National Sludge Managment Strategy
Study Tour
Background
According to the ToR of the NIPS Project a study tour is to be organised with the scope to visit sludge management operations in the EU that are similar to those proposed by the NSMS. In agreement with the beneficiaries it was decided to visit Austria. The study tour was organized by the NIPS Project during June 20 – 24, 2022.
This visit gave the unique opportunity to 15 participants for experience sharing and knowledge transfer, helping to enhance their understanding of the implementation and operational details as per EU standards and requirements, in the sludge management area.
Itinerary for study tour
The study tour provided practical examples of processes (process flow) such as sludge generation, quality, and management at existing WWTPs, sludge treatment, use and disposal and transport logistics. Five facilities were visited, as presented in the following table.
Table: Facilities visitied during the study tour
Tuesday, 21 June 2022 | Sewage Sludge Treatment Plant in St. Pölten in Lower Austria: focused in agricultural reuse, disposal, logistics, etc. guided by Michael Pollak, of WPA Beratende Ingenieure, ÖWAV (Austrian Water and Waste Management Association) – The wastewater association of the WWTP consists of 13 municipalities and the capacity of the WWTP is of 280,000 PEs |
Wednesday, 22 June 2022 | Wastewater and Sludge Treatment Plant Mürz I, Langenwang guided by Andreas Zöscher, Managing Director – a wastewater association that consists of 13 municipalities and 4 WWTPs serving a population of 74,502 inhabitants and in total 116,000 PEs. |
Wednesday, 22 June 2022 | The constructed wetland at Bärenkogelhau, guided by Dr. Günter Langergraber and Dr. Florian Kretschmer, both of University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU) – a vertical-flow treatment wetland (VFTW) 1,168 m above sea level. It is a first full-scale implementation of a two-stage VFTW system developed to increase nitrogen removal. |
Thursday, 23 June 2022 | EBS Vienna Wastewater Treatment Plant, guided by Dr. Gerald Wandl – is one of the biggest in Europe with a treatment capacity of 4 million PEs. |
Thursday, 23 June 2022 | Wien Energie – City of Vienna Energy waste incineration state of art plant is Austria’s largest regional energy provider providing two million customers with electricity, heating, cooling, electro mobility and telecommunication services. |
For more information and the agenda of the study tour follow please download the full report on the study tour here (–> accessible with password).
