Objective

Video about the project IntenKS.

The IntenKS project targets exactly this point, since in the near future such plants for approx. 1 billion people are to be built and operated in China. The main objective of the project is therefore to end the unsustainable practice of dewatering and landfilling of non-stabilized raw sludge from wastewater treatment plants and to develop or adapt technological solutions for intensified sewage sludge treatment by thermal processes for the Chinese market in cooperation with industrial partners. The problem of the partly insufficient purification performance of the existing large-scale plants in China has to be faced by the intensification of the sludge treatment always integrated with a separate, optimized process water treatment. This aspect is also taken up in the project and scientifically investigated.

Thermal processes for intensifying sewage sludge treatment are inseparably connected with the effects on subsequent process stages of process water treatment and residue disposal. There is a particular need for research to ensure the elimination of nutrients in process water, taking into account inhibition by refractory reaction by-products from thermal processes. Therefore, the overall objective of the project is to assess these effects and to develop and qualify an integrated concept for the management of accumulating residues (centrate, dewatered digested sludge), which is adapted to the site conditions of the partner country China.