Report ifat ywp_2010
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The document summarizes the Young Water Professionals program held during IFAT ENTSORGA 2010 in Munich. Over 30 young professionals from 19 countries participated in presentations and discussions on topics related to water and wastewater management. They also participated in excursions to Munich's water treatment plant, water works, and sewer rehabilitation projects. The young professionals were divided into groups, with each group writing a report on a topic they were assigned.
Report ifat ywp_2010
- 1. List of the participants in the YWP at IFAT Entsorga 2010 Australia Ruth Schaldach Bangladesh Farzana Afreen Mohammad Salah Uddin Shyamal Karkamar Tohidul Islam Rony Bolivia Vanesa Rodriguez Osuna Bulgaria Boyan Borisov Kalina Kalcheva Mariana Koleva Marina Stoykova Magdalina Zaharieva Maya Baneva Vera Asenova Tanya Igneva Valentina Vladimirova Venera Asenova Nadejda Taneva China Ke Zhu Czech Marcela Krenkova Deutschland Dorothea Weingärtner Thomas Pochwyt Ethyopia Minalu Megenagna Tadesse Tekalegn Ayele Estonia Laura Mähar Ghana Benjamin Sarfo Okrah Iraq Firas Al-Janabi Lituania Paulius Gutauskas Macedonia Igor Bojadjiski Milica Jovanova Nepal Santosh Nepal Poland Joanna Sieradocha Anna Pakulik Romania Cristina Medrea Daniel Mihai Marcu Marius Eduard Adrian Stan Mihai Grozavescu Radu Pop Razvan Vaida Stefan Musat Serbia Dejan Peric Ana Borisavljevic Sudan Wifag Hassan Mahmoud Hungary Eszter Toth Vietnam Vo Thi Yen Phi
- 2. Report for participation in IFAT Entsorga 2010 During IFAT ENTSORGA 2010 more than 18 500 trade visitors attended over 300 lectures which took place in the forums and at the 15th International Symposium on Water, Wastewater, Waste and Energy. Product developments, trends and market analyses on themes covered by IFAT ENTSORGA were featured in lectures and panels discussions. Scientists and business representatives from all over the world made use of IFAT ENTSORGA 2010 as a platform for cross-border exchange of expertise and experience. The Country Specials had been an ideal opportunity for establishing and expanding business contacts at international level. These had been being organised variously in cooperation with the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, a range of associations, further partners and the DWA, the German Association for Water, Wastewater and Waste. DWA organized for the 9th time Young Water Professionals’ Programme. Representatives from 19 countries attended presentations related to future career and reports included in Symposium on Sustainable Water Management organized by European Water Association (ЕWA) on the topics: Emerging Issues in Water and Wastewater Technologies, Management of Biosolids, Sewer Rehabilitation, Industrial Wastewater Treatment, Wet weather Problems and Solutions. Excursions to Munich Waste Water Treatment Plant, Munich Water Works and Channel Building Sites were organized. Young Water Professionals were devided to five groups. Each group wrote a report and made a presentation on different topics. In the following paragraphs a brief summary of the congress lectures and the gained overall information about the excursions is given. The YWP program launched on September 12th with the 1st IWA YWP workshop named Career Event. The workshop consisted of three sessions with numerous presentations, where tomorrow challenges in water sector and the career development opportunities for the YWP have been presented and discussed. This report is meant to highlight in details the objectives of the workshop. 1. Future Developments of the water sector , Ruediger Heidebrecht, DWA At the opening presentation Mr. Heidebrecht has emphasized the changing challenges that civil engineers must consider when realising their projects. Through the past decades engineers in general had to rely mainly on their knowledge just about a specific area. The
- 3. main challenge nowadays is to manage to integrate a wide range of aspects such as adapting social and transboundary issues, landscape planning etc. When it comes to river management planning, the European Water Framework Directive advices the river managers to consider the whole river catchment including groundwater protection. Other challenges that have a link between each other are climate change, water scarcity problems in certain regions, flood protection etc Being involved in a network of expertise, inventing a harmonising standard systems, implementing alternative processes into the considerations and using a proper safety management are some of the steps that should be made by the decision makers and can finally lead to a better workflow. The aim of all these is to make a widely accepted decision. 2. Water Quality, Resources and Waste Management, TU Wien Climate influences on water quantity and quality depends on the specific local situation. It’s a slow process (decades, centuries) and may have natural or anthropogenic causes. Weather conditions at a location (region) cause changes in water flow and availability and quality from hour to hour, from day to day, from year to year and also from decade to decade with much higher variability than climate change. For development of an adaptation strategy for water management it is necessary to have a team of experts in the area of climatology, hydrology and water quality management. When it comes to strategy, it is necessary to evaluate the statements according to their scientific basis. Climate models are based on physics and relate the temperature increase to the increase of CO2, CH4 and N2O concentrations in the atmosphere. 