Profiles

RESEARCH AREAS

Subject area Waste Managment and Circular Economy:

• Quality improvements in plastics recycling, e.g. through measures to improve the quality of separate collection,
• Evaluation of the effectiveness of waste management measures in the region,
• Development of waste management concepts in newly industrializing and developing countries, taking into account regional specifics, especially in Southeast Asia,
• Development of a sampling and analysis strategy for the evaluation of microplastic contamination (UBA definition),
• Reduction of leachate pollution of landfills through waste management measures, using Namibia as an example,
• Development and implementation of waste management bachelor's and master's degree programmes as well as advanced training courses on integrated waste management in industrialised, newly industrialising and developing countries,
• Adaptation of the operation of existing mechanical-biological waste treatment plants to new waste management conditions,
• Development of functionalized landfill replacement materials for recultivation layers,
• Integrated approach to mineral waste for the sustainable development of urban-rural relationships,
• Development of a concept for monofermentation of nitrogenous substrates,
• Efficiency increase in waste-fired plants, investigation of pollutant development in the combustion chamber,
• CO2 accounting, climate protection and waste management,
• Material flow analyses of waste streams - Analysis and recycling potential of waste compositions,
• Emergence and disposal routes of sewage sludge - measures for phosphorus recycling,
• Ecological and economic evaluation of existing and future recycling measures,
• Biogas production from biogenic waste and renewable raw materials, fermentability of bioplastics,
• Upgrading of anaerobic plants to produce a soil conditioner that meets the requirements,
• Trends and potentials within the model of resource-efficient and low-emission settlement development - transformation research on the effects of social change on waste management,
• Sorting analyses based on near infrared spectroscopy.

Junior Research Group INOWAS

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Subject area Groundwater and Soil Remediation:

• Investigation of natural attenuation (NA) processes at contaminated sites, in particular investigations of the subsurface with regard to possibilities of human influence,
• Remediation by "Enhanced Natural Attenuation" (ENA) of pollutants by means of the addition of alternative electron acceptors such as sulphate and nitrate, development of appropriate in-situ remediation methods,
• Mutual influence on the maximum solubilities of pollutant mixtures in the groundwater of contaminated sites, taking temperature effects into account,
• Determination of Henry constants,
• Enhanced degradation and improved infiltration rates in "Soil-Aquifer-Treatment" plants by optimized oxygen supply due to adapted hydraulic manipulation,
• Optimisation of wastewater treatment with regard to the removal of pollutants,
• Integrated water resources management in fast-growing cities in emerging and developing countries, taking into account regional specifics,
• Conversion of contaminated sites in mining regions,
• Groundwater enrichment processes.