and consuming country in the world. Chinas municipal wastewater contains up to 293,163Mgyear of phosphorus, which equals approximately 5.5% of the chemical fertilizer phosphorus consumed in China. Phosphorus in wastewater can be seen not only as a source of pollution to be reduced, but also as a limited resource to be recovered. Based upon existing phosphorus-recovery technologies and the current wastewater infrastructure in China, three options for phosphorus recovery from sewage sludge, sludge ash and the fertilizer industry were analyzed according to the specific conditions in China.

Comparative study of small wastewater treatment technologies under special operation conditions—COMPAS

Abstract In rural areas, small wastewater treatment plants (SWWTPs) are a cost-efficient solution to sewage disposal issues. In Europe, SWWTPs are defined as plants for treating domestic wastewater up 50 PE. In Germany, about 2.2 million SWWTPs are in operation or are being installed. In France about 10–12 million people are served by decentralized systems. There are many different technical solutions on the market, ranging from artificial wetlands, reed bed filters to activated sludge systems. All systems available on the European market have to meet the EU-Certification EN 12566-3, which regulates a minimum standard of operation reliability and purification limits. Furthermore, additional guidelines have to be considered, depending on national and regional specifications. There is still a lack of information about performance, operation reliability and maintainability of the different types of SWWTP under real operating conditions. These parameters are however, of particular importance to both customers...

Alternative Sanitary Concepts for Rural And Urban Areas

This paper describes how conventional wastewater treatment is state of the art in Middle Europe. Most of the nutrients in wastewater are removed in wastewater treatment plants, but a part of them is discharged out to our rivers and lakes and can effect eutrophication. In other areas, such as Africa, Asia and South-America, there is little or no treatment of wastewater at all. In particular, rapidly growing megacities have problems with the collection and treatment of incoming wastewater. Sewage systems, if existent, are overloaded. The insufficient sewage purification causes diseases and environmental pollution. Furthermore, there is a scarcity of fresh water and there is not enough fertilizer for agriculture. Alternative sanitary concepts are able to close the loop of water and nutrients and give sanitary comfort to citizens. Novel sustainable wastewater treatment systems take care of the different flows of wastewater, such as grey water, brown water and yellow water, in a special and verified way. By using brown water, it is possible to produce biogas for heating, cooking and power. Grey water can be treated to obtain water for laundry and to flush toilets. Urine is full of nutrients and a perfect substitute for mineral fertilizer. In a project near Berlin, some no-mix toilets are installed in an office and an apartment building. The results of the tests with a biogas plant show good production of biogas and there is a possibility of using bio-waste from households as a co-substrate. The measured values in the treated sludge show that it is possible to use it as a soil conditioner in agriculture. The implementation of such novel sanitary concepts in urban areas is more difficult than in low-density areas, but in general is not impossible.

Wastewater disposal in rural areas

Abstract In rural areas, the quality of the water bodies will continue to be influenced by the purification performances of small and smaller wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). In this paper, the different methods of wastewater discharge and treatment currently available for rural areas were presented. Today, both technical and natural methods achieve purification results which are equivalent to, if less stable than those of larger technical pants, provided that dimensioning, design, and operation are optimally cared for. The general question will be to decide for a centralized wastewater system or for local, on-site solution installing small treatment plants. Important criteria for this decision as the distance between the houses and also crucial dimensioning parameters like the amount of wastewater will be given within the report. Several wastewater treatment technologies will be explained and also results from the SBR-System, which are applied in Germany special in smaller communities, are discussed....

Comparative environmental life cycle assessment of phosphorus recovery with different generations of the AirPrex® systems

Phosphorus (P) recovery through struvite is already both technically and economically feasible. This has been proved by more than 40 large-scale plants worldwide. However, when designing and implementing these P-recovery technologies, the environmental effects need to be considered. Therefore, a comparative environmental life cycle assessment of phosphorus recovery with different generations of the AirPrex® reactors at WWTP Wassmannsdorf and Amsterdam West was carried out in this study. Results show that both AirPrex® configurations with 1 reactor and 3 reactor have positive energy benefits and better environmental credits for the global warming potential (GWP), freshwater eutrophication potential, and marine eutrophication potential. The 3-reactor configuration shows better results in cumulative energy demand with 35% improvement of energy surplus, 36% reduction of GWP and less eutrophication potential. These improvements are mainly due to optimized struvite precipitation and harvesting and show that technology can be developed further, especially in plant operation and not only in the laboratory or pilot plant.Graphical Abstract

Multiphase CFD-Simulation of Transport Phenomena in Sewer Systems

This paper presents different computational fluid dynamics applications using the multiphase solver interFoam which is implemented in the open source software OpenFOAM. The solver uses the volume of fluid approach. When modelling tracer transport in the proximity of the interface between two phases, the problem of non-physical tracer spreading across the interface has to be overcome. In this paper, two ways are presented to model such systems successfully. First, tracer transport around concrete probes in the headspace of a sewer pilot plant is considered. In this case a two-phase (water-air) system is assumed by describing an idealized water surface as a boundary condition and a passive tracer is applied. Second, flow in a complex sewer stretch containing a hydraulic jump is simulated and a tracer is applied in the water phase. A multiphase transport approach based on the Henry coefficient is used in this case and plausible results are obtained.

