Spesialist fra Kina: Optimising Wastewater Treatment Processes in Cold Climates

Wastewater treatment has special challenges in the cold climates due to the natural climatic conditions. The treatment processes are performing much slower during winner compared with summers. Efficiency of microorganisms, flocs growth and settling become considerably slower in colder climates requiring to buildlarger treatment facilities than in warmer climates. With the Climate Change impacts, the challenges will be even severe: more rain in shorter periods leading to flash floods and increased discharges requiring improved treatment facilities are examples. Many parts in China and Norway face similar problems and working to find solutions to make treatment systems more efficient in colder periods. The wastewater research group at the Qingdao Technological University is working with the use of novel enzymes in biological wastewater treatment to improve the treatment efficiencies in winters similar to summer periods. The research group at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences are working on using coagulation as a supplementary process to biological process and the use of advanced process control in improving the same conditions. The objective of this project is the exchange research experiences in the field among the partners. The two groups intends to develop joint research proposals for Norwegian, Chinese and European grants and the project concept papers will be developed during this research stay. The applicant will also use the visit to participate in two specialised conferences held in Norway on particle removal and water management in cold climates to share experiences with other international experts and to build research networks.