ESEK

BMBF project ESEK "Development of a unified system to build small-scale wastewater treatment plants in compliance with the EU Wastewater Directive

Datas
Duration:                  01.05.2011 – 30.06.2013
Coordinator TUD:      Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Peter-Wolfgang Gräber

Partners :                 M&S Umweltprojekt Vogtland, Plauen (project supervisor)
                               Bergmann CLEAN Abwassertechnik GmbH

Funding:                   BMBF

According to the European Water Frame Directives (EU-WFD) all the member states must achieve a good chemical and ecological status for all water bodies until 2015. The EU-WFD establishes quality criteria that takes into account the local characteristics of the groundwater body, its chemical status, and introduces measures to prevent or limit its pollution. As a large proportion of the groundwater recharge comes from the treated wastewater, important steps in collecting and disposing it have been taken and/or reached. But there is still a large amount coming from the household small-scale wastewater treatment plant (STPs). As the soil acts as a natural filter with a relatively high storage capacity, one could use the treated wastewater for groundwater recharge.
The main purpose of this project is to develop a software tool for simulating water flow, transport and transformations of contaminants coming from STPs in variable saturated porous media. Thus, the results of the modelling could further help in efficintly designing and operating STPs. At the Institute for Waste Management and Contaminated Sites Treatment the program PCSiWaPro® was developed, which can handle the water flow and contaminant transport in unsaturated soil zone. To investigate the relevant biogeochemical reactions, the program is further coupled to the geochemical software PHREEQC.
To validate PCSiWaPro® a series of column laboratory experiments (e.g. different soil types, contaminants and concentration) are performed at the institute.