Evaluation of Absorption Process for HeavyMetals Removal found in PharmaceuticalWastewater

This study focused on the adsorption/absorption process of natural volcanic tuff, its application, kinetics, efficiency, velocity and selectivity order in removing heavy metals found in pharmaceutical wastewater. Series of experiments were conducted in batch-wise and fixed-bed columns to study the removal performance and selectivity sequence of mixed metal ions (Pb2+, Cr6+, Cu2+, Zn2+and Fe3+) in aqueous solution using natural volcanic tuff material as adsorbent. The main purpose of this study is to highlight the economical application of the method in treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater.

Heiko Sieker wurde Honorarprofessor an der TU Berlin

WASSERWIRTSCHAFT 12 | 2012 45 Am 12. Dezember 2012 vollendet Prof. Dr. Daniel Vischer (Bild 1) sein 80. Lebensjahr. Geboren 1932 in Lausanne, Bürger von Basel, wuchs er im Kanton Bern auf und studierte von 1952 bis 1956 an der ETH Zürich Bauingenieurwesen. Anschließend war er wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter bei Prof. Wittmann an der Technischen Hochschule Karlsruhe, wo er 1958 mit einer Dissertation auf dem Gebiet der Hydromechanik, genauer zum Thema der Verluste bei Rohrvereinigungen, promovierte. Ab Ende 1957 arbeitete er in der damaligen Ingenieurunternehmung Motor Columbus AG in Baden, wo er sich hauptsächlich mit Wasserund Tunnelbauten befasste. Er war dabei sowohl in der Schweiz als auch in Schwellenund Entwicklungsländern tätig. 1963 übernahm er die Führung einer Projektierungsgruppe für Wasserbau und erhielt 1967 die Prokura. 1969 wurde er zum Oberingenieur und Abteilungsleiter für allgemeine Wasserwirtschaftsplanung und Talsperrenprojektierung ernannt. Per 1. April 1970 wurde Daniel Vischer zum ordentlichen Wasserbau-Professor sowie zum Direktor der Versuchsanstalt für Wasserbau, Hydrologie und Glaziologie (VAW) an die ETH Zürich berufen. In seiner Forschung widmete er sich der hydromechanisch zweckmässigen Gestaltung von Wasserbauten, den flussmorphologisch relevanten Geschiebebewegungen sowie der Entstehung und Ausbreitung von Naturgefahren, insbesondere von Hochwassern und Schwallwellen in Seen. 1986 war er Gastprofessor an der Universität von Christchurch, Neuseeland und 1994 an der Technischen Universität Dresden. 1991 wurde ihm die Würde eines Dr.-Ing. ehrenhalber von der Universität Stuttgart verliehen. Prof. Vischer war unter anderem Präsident des Schweizerischen Nationalkomitees für große Talsperren, Mitglied der Eidgenössischen Kommission für Naturgefahren (PLANAT) sowie Kuratoriumspräsident des Schnitter-Fonds der ETH Zürich für Technikgeschichte. Er bearbeitete Fragen in Bezug auf Naturgefahren und auf die Wasserbaugeschichte der Schweiz. Prof. Vischer zeichnete sich während seiner aktiven Zeit an der ETH Zürich unter anderem durch seine mitreißenden Lehrfähigkeiten und kurzweiligen Vorträge aus, dank denen er unzähligen Studierenden und Fachkollegen den Wasserbau und die Wasserwirtschaft von einer Gesamtbetrachtung bis ins Detail anschaulich und zudem humorvoll näherbrachte. Sein Tatendrang ist auch heute noch bemerkenswert. Er ist weiterhin ein regelmäßiger und gern gesehener „Gast“ an der VAW, wo er seine Publikationsliste vornehmlich mit wasserbaugeschichtlichen Fachartikeln erweitert. Im Namen der VAW-Belegschaft gratuliere ich Prof. Vischer ganz herzlich zum 80. Geburtstag und wünsche ihm weiterhin alles Gute, viel Lebensfreude und beste Gesundheit als Grundlage für seine ungebrochene Schaffenskraft sowie sein christlich-soziales Engagement. Prof. Dr. Robert Boes, VAW-Direktor