PEPcat: Start of the construction of the pilot plant
After more than two years, the meeting of all project partners of the project PEPcat took place again in presence on the 18th October 2022. The partners first visited the plant engineering company SIMA-tec (Schwalmtal), which was commissioned for the construction of the semi-industrial plant designed in the project. The plant will be used to test the developed process for the oxidative elimination of trace substances, such as drug residues, on a pilot scale. When the plant is completed, it will be installed in a container and transported to the Aachen-Soers wastewater treatment plant. There, the process will be tested and further developed under real conditions by connecting it to the secondary treatment effluent.
Following the visit to SIMA-tec, the partners drove to Aachen to discuss the status of the project modules and goals at the premises of the ISA. In the course of this, the photocatalyst developed by AMO GmbH was handed over to equip the reactors for the semi-industrial plant. The catalyst material was optimized in such a way that activation of the catalytic processes by irradiation with light in the visible range is possible. This means that artificial light sources such as UV lamps can be dispensed with and solar energy used instead, which massively reduces the energy consumption of the process.
Furthermore, there were fruitful discussions about the further procedure of the partners and the future of the project. The project participants would like to thank SIMA-tec for the interesting visit and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research for the funding within the framework of the "CLIENT II - International Partnerships for Sustainable Innovations" funding program.