3. International careers in the water sector - Professor Jackson Roehrig, University of Applied Science, Cologne Professor Roerhig has presented the international careers in the water sector and and has gave details about the water sector itself, the national and international employers, the disciplines and the skills required. He mentioned that the water sector can be divided into the following groups: drinking water supply, urban drainage, river basin management, irrigation and drainage, hydropower and navigation. The national employers that provide interesting career opportunities to the young water professionals are the planning and consulting bureaus, the construction companies, the
- 4. subcontractors, the different industries and laboratories, the river basin and governmental agencies, the universities and the NGOs. There are also a great number of international employers on the market such as the World Bank, the ADB and the IADB, some scientific -technical co-operations, e.g. GTZ, DED, DANIDA, etc., a lot of planning and construction companies and NGOs. As it appears, all these employers are interested mainly into hiring young professionals capable of one or more of the three main disciplines - Engineering, Natural Science and Human Science. Important skills that are required are the interdisciplinary teamwork and thinking, the fluency in different languages, the ability of mobility and last but not least - of intercultural competence. 4. PÖYRY: Gateway to global Consulting and Engineering, Kathrin Haid PÖYRY is a global consultancy and engineering company dedicated to the balanced sustainability. It has been involved in projects concerning sustainable dimension for decades. Balanced sustainability is a holistic, multidimensional approach to sustainability strives to achieve a balance between economic, environmental, social dimensions, as most appropriate to the nature of the project and PÖYRY is working with all these.The company sees its vision as the globally thought leader in engineering balanced sustainability for a complex world. Therefore, the organization provides services in various fields of engineering that includes management consulting, environment, and water supply and sanitation; among others. Many projects are already executed worldwide (Middle East, Africa, South America, Asia, and Europe). Pöyry contributes to the development of the YWP career by offering a two years entry program to junior professionals. During this period, the junior professional will be get to be part of the industrial consulting business as well as to be a member of team of professionals, technical know-how and regional experts. Beside the professional development in Germany and abroad, monthly allowance and accommodation, among others, are provided during the project stay. 1. Working for a Research Organisation, Mr Maximilian Grau, EAWAG - Swiss federal institute for science and technology In the first part of the presentation there was an overview of the main structure of the way any research works. The identification of scientific questions in water sector has to begin right after identification and analysis of all the large scale problems. There are many of
- 5. those in the Water sector: Water quality treatment, water supply, water resource management, etc. A good example of a large scale problem is the fact that 1,1 billion people have absolutely no access to protected and clean water. In this field the group of EAWAG has the task to develop a simple and easy to maintain device which can assure water appropriate for domestic needs. The device works as a part of decentralized purifying system and needs only gravity. Such a device can be called purifying membrane. It is interesting to mention that after developing the prototype a difference between the expectation and the results regarding changing of flow capacity during the time of operation has occurred. It was also presented some ways how to get in research organization as well as duration of different steps in different paths in the research carrier was mentioned. Furthermore some advantages of the researchers’ carrier were elaborated. 6. Working for a technology supplier - Sr. Application Development Engineer Katariina Majamaa, Dow Water & Process Solutions Dow Water & Process Solutions is a purification and separation technology supplier leader, offering advance ion exchange and membrane technology, which is used to improve human health and enables success and well-being to both the customers and the millions of people they serve. The main activities of the company are markets and applications, industrial process water, chemical processing, food and beverage, waste and water reuse. The commercial roles and the R&D roles are the two typical career paths that are applying for the technology suppliers. The most important advice given by Ms Katariina Majamaa is that the young water professionals should think what they really want to do, and after that, step by step, the right direction is going to be found. 7. UN-Water Decade Program on Capacity Development, Dr. Hani Sewilam The presentation has showed the dependency of the achievement of the MDG’s with relevance to the water resources. From the presenter’s point of view, not only the 7th goal of the MDG’s, which refers to the insurances of the environmental sustainability, depends on the protection of the water resources. What’s more, the eight goals which range from halving the poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education by the year 2015 depends on water. A new calculation of the percentage of the
