Master of Science

Courses

ETE 22306 Fundamentals of Environmental Technology

This course focuses on refreshing and extending the general basic knowledge on environmental technology. It is in fact a bridge to the more specific courses in environmental technology such as Biological Processes for Resource Recovery and Advanced WaterTreatment and Reuse. In the course attention is paid to phase separation processes, chemical and biological conversion processes, set-up and application of mass balances. These mass balances are necessary to be able to design processes in the field of environmental technology, to develop simulation models and to optimize treatment processes for polluted waters, off-gases, polluted soils and solid wastes. The mathematical background of the solution of these mass balances is given, as well as physical, chemical and microbiological aspects that are relevant for the development and application of separation and conversion processes are discussed. Extensive attention is given to the thermodynamic description of physical and chemical equilibria starting from the 1st and 2nd laws of thermodynamics. On the basis of this the Gibbs energy and chemical potential are defined. From the way in which the chemical potential of a particular substance depends on temperature, pressure and composition, various equilibria, including phase, chemical, distribution and solubility equilibria are discussed.

ETE 30306 Biological Processes for Resource Recovery

All organic materials are in one way or another involved in biological cycles. Biodegradation of this material will lead to compounds that can be recovered as resources, which will enter the biological cycle again. The subject of this course is the use of biological processes to recover resources within Environmental Technology. An overview is given of both technological, microbiological, and thermo dynamical aspects of the processes of interest. Based on general kinetics of biological processes, the design principles for wastewater treatment, sustainable energy production from waste and wastewater, off gas cleaning and soil remediation will be derived. Biological processes for the degradation and conversion of organic contaminants, organic matter, nitrogen, phosphorous, sulphur under aerobic and anaerobic conditions will be reviewed.

ETE 30806 Advanced Water Treatment and Reuse

Global water scarcity necessitates the reuse of domestic, agricultural and industrial wastewaters. To achieve this objective, in many cases advanced treatment concepts are required, in which biological treatment processes for removal and recovery of bulk contaminants are supported by physical-chemical treatment methods for removal of trace and/or non-biodegradable contaminants. In this course the emphasis is on these physical-chemical treatment technologies. Membrane treatment, advanced oxidation processes and electrochemical technologies are only some examples of the technologies that are explained. This course also deals with the background knowledge required for reactor design, optimization of reactor performance and scaling up. This includes physical transport phenomena, chemical and physical equilibria, chemical reaction kinetics, phase separation, electrochemistry and colloid chemistry. A number of realistic cases are described, which illustrate how, based on wastewater characteristics and effluent requirements, the appropriate unit processes can be selected and designed.

ETE 31306 Urban Water and Waste: Treatment & Reuse

Two important objectives in urban infrastructure development are strongly improved access of deprived sectors of the population (in developing countries) and environmental sustainability.
The subject focuses on drinking-water supply, drainage, sanitation, solid waste management and the reuse of valuable substances from wastes. With regard to reuse emphasis is laid on agricultural applications.

ETE 32306 Renewable Energy: Sources, Technology & Applications

Access to sufficient energy is a key prerequisite for any industrial society. Fossil fuels are nowadays the dominant energy source. Current use of fossil fuels has a number problems, greenhouse effect, air pollution and depletion. Energy savings and the use of renewable energy are directions for achieving an environmentally sustainable industrial society. This course will focus on sustainable energy sources as a key factor in solving environmental problems.

ETE 50401 / ETE 50406 Capita Selecta Environmental Technology

Apart from the possibility to explore a specific development or state-of-the-art in the field of Environmental Technology on an individual basis (ranging from 1 to 6 ec), one programmed capita selecta course has been offered.

ETE 50403 Capita Selecta on Water treatment & reuse

Water treatment & reuse 

The primary objective of wastewater treatment always has been to produce a water quality that satisfies the discharge standards. The last decade this objective slowly changed when the need for renewable resources became recognized. Obviously, this concerns water itself, for example expressed in one of the Millennium Development Goals to “reduce by half the number of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water”, but also applies to reuse of industrial wastewater, cost-effective production of irrigation water and the even production of drinking water from wastewater. Removal of bulk pollutants already was an important issue and now micropollutants that prevent reuse of water have become equally important. Examples are heavy metals, medicine residues, hormones and pathogens. In addition, new legislation imposes more stringent discharge guidelines for the nutrients phosphorus and nitrogen.

Energy & nutrient recovery 

A relatively new but extremely important issue concerns the observation that wastewater pollutants often represent valuable and renewable resources. For instance, bulk organic compounds in wastewater can be recovered as energy by anaerobic processes or by bio-fuel cells. Another example is the phosphorus present in domestic, agricultural and industrial wastewaters. Economically exploitable phosphorus ores are expected to be finished within 50 years time.

ETE 70424 / ETE 70439 Internship Environmental Technology

The Internship is a learning period during which the relationship with professional practise is emphasised. He internship and supervision are usually provided by a third party outside the sub-department of Environmental Technology.

ETE 80418 / ETE 80439 Thesis Environmental Technology

The MSc thesis is the culmination of the Master study programme. The student independently addresses a topic, usually by doing research within an ongoing research project. It is possible to make your own research proposal or conduct research that involves other chair groups.

XWT 20805 Global Water Cycle (Leeuwarden)

This module introduces students to the demand for water process innovation in an international contest. It makes a broad distinction between water technology demand in three types of country environment: low-income countries, emerging markets and high-income countries. Each of these country categories grapples with a different set of issues. Low-income countries prioritise meeting basic human needs for water and combating waterborne infections, Emerging markets face the challenge of solving the water quantity and quality problems caused by rapid industrial growth and urbanisation. High-income countries seek ways of closing urban and industrial water cycles in order to protect their ecological integrity. Each of these three water markets is associated with specific sets of institutional context variables, contaminant profiles. These drive and constrain demand for water process technologies. The course will also show examples of these technological solutions. Students are familiarised with this framework and proceed to apply it to select country cases.

XWT 30305 Biological Water Treatment and Recovery Technology (Leeuwarden)

In the past the main objective of industrial as well as municipal wastewater treatment was to produce an effluent that could comply with the discharge standards to surface waters. Today this objective more and more is combined with reuse of the treated water and the recovery of valuable resources from wastewater. Typical examples of such resources are organic matter to be recovered as energy, phosphorus, sulphur and nitrogen. Both objectives can be accomplished by smart combinations of microbiological conversion processes and/or microbiologically induced crystallisation processes. During this course an overview will be presented of the microbiological, thermo dynamical, and kinetic aspects of relevant biological processes. In several case studies the students will learn how this knowledge, combined with characteristics substrate properties of (multiple-component) wastewaters and environmental conditions, (1) can be used to make a technological design of a biological wastewater treatment plant, and (2) how appropriate mixed-cultures of microorganisms can be selected, which can do their job at a sufficiently high rate.