After two years away from the real-world environment of a process engineer, students were finally able to see a plant in operation again this winter term: together with Prof. Dr Joachim Gebel and Prof. Dr Kai Masuch, they visited the Löhnen waterworks. .
After a two-year break from gaining real-world experience as process engineers, the students were finally able to visit a plant in operation again this winter term. Just as before the pandemic, the trip took them once more to the water treatment works in Voerde-Löhnen. Turning the groundwater from the Voerde Mommbach lowlands into Dinslaken’s high-quality drinking water requires one of the largest and most modern membrane filtration plants in Europe. The plant is equipped with nanofiltration membranes capable of filtering all anthropogenic trace substances from the groundwater.
The waterworks’ operations manager, Marco Binder, gave a clear and informative presentation explaining how the plant works, and during the subsequent tour the students were able to marvel at the individual stages of the process. They were particularly impressed by the size of the components (pumps, valves, pipework) and the excellent condition of the membrane modules after more than 10 years of operation. The excursion was accompanied by Prof. Joachim Gebel and his successor, Prof. Kai Masuch.