- 6. water’s impact, both in quantity and quality, on the MDG’s has been presented. For example, water affects around 50% the achievement of ensuring sustainable environment, around 30% the eradicating poverty and hunger, and 2 5% on combating HIV/ AIDS and other diseases. In total, one third of the MDG’s found to depend on water. Therefore, if the water problems are solved, one third of the MDG’s will be achieved by the year 2015. The UNW-DPC has undertaken different types of capacity development activities to disseminate the importance of improving and preserving the water resources. The percentage of these activities undertaken by the UN-Water members and partners showed that e-learning has very low percentage when compared to other activities. Organizing training is the one with the highest percentage. Thus, enhancing the e-learning activity will increase the other activities. The internet is said to be the best option to disseminate the information for its simplicity, quickness, and cheapness. This option assures an immense number of viewers of the technical videos. Those videos could be loaded into the web. Even shifting from you-tube to you-water one day can be possible. 8. Getting Involved in Associations: A Way to Develop Your Career, Adrian Puigarnau, IWP The organizational structure of International Water Association (IWA) mainly where different committees and groups found was explained. The Specialist Groups (SG) of IWA works to create platforms where their topic of interest can be discussed and moved forward. It was indicated that in the SG a person can develop its own knowledge by participating different activities - conferences, publications, newsletters, tool boxes and young water professional activities. As it has been mentioned that a person may get involved in SG through the following ways: by being part of the management teams of SGs, by helping with the submissions’ reviews sent to the conferences, by getting involved with the organization of conferences, engaging himself to the development of products and by developing a Young Water Profession (YWP) Sections. It was mentioned that being part of Task Groups, which are sub group of SG that are working to develop a product such as benchmark, charter and reports, is important to develop knowledge. By getting involved with IWA publishing, everybody can become a paper reviewer for journals, and can submit articles to Water Wiki. Finally it was re-reminded that ‘the more you get involved, the more you will get back’ 9. The Global Water Platform: Building on the IWA Water Wiki to Support Young Water Professionals
- 7. Water Wiki is constructed by the International Water Association (IWA), the objective is to provide a platform for the global water community to interact and share knowledge online. Like Wikipedia, Water Wiki is a new freely accessible website which is growing rapidly and becoming an essential information source for water professionals. The quality control is maintained through a community manager and volunteer editorial group, and every internet user can read, create and edit pages. In order to make Water Wiki a broad based water information and collaboration website in the world, we young water professionals from different countries, different fields should take full advantage of this global platform to work together, exchange our ideas and improve the design and usability of this website. Conclusion: Considering the presentations in this career event workshop, it is necessary to understand the need of YWP and the wide range of opportunities which are opening in front of us. In a global and mobile world such as we live in, we encounter the chance to discover the proper area in which we aim to develop from research to exploitation. Having chosen the most interesting field for us, we can begin to utilize the information – ‘the more you get involved, the more you will get back ‘. This is the way to face the challenges of a new time and we will be able to solve problems, connected with environment and water. As a part of the Young Water Professionals program organized by DWA, during the event of IFAT ENTSORGA 2010 in Munich for the working group № 2, two field trips were held. The aim was to learn more about the quality of the water and the system for supplying Munich and also to see how some of the projects are being realized on site. On the 13th of September we visited the Munich Water Works or “Stadwerke München”. SWM works to assure the best possible services, considering water quality and quantity. Governed by the Municipality of Munich it controls approximately 3200 km of pipelines and has about 7000 workers.
