Featuring guest speaker Professor Mark Van Loosdrecht, of Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands
Monday, November 25, 2013
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Level 0 auditorium, between Ibn Al-Haytham and Ibn Sina (buildings 2 and 3)
Abstract:
Aerobic Granular Sludge is the next generation of municipal wastewater treatment. The growth of bacteria in compact granules allows efficient separation of effluent and sludge. The structural organization of the bacteria in the granules allow for biological nutrient removal in one reactor compartment. This decreases the size of the treatment plant by 75%, minimizes the need for mechanical equipment (30% energy savings), decreases investment costs (25%) and gives an excellent effluent quality. The granules consists for a large part in alginates and allow for integrated P-recovery in the form of potassium struvite. Hereby a new standard for wastewater treatment and resource recovery has been developed. The first installation has gone in operation in 2011 and now already 30 installations are in operation or construction.
Biography:
Mark van Loosdrecht is a Professor of Environmental Biotechnology at Delft University of Technology, in the Netherlands. He graduated from with MSc and PhD from Wageningen University. His PhD topic was a combination of Microbiology and Colloid chemistry. He was appointed at Delft in 1988 and became full Professor in 1998. His research is characterized by the combination of scientific understanding of complex systems and development of new processes. Dr. van Loosdrecht’s scientific interests are mainly related to Biofilm processes, nutrient conversion processes and the role of storage polymers in microbial ecology. In particular, he is interested in new processes related to wastewater treatment and resource recovery. His research has resulted in several processes currently applied on full scale such as the Sharon process, Anammox process and Nereda process. He is active member of the International Water Association (IWA) and past chairman of the Biofilm and the Nutrient removal specialis t groups. He is Editor in Chief of Water Research. He obtained several prizes for his work, including the Lee Kuan Yew Singapore Water Prize, the Simon Stevin Master Award and the IWA Grand Award. He is member of both the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Dutch Academy of Engineering. He was awarded a knighthood in the order of the Dutch Lion. He has published over 500 scientific papers, has 15 patents and has supervised over 50 PhD students.