Research Areas

The institute’s theoretical and applied research activities deal with a wide variety of questions concerning the represented the fields of expertise in

• waste water treatment,
• urban hydrology,
• process engineering in hydro systems and
• transport processes in hydro systems.

In the department of Waste Water Treatment research includes processes and plants of municipal and industrial waste water and sludge treatment, as well as decentralized and natural processes for waste water treatment in rural areas.

Urban Hydrology’s areas of research are on one hand theoretical fields of research in relation to exchange processes between sewer system and groundwater, transportation of sewer sediments and the reduction of complex model structures in simulation. On the other hand applied research topics are approached, that deal with the system development in compliance with the Water Framework Directive, the integrated modelling of the sewer system, sewage treatment plant and water body, material flow in drainage areas, adapting urban drainage to climatic and socio-economic changes, sewer system control and technical optimization of the sewer system operation (sediments, odor/corrosion, special constructions).

Focusing on the research areas membrane processes in water and waste water treatment, simulation of treatment processes, especially by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in water and waste water treatment and (industrial) water management in the context of Integrated Water and Resource Management (IWRM) the chair of Process Engineering in Hydro Systems is facing the challenges of developing and optimizing optimising innovative processes of water and waste water treatment in industrial and academic research.

The Transport Processes in Hydrosystems research theme is concerned with the investigation of the spread of various substances as particulate dispersions or dissolved substances, which can occur both in aquatic ecosystems and in anthropogenically influenced settlement areas. The aim is to develop a fundamental understanding of the basic processes on the microscale, which remain relevant for larger-scale engineering applications. We realize our research approach through flow simulations and laboratory investigations of multiphase systems, which can be used to characterize the macroscopic material properties of the complex transport processes.