- 8. The catchment area “Mangfall” is the most important in Bavaria. It is situated in a beautiful forest region, about 55 km away from Munich. Per day the average consumption of water is about 130 l/day/person. SWM supplies water to 1.5 million citizens of Munich and per day this makes approximately 320 million liters of water that has to be transported. The water cost is 1.5 € per m3 . The Annual rainfall is around 1400 mm. Quite interesting is the fact, that water flows by gravity and no pumping is needed. It is being collected in a collection chamber. The chamber consists of 4 collection pipes and 2 distribution pipes. The total length of pipe system is 1.8 km. Pipes are made of steel and concrete and they are laid at approximately 9 m depth with 2m diameter. One of the interesting facts, concerning the water quality is that no treatment is required. The rain water has to retain 50 days under ground before it is considered as safe drinking water. Since 1992 the City Water Works department uses financial instruments to help for the cooperation of 80% of the farmers in the region to use natural fertilizers and avoid application of pesticides etc. The SWM drinking water is being regularly checked and monitored, to reveal undesirable contamination in the distribution pipe systems. Tests of quality are proved also by sensitive fish- trout. The total technical water losses are below 10%. During our second excursion, we visited two sites – the construction of a new channel nearby Karlsfeld and the rehabilitation of the 130 years old part of a channel on “Thierstraße” in Munich. The sewer system in Munich has total length of 2000 km. Its newer parts consist of separate system for sewage and rainwater, while the older are combined. The purpose of constructing the new channel at North-West Main Sewer is to be finished the last missing part of the biggest channel in Munich. The total lenght, that has to be built is 1,6 km for 18 months and the pipes’ diameter is 3,20m. The projekted cost is 10 000 €/m. Till our visit, 350m were finished. Most of the works are carried out under the ground so that minimal disturbance of the people living nearby is assured. A tunnel boring machine is being used on the site. The advantage is that it cuts out the ground and transports it out simultanously with speed 8-12 m/day. The bore’s diameter has to be 2cm bigger than the pipe itself. The maximum flow capacity of the new sewer system is 14 m³/sec.
- 9. The concrete pipes are constructed on site. The advantages include more cost effectiveness and less noise and no trafic increase as there is no need for transporting machines - otherwise 440 trucks would have been needed. Another machine, that has being used on that site is ground separator. It increases the cost efficiency. Works to separate the ground, the water and the bentonite and afterwards the separated materials are either recycled in the process or sold as building materials. The rehabilitation of a 130 years old channel section’s purpose is the renewal of an old, damaged channel section and also an environmental protection measure. On this site, the projected shape of the channel is irregular (egg-shaped) and the capacity is 200 l/sec. The part that has to be renewed is 160 m long and the duration of works lasts approximately 2 weeks. The method used is Japanese. The Spiral Pipe Renewal (SPR) method allows the new inner plastic layer of the channel to be formed by PVC stripe (spirally). 8- 10m stripe is used per minute and 1m channel is covered for 4 minutes. The gap between old channel wall and new PVC layer is filled up by concrete. The advantages of Spiral Pipe Renewal (SPR) method are that by that method there is no digging at all. It is suitable for a wide range of channel sizes and irregular cross-sections (eg egg-shaped) or bends. The application of the method requires small space above the ground and can be carried out even if there is some water in the channel (eg if rainwater enters the channel). On the 9th Young Water Professionals’ Programme at the International EWA Symposium on Water, Wastewater and Waste on the International Trade Fair and Congress IFAT Entsorga working group 3 of the Young Water Professionals attended several presentations concerning the topics: Sewer rehabilitation, Industrial wastewater treatment and Wet Weather Problems and Solutions.
