Chair of Process Engineering in Hydro Systems - Linking urban and industrial water and wastewater management

Ensuring a safe supply of clean drinking water, the sustainable management of water and the promotion of responsible production and sustainable industrialisation, with support of innovative technologies and production patterns, are goals for sustainable development (SDG) as demanded by the United Nations. They are of particular relevance in the water sector. An increasing cost pressure for process water treatment, waste water treatment and disposal of concentrates as well as a potential local or seasonal water shortages lead to a multiple reuse of water and to a selective and energy efficient removal of pollutants. In the field of ​​water management and supply, demographic change on the one hand and the fast population growth on the other hand, partly overaged or deficient infrastructure and the effects of the climate change with its decreasing or strongly fluctuating fresh water resources are becoming increasingly apparent.

In the increasingly complex environment of urban and industrial water management, engineers must be equipped with extensive technical and social competences. The chair of “Process engineering in Hydro Systems”, as one of the main pillars in the water management studies at Technische Universität Dresden, plays an outstanding and connectional role since all basic processes are found in managed water systems. In times of increased water recycling and resources recovery, the students need to develop a core competence in in-house water management and in industrial integrated water, energy and resource management in addition to a sound engineering knowledge.

Within the Institute of Urban and Industrial Water Management and the Department of Hydrosciences at TU Dresden, the Chair of Process Engineering in Hydro Systems takes the advantage of this overlapping function as link between urban and industrial water and wastewater treatment.