Waste management and biological process technologies

Course Aim

Course participants acquire basic knowledge about the amounts and composition, as well as the collection and treatment of municipal waste streams. Bioreactors and basic bioprocess kinetics are being discussed together with appropriate monitoring strategies. Students learn to assess environmental issues and evaluate different biotechnological solutions and bioreactor types depending on the area of application.

General Information

  • Course responsability: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Eckhard Kraft
  • Compulsory course within the specialisation Waste management: 6 ECTS with 5 SWS
  • The course is held in each winter semester.
  • Examination: Written exam 120 minutes

Course Content

The course focuses on:

  • Waste generation, amounts and composition,
  • Relation between socio-economic aspects in waste management,
  • Waste management structures,
  • Technical systems for waste collection and transport.

Further, the course teaches basic notions on, as well as technical concepts and first draft dimensioning of plants treating waste mechanically and/or biologically. Planning tools such as mass balancing and the calculation of emission potentials and costs of treatment plants are being discussed.

Detailed dealing with the topic of biological waste treatment covers:

  • Technical solutions for anaerobic and aerobic biological processes,
  • Bioreactors with suited and adapted bioprocess kinetics,
  • Parameters and monitoring strategies for bioreactors,
  • Mass balancing,
  • Biological processes in landfills.

Finally, theoretical basics are being illustrated together with practical examples at technical scale.

Literature

  • Kranert, M. (Hrsg.) (2010): Einführung in die Abfallwirtschaft, Vieweg+Teubner Verlag / Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
  • Bischofsberger, W. (Hrsg.) (2005): Anaerobtechnik. Springer Verlag, Berlin.