- 10. Group 3 at Munich Waste Water Treatment Plant Fresh water is a vital natural resource that will continue to be renewable as long as it is well managed. Preventing pollution from domestic, industrial, and agro-industrial activities is important to ensure the sustainability of the locale’s development. Undoubtedly the water pollution control efforts which have been underway in many countries have already achieved some success. Disposal of industrial wastewater has always been a major environmental issue. Pollutants in industrial wastewater are almost invariably so toxic that wastewater has to be treated before its reuse or disposal in water bodies. Maximum allowed limits for contaminants in “treated” wastewater are enforced in developed and many developing countries. Treatment methods that use simple techniques and make use of locally available treatment materials will result in reducing the cost of treatment to the point that polluting industries will not find it inhibitive or discouraging. Previous investigations on the removal of heavy metals from wastewater suggest that systems containing calcium in the form CaO or CaCO3 and carbonates in general, are particularly effective in the removal of heavy metals from wastewater. Thus, natural soils of high calcium and carbonate contents may prove to be useful in this respect. The industrial activities that contaminate water are: Pharmaceuticals Vegetable Preservation Paints Manufacturing Organic Fertilizers Iron and Steel Processing Soaps and Detergents Manufacturing
- 11. Cardboard Manufacturing. Industrial wastewaters (including agro-industrial wastewaters) are effluents that result from human activities which are associated with raw-material processing and manufacturing. These wastewater streams arise from washing, cooking, cooling, heating, extraction, reaction by-products, separation, conveyance, and quality control resulting in product rejection. Water pollution occurs when potential pollutants in these streams reach certain amounts causing undesired alterations to a receiving waterbody. While industrial wastewaters from such processing or manufacturing sites may include some domestic sewage, the latter is not the major component. Domestic sewage may be present because of washrooms and hostels provided for workers at the processing or manufacturing facility. Examples of industrial wastewaters include those arising from chemical, pharmaceutical, electrochemical, electronics, petrochemical, and food processing industries. Examples of agro-industrial wastewaters include those arising from industrial-scale animal husbandry, slaughterhouses, fisheries, and seed oil processing. Agro-industrial wastewaters can be very strong in terms of pollutant concentrations and hence can contribute significantly to the overall pollution load imposed on the environment. The process of sewer rehabilitation includes several steps: Physical Evaluation of Sewer System, Manhole Inspection, Physical Assessment of Sewer Systems, Hydraulic Evaluation of Sewers. Sewer rehabilitation can be done by different methods: Pipe lining, Pipe bursting, Open-trench replacement. Rehabilitation for sewer systems involves investigation of both the physical condition and the hydraulic performance of the system. Sewers are evaluated to identify segments vulnerable to collapse, soil intrusion, groundwater infiltration and storm water inflow. Collapse of a sewer main could result in spilled sewage and potential damage to surface structures. Smoke testing is a method of detecting source of infiltration and inflow in sewer systems. During a smoke test, a smoke generating flare is placed in the sewer section. Smoke testing detects inflow problems such as storm sewer cross connections, direct connections of drain area. Manhole inspections give information about structural problems such as missing bricks, cracks, breaks and leaks. Closed-circuit television inspections (CCTV) provide information about structural problems such as cracks, breaks, displaced joints, missing pipe pieces, roots and corrosion. Physical assessment of the sewer system includes classifying the degree of deterioration. The physical conditions of sewers are ranged from fair to badly damaged. Assessing sewer system hydraulics involves estimating flows in a sewer system, including base wastewater flow, infiltration from groundwater or rainfall and inflow
- 12. from storm water sources that enter the systems through cracks, displaced joints and illegal connections. The session about the wet weather problems and solution with specific focus on Pluvial flooding in Europe. The presentations were mainly based on the outcomes of the specific projects carried out in Pluvial flooding. Pluvial flooding is a flooding which results from rainfall generated overland flow before the runoff enters any watercourse or sewer. In general it occurs when rainfall intensity is higher than the infiltration capacity of the land and can happen everywhere. Some of the highlights of the presentation include: from the outcome of different Regional climate models (RCMs) based on the current available scenarios for the period of 2071 to 2100, it is likely to increase that pluvial flooding will increase under the climate change scenarios. For example, 5-day accumulated rainfall is expected to increase in almost all scenarios. Other different analysis including river discharge, expected annual damage from the flood in general indicate that the whole continent will be impacted by Pluvial flooding at different magnitude and space. European Flood Alert System has been set up which is able to model the weather forecast and thereby the flood related information in advance. Such critical information are relayed to the concerned authority to take necessary action to deal with the forthcoming flood. In summary, pluvial flooding is an increasing problem in Europe and can occur in every single EU country. Group 3 at Munich Water Works
- 13. As a part of the Young Water Professionals Programme at IFAT ENTSORGA 2010 in Munich, Working Group 4 was responsible to report about the Symposium, organized by EWA (European Water Association) and DWA (German Association for Water, Wastewater and Waste), held on 14.09.2010 at the International Trade Fair and Congress IFAT Entsorga 2010. Group 4. Vera Asenova (Bulgaria), Ana Borisavljevic (Serbia), Mihai Grozavescu (Romania), Mariana Koleva (Bulgaria), Daniel Mihai (Romania), Dejan Peric (Serbia), Vanesa Rodriguez (Bolivia), Ruth Schaldach (Germany), Adrian Stan (Romania), Marina Stoykova (Bulgaria), Dorothea Weingärtner (Germany) In the Symposium were included two sessions. The topic of the first session was “Emerging Issues in Wastewater Technologies” and of the second “Management of Biosolids”. During the first and the second session eight very interesting lectures were presented by different representatives in the water and wastewater sector, as follow: 1. Resource Oriented Sanitation - Potentials, Options, Experience. Report of a Large German Working Group, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Martin Oldenburg, Höxter (DE) The current European practice is based on centralized sewage systems and wastewater treatment that have a low flexibility and are in need of high (re-)investment costs. Resource oriented sanitation systems are more flexible and use wastewater as source of water and nutrients. To get a further understanding of the options offered by resource oriented sanitation, a large working group was found in Germany. Using a systematic approach, six different systems to separate and reuse the streams of wastewater were identified and described. The results were published 2008 by DWA in the handbook “Neuartige Sanitärsysteme” (Innovative Sanitation Systems).
