Excellenct Research Opportunities at Wastewater Treatment Plant

Ground was broken for construction of a new university building – not anywhere on the RWTH Campus, but on the site of the Aachen Soers water treatment plant instead.The site is big enough to errect a modern laboratory with classrooms and offices, as well as a larger hall for conducting experiments on a pilot plant. The RWTH Urban Water Management Institute (ISA) is supposed to move in to the new facility, where staff will be able to teach and do research with a focus on urban water management, waste management and environmental concerns.

"These days, it is especially microcontaminates, such as the tiniest plastic particles or residue of medicines, that pose the major problem in the treatment of waste water," explains head of the institute Professor Johannes Pinnekamp. With its direct link to Europe's most modern water treatment plant, the new facility will be in a perfect location for future research, according to RWTH Rector Ernst Schmachtenberg. He deems the proximity to the industrial scale water treatment plant, which is run by Wasserverband Eifel Rur (WVER), to be of great advantage for combining research and practice in all dimensions of scale.

As cooperation partner for construction and operation, Aachen's nesseler günzig group has been obtained as investor. The "nesseler projektidee" (np labor soers gmbh & co kg) will lease out the laboratory and department facility to RWTH longterm as part of a Europe-wide bid. Architectural and supply engineering planning will be conducted by nesseler plan gmbh, while construction will be directed by nesseler bau gmbh. The building, with a budget of seven million Euros, will be erected as a solid reinforced concrete structure. Approximately 1.700 square metres of renting space will be available for research and teaching. Facility management will be handled by nesseler betrieb.

Source: Press and Communications