operator
for innovative
environmental technology pilot
installations in catalonia

Background:

Phosphate is a scarce nutrient which can cause eutrophication in water bodies. As such, its removal and recovery from urban wastewater is becoming increasingly relevant. By keeping phosphorus in solution during
the wastewater treatment process, it can selectively be removed at the end and recovered. This idea is called post-precipitation. ViviCryst is a postprecipitation technology that precipitates the phosphate as vivianite. After the bulk of phosphate is removed by precipitation, the remaining phosphorus can be removed to ultra-low levels by a reversible adsorption technology named BioPhree. Wetsus is demonstrating the combination of ViviCryst and BioPhree technologies for phosphate recovery at a wastewater treatment plant in La Llagosta, Spain, as part of the H2020 WATER-MINING project. Wetsus is looking for a motivated intern student to work on site operating the pilot installations

Project plan:

You will be responsible for the daily operation of the ViviCryst and BioPhree pilot installation located at the Wastewater Treatment Plant in La Llagosta, Catalonia. Your tasks are to make sure the pilot plant is operating smoothly by monitoring the parameters and solving problems as they arise. You will be sampling influent and effluent streams and analysing them. You will assist in planning test runs and analysing and interpreting data. You will be supervised and assisted remotely by the project engineer Wokke Wijdeveld, who is located in the Netherlands. For this reason, frequent telecommunication is important.

Requirements
• Student in Environmental Engineering, Process Engineering, Chemical Engineering or similar.
• Fluency in English.
• Enrollment at European university. For non-EU citizens enrollment at a Dutch university is required.
• Hands-on mentality and good problem solving skills.
• Able to work well independently and take initiative.
• Driving license is a plus