- 14. 2. Aeration - Key Issue for Energy Saving, Dipl.-Ing. Peter Jagemann, Essen (DE) Mr. Jagemann’s presentation was based on research, conducted by one of Germany’s biggest wastewater service providers, which maintains 54 WWTP. In these 54 WWTP of the Emmscher Genossenschaft-Lippeverband, actually, 25% of the running costs are due to energy consumption. This part of the running costs is to 35-45% due to energy running costs of aerators as part of the activated sludge process, particularly, in the running phase of the system. Disk aerators domineer in the Emmscher Genossenschaft-Lippe Verband, which reflects that disk aerators are the most installed aerators worldwide (Fig. 1). 3. Reduction of Excess Sludge Production in a Conventional Activated Sludge System by a New Electromagnetic Treatment, Eric Valette, Sierre (CH) Mr. Erik Valette was representing Planet Horizons Technologies, a Swiss company who developed an innovative treatment using electromagnetism. The goal of the study was the reduction of excess sludge production. The experiment was conducted both in the laboratory (Fig. 2) and in a full-scale treatment plant. The procedure has a very small energy consumption and is using a weak magnetic field lower than 10 µT. Two parallel lines were used - one as a reference and the other one using electromagnetic treatment. Removal efficiencies of organic substrate and excess sludge production were measured in the two lines. The result was significant sludge reduction and good pollutants removal. The results for the full scale installation, as in the lab, were almost the same efficiency for the removal of organic substrate but the reduction of excess sludge production increased to 55% in some cases. 4. Long Lasting Experience with Water Reuse in Braunschweig. Prospects and Risks, Dipl.-Ing. Andreas Hartmann, Braunschweig (DE) Wastewater used for agricultural irrigation has a 50 years old history in Braunschweig. At the moment there is an area of 3000 ha, which is irrigated with pre-treated wastewater from the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). Since 1970 discharge control and pre-treatment of industrial wastewater is being carried out in order to reduce heavy metals and other pollutants in wastewater and sludge at the source. These measures contribute to the safe reuse of sludge. In 2006 a biogas plant was built. It supplies energy for 3 800 households and heat for 1 000 households. One of the most important advantages of this process is the repeated utilization of nutrients like Phosphorus and Nitrogen (Fig. 3). In summer, this amount is used in form of digested sludge for irrigation, while in winter the sludge is dewatered, stored and used as dry fertilizer. Wastewater and sludge irrigation has many advantages: 1. The operators of WWTP are avoiding sludge disposal issues and they eliminate the costs related to post-treatment of the water; 2. The farmers are benefiting from nutrient and C-applications; 3. The environment
- 15. gains in form of the protection of N- and P-resources and the Recipient River, energy savings, production of renewable energy and groundwater recharge. Fig. 1 Disk Aerators Fig. 2 Laboratory scale with antenna Fig. 3 Nutrient, water and energy cycles 5. A Sustainable Integrated Approach to Sludge Management, K. Richard Tsang, Raleigh (US) The project is based on making sustainable plan development for the Hickory Regional Sludge Consortium formed in the later 1980’s with the membership of the cities of Hickory, Newton and Conover, in Catawba County (North Carolina). A regional sludge composting facility was constructed and became operational in 1990. The facility had odour problems from the beginning, which forced the shutdown of the plant and reconstruction of an odour control system. The plant was reopened in 1991 and currently operated by Veolia Water. However, a capacity analysis study in 2000 identified some problematic areas, such as: operation costs continue to be high, remaining capacity is not adequate to meet long-term needs, location of composting facility is not ideal for local development and the aging infrastructure requires significant upkeep costs. These are drivers for thinking of alternative solutions (Fig. 4). The benefits of biosolids management planning working together with solid waste management, industries and research facilities are: the protection of public health and environment, energy efficient, product market assurance, net overall economic and environmental benefits. 6. Capacity Evaluation and Optimisation of a Co-Digester Plant, Prof. h.c. Dipl.