Sanitary Engineering Laboratory (SEL) NTUA

The National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) is the oldest and most prestigious educational institute of Greece in the field of Technology (founded in 1836).
NTUA attracts funding for research from National and European sources that place it on the top of all Greek academic and research institutions. Research is carried out in about 100 laboratories belonging to the various departments and sections of the institution. NTUA employs approximately1800 researchers in more than 700 R&D projects supported by National and European Union funds. The School of Civil Engineering has been recently ranked among the top 50 of the world (QS World University Rankings by Subject, 2022) maintaining a very high standard of academic staff and attracting the best of the country’s students. NTUA will participate with the Sanitary Engineering Laboratory (SEL), the Laboratory of Hydrology and Water Resources Management (HWRM) of the Department of Water Resources and Environment of the School of Civil Engineering and the Unit of Environmental Science and Technology of the School of Chemical Engineering. The Sanitary Engineering laboratory is accredited by Hellenic Accreditation System (E.SY.D) according to ISO 17025 for the determination of various pollutants (conventional and toxic) in water, wastewater and sludge samples. SEL’s mission is to provide education, research and consultancy in the wider field of water resources. We are promoting and advancing wastewater Innovation, Research and Development with our academic and industrial partners. The SEL has coordinated and participated in several National and EC funded projects, including the Horizon2020 projects HYDROUSA, iWAYS, Accelwater, SMART-Plant, INTCATCH and C-FOOT-CTRL, the PRIMA projects SURENEXUS and FIT4REUSE.

WPs:

-WP1: T1.4 Identification and plan for the involvement of local stakeholders (Also, in Tasks 1.1 and 1.3 – all partners involved) -WP4: Leader of T4.5 Biomass based fuels and feedstocks -WP5: T5.1 System level validation in operational environment and T5.4 Demonstrations #3 Water (Also, in Task 5.7 – all partners involved) -WP6: T6.1 Mapping of local environmental and societal resources (Also, in Tasks 6.2,6.3 and 6.4 – all partners involved) -WP7: Tasks 7.1,7.2 and 7.4 – all partners involved -WP8: Tasks 8.1,8.2 and 8.4 – all partners involved

Role/focus:

In WP1 NTUA is involved in T1.4, where with the support of ICCS, will identify and integrate of alternative & sustainable fuels and feedstocks as replacements for fossil fuels for industrial use. In WP4 NTUA is leading T4.5. During this task, a pilot scale pyrogasification chamber with a targeted input of 50 -100 kg per day will be designed. The chamber will operate with steam to produce chlorinated hydrocarbons at medium-high temperatures between 550 – 650 °C with the targeted feedstock being a shredder Heavy Fraction product. The reactor will operate using a rotating feeding auger for continuous and undisrupted feeding, which is a very useful and applicable technology in case of a potential scale up. The biorefinery/ bio-distillery that would operate downstream of the reactor will utilize established operations like filtering, condensation, and scrubbing for the extraction of targeted compounds. These processes will be followed by catalytic cracking of selected larger molecules into valuable compounds of interest. In principle catalytic cracking process are used extensively in distilleries, but due to the specific nature of the targeted chlorinated hydrocarbons this will be an innovative part of the system. The use of pyrolysis bioproducts like biochar as catalytic material will promote the circularity and will minimize the final residues of the process. In WP5 NTUA will facilitate the integration of a GHG-energy prediction tool that will support the implementation of the Digital Twin on the DC#3. The tool that will be used is called C-FOOT CTRL, and it is a software tool consisting of an extended database and a biochemical simulation model able to estimate time variation of biogas production, the oxygen and energy consumption in each unit of a WWTP and the direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions. The model will be used for monitoring, control, and mitigation of the carbon footprint of Demo’s WWTP. In WP6 NTUA will take part in T6.1 and the evaluation of different resources to increase flexibility of biofuels, due to their inherent and constant quality and composition fluctuations. More specifically the availability of local, low-cost solid biomass resources (e.g. forest, agricultural & agro-industrial residues, etc.) will be evaluated by ICCS and NTUA, through the collection of regionally specific data, factors affecting availability, sustainability requirements, relevant legislation and support measures and socio-economic issues.

Team involved

Simos Malamis

Associate Professor
smalamis@central.ntua.gr

He has more than 80 published papers in scientific journals with impact factor and more than 3500 citations. He has a 20-year experience in the coordination and development of multi-million R&I projects. He is currently coordinating project HYDROUSA and participating in 7 additional ongoing projects (TRINEFLEX, REMEDIES, SureNexus, BIODAPH2O, iWAYS, AccelWater, FIT4REUSE).

Daniel Mamais