PDEng Traineeship in Sanitary Engineering at Delft University of Technology

The EU Horizon 2020 Innovation Action project ZERO BRINE advances circular economy business model solutions by re-designing the value chains of industrial wastewater. The project aims to close the water cycle by recovering and reusing the minerals and water from the brine (saline impaired effluents) of process industries, thus facilitating the implementation of the Circular Economy package and the SPIRE Roadmap.

ZERO BRINE integrates innovative technologies to recover water and minerals of sufficient purity and quality for good market value. Brine generated by industrial processes is treated by pre-concentration, organics treatment, ion separation, membrane concentration, thermal concentration or crystallization. The aim is to provide cost-effective, integrated, adaptable systems to minimize waste, effluent discharge and the environmental impact of industrial operations while increasing economic efficiency by reusing the recovered resources such as minerals (magnesium), salts, clean water and waste heat.

ZERO BRINE is developing pilot plants in four process industries that provide massive potential for immediate replication and uptake after its successful completion. One pilot is implemented near the demi water plant of Evides Industriewater in the Rotterdam Botlek industrial area. The objective of this pilot is to demonstrate the recovery of magnesium, calcium, salt and water from ion exchange regenerate from the Evides plant, and to demonstrate the use of waste heat. The pilot consists of various techniques, including nano filtration, crystallysation and evaporation.

Your job will consist of running the pilot plant, developing testing and measurement programs, and coordinating the tests and data processing. You will use the test results to design the first industrial demonstration plant for the recovery of minerals, salt and water from industrial brines. You will collaborate with process operators of Evides Industriewater, with technology suppliers in The Netherlands, Italy and Greece, and you will be part of TU Delft Technical Coordination Team. During the first year, most of the work will be done at the pilot location in the Botlek industrial area. During the second year most of the work will be done at TU Delft.

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PDEng Traineeship in Sanitary Engineering at Delft University of Technology