-Ing. Erhard Hoffmann, Karlsruhe (DE) On the WWTP Baden Baden Sinzheim anaerobic digesters were installed in 1983. They were put into operation in 1994 with 5000 t/a Bio-waste. Today, the plant has an input of 30000 t/a of Bio-waste and 3200 t/a of kitchen-waste. One of today’s challenges is that the digester volume got halved due to the rehabilitation of one fermenter. But the main question was how to cope with the unchanged amount of substrate? Possibilities are the pre-treatment of the substrates and/or inclusion of an existing biomass reactor. Used material and methods were: 1. Sludge disintegration (batch experiments) with ultra sonic generator; 2. Hydrolysis (batch experiments) with double-walled tempered hydrolysis reactors; 3. Continuous one-stage flow
- 16. experiments - digestion temperature - 36°C and HRT - 20 d; 4. Continuous flow two-stage experiments - hydrolysis (1st-stage) and digestion (2nd-stage). Results for sludge disintegration show that the energy input decreases according to the dry matter concentration increase and also that disintegration efficiency achieves up to 50 % based on CODtot. However, treating kitchen-waste or primary sludge in the same manner is not promising as the disintegration yields are rather low. 7. Design of the SHAFDAN Digestion and Cogeneration Facility, David Perry, Bellvue (US) The WWTP of SHAFDAN is designed for 1.8 mil people equivalent. Annual average flow rate of the plant is estimated with 340 000 m3/d. In order to discharge sludge in the Mediterranean Sea a three stage anaerobic sludge digestion was built to produce Class A digested biosolids and to ensure pathogen reduction. The primary and waste activated sludge is first screened and afterwards pumped to eight acid phase sludge digesters, where the sludge is hydrolyzed to basic acid compounds. In this phase the facility is operated at low pH which creates an environment suitable for the microorganisms that are responsible for a rapid breakdown of the solids into organic acids. The final step of the sludge stabilization process is the methane phase. After sludge hydrolyzation, the gas-phase follows with eight anaerobic digesters. To ensure pathogen reduction and shorter sludge retention time the temperature range in the tank was kept around 55°C. Plant effluent wastewater is used to cool down the sludge to a mesophilic temperature. After dewatering processes the sludge is utilized in agriculture. A large amount of methane gas is produced during the sludge degradation. For gas utilization a co-generation engine is used to provide heat and power to run the anaerobic digester facilities. 8. New Development of the Highly Efficient Sludge Drying Process, Marcel Büchler, Dübendorf (CH) New Development of the Highly Efficient Sludge Drying Process was presented, namely the so called INNODRY 2E (Fig. 5 and Fig. 6) - patented drying process which has a 2-step drying process: conduction and convection. The main advantages of this method are: Low energy consumption; Vapour reuse and Waste heat recovery. INNODRY 2E is innovative technology in accordance with latest standards in this sector.
- 17. Fig. 4 Integrated Sludge Management Fig. 5. Full-scale installation Fig. 6. Dried Sludge As a part of the Programme, Work Group № 5 had to report about their visit to the Munich Waste Water Treatment Plant. They shared their impressions in a short film, and here are few pictures from them. As all of the events, organized at an international level, that week in Munich was very interesting and useful for all of the participants in the YWP Programme. We had the opportunity to communicate and share experience with people at our age and from all over the world, who have similar interests in the water sector, to practice working together in groups, to visit interesting sites of regional level and most of all – to visit the World’s leading trade fair for water, sewage, waste and raw materials management. Each participant received plenty of information upon the different topics concerning water science and management, wastewater treatment, future techniques and technologies. As young specialists in the field, we got acquainted with the research and career development opportunities. We had the chance to meet a lot of established names in the sector.
- 18. As members of the YWP Bulgaria, our partition in events like this is valuable in the view of working together with our colleagues worldwide, sharing experiences and establishing new useful contacts. We have the chance to view closely how the system works, so that we might implement new and effective practices in our start towards a global networking.