A clean affair : Date:
Sometimes environmental protection produces paradoxical results. Take exhaust gas purification on board ships, for example: although it prevents harmful exhaust gases from being blown into the air, the pollutants often end up in the sea. A team of researchers at Flensburg University of Applied Sciences is developing an innovative membrane technology to avoid this problem.
In recent years, stricter environmental regulations have prompted many shipowners to retrofit their ships with exhaust gas purification systems, so-called scrubbers. Scrubbers wash out pollutants such as sulphur, heavy metals and fine dust from the exhaust gases of the ship's engine so that they do not get into the air. Instead, however, the pollutants accumulate in the “wash water” from the scrubber, and this water is discharged into the sea.
To ensure that climate protection in the shipping industry is no longer at the expense of water pollution control, a new research facility for cleaning scrubber water was put into operation at Flensburg University of Applied Sciences in June. The core of this plant is an innovative membrane technology that filters the water. According to project leader Prof. Dr. Wiktoria Vith, the declared aim of this experimental setup is to return 99 percent of the scrubber water cleanly to the sea; only one percent is to remain as concentrated contaminated sludge that is disposed of on land.
The research facility is located at the Kielseng site, the large-scale machine laboratory of the Maritime Centre of the University of Applied Sciences Flensburg. A ship's engine is used to generate exhaust gas and combined with a standard scrubber to produce scrubber water that corresponds to the real conditions on a ship. The membrane plant works according to the principle of ultrafiltration. However, in addition to developing the filter technology itself, the research team also works on the design for the filter system, so that it can actually be installed on ships.
By the way: passers-by can easily see what is going on behind the walls of the research facility. The front of the building was painted by graffiti artists in spring 2020. It now features a stylized ship, including the engine, exhaust gases, scrubber and membrane filter, making science transparent and descriptive.
The test facility was set up during the CleanMarine 4.0 project (April 2018 to December 2019) and financed in the FH-Invest funding line with almost 752,000 euros. FH-Invest supports universities of applied sciences in procuring and expanding large-scale equipment and research facilities.