The recovery of ammonium from liquid waste streams.

Internship or graduation Assignment

Name of the project

-             The recovery of ammonium from liquid waste streams.

Student Profile

Bachelor / Master

-             Chemical Engineering

-             Environmental engineering/science

About Colubris Cleantech

Colubris Cleantech is a family business from Winterswijk. Since its foundation in 1984, the company has developed into a reliable partner in solving complex environmental problems related to waste water, waste recycling and biological resources. The company's focus is therefore divided into 3 divisions: water, waste and bioresource solutions.

• The Water Solutions division focuses on solutions to reduce waste water problems, reuse water and minimise contaminants to be disposed of.
• The Waste Solutions division focuses on solutions for separating waste streams for reuse and recycling.
• The Bioresource Solutions division has solutions for the recovery of residual materials from the food and non-food industry.

In order to stay ahead of the latest developments, Colubris is challenged to constantly develop itself. To set this process in motion, the Colubris Academy was launched this year. This Academy is a physical space at Colubris where the student team meets to work on assignments.

Your assignment

At Colubris we are working at the recovery of ammonium from liquid waste streams. For the recovery of ammonia, we are looking at novel membrane technology to recover nitrogen from waste steams. Lots of effort is put in to remove nitrogen from wastewater sources. In order to become more circular we thrive to recover and reuse valuable sources form waste water. Therefore, new systems are developed and different forms of pre-treatment are considered. 

This research is part of a bigger program to recover and reuse nitrogen. It consist of laboratory research, pilot research and system modelling.

During this assignment you will work on finishing the build of the pilot and start with experimental work to get the pilot working. In addition there is a model to be made describing the pilot, which will also help scaling of the system. Operating and monitoring the pilot might be part of the internship.

The exact content of the internship assignment for this project will be defined in May 2023, depending on the progress of the overall project.

Start date

February 2024.

Location

To be discussed, Wageningen or Winterswijk. Or pilot location (Roermond?)

Our expectation

You are a motivated student in Chemical Engineering or Environmental Sciences/Engineering. While carrying out this assignment, you can work independently and when necessary you are a team player. Possession of a drivers licence and understanding of the Dutch language is preferable.

What we offer

At Colubris, you will receive an appropriate internship allowance. Furthermore, you will receive good supervision from an experienced content supervisor and a process supervisor during your internship / thesis project. The content supervisor will help you with questions about your assignment. For questions outside of your research you can contact the process supervisor of Innovation Hub Winterswijk.