Key areas of work / Field of activity


Waste

  • Sorting analyses, waste management conception, dimensioning of collection, transport and treatment plants

Treatment

  • Development and optimization of aerobic and anaerobic treatment plants, renewable energy from bio-mass, scientific attendance of planning and startup procedure

Landfilling

  • Pretreatment, sealing system, emission behavior, gas and water balance, gas utilization, -disposal, leachate gas utilization, -purification

Emissions

  • Detection, testing and assessment, treatment (bio-filter, bio-washer), utilization (cogeneration units, fuel cells)

Research

  • Development of mechanical-biological treatment plants, landfill surface sealing systems, modeling and optimization of anaerobic treatment plants

Life cycle assessment

  • Evaluation of waste treatment plants

 

Analysis in laboratory-scale


Analyses of domestic and industrial waste

  • Container characteristics aquisition (density, filling ratio, filling volume), sorting analytics (domestic waste and waste from institutional resources, materials and bio waste), particle classification (sifting machine), wet seaving, material composition and determination of obstructions proportion, industrial waste sighting

Sampling and sample preparation

  • Sampling and sample prepaparation (domestic and industrial waste, compost, deposit, sorting plant residues, etc.), sieving and sorting of waste (classification aggregates), reduction of waste (reduction aggregate), gas and olfactory test, leachate and water vapour test

Analytics

  • Water content, calorific value, heating value, ignition loss, solid and liquid (TOC, TIC),GB21,AT4, eluate analytics, particle seize distribution (incl. wet seaving), degree of compaction (Proctor), gas and water permaebility

Wet-chemical analytics

  • Gas chromatography (GC)  high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) UV / VIS - spetroscopy IR - spectrophotometry photometer (CSB, heavy metals, etc.)

Compost analytics

  • Water content, maximum particle seize, gross density, rot degree, plant tolerance, cress test, salt content, soluble nutrients, viable seeds, foreign matter and stone content, ignition loss, heavy metals, overall content of nutrients

Biological methods of testing

  • fermentation test (gas production potential 4*10 l, fermentation experiment 2*1 m3), GB21, respiratory activity AT4 (biological activity, Sapromat), self-heating experiment (biological activity, Dewar-vessel), climatic compartments

Gas analytics

  • Landfill gas, bio-gas

Water analytics

  • Leachate, water vapour, condensation water

 

Analysis in pilot-scale

 

Analysis of the long-term behavior of landfills

  • Large-scale lysimeter for waste (1*100 m3, 3*10 m3), landfill simulation reactor (5*200 l)

Analysis for mechanical-biological treatment

  • Anaerobic test system (2*1 m3, 8*5 m3), aerobic test system, landfill simulation reactor (5*200 l), static bio-reactor

Experimental hall

  • Laboratory with 500 m2 working space
  • Testing ground
  • 600 m2 Central Landfill Emscherbruch (ZDE)

 

Hard- and Software

 

  • Simulation of the water balance of a landfill
  • Simulation of the material flow of waste treatment plants
  • Simulation of the landfill gas production
  • Calculation and simulation of leachate treatment plants
  • Calculation and simulation of fermentation plants
  • Software-Tools for use of Fuzzy Control and neuronal networks
  • Software-Tools for life cycle assessment
  • Umberto Software for company material flow management
Civil Engineering

Head of the Department

Prof. Dr.-Ing. R. Widmann
Siedlungswasser- und Abfallwirtschaft
Universitätsstr. 15
45141 Essen

Tel.: +49 201 183-2686

renatus.widmann@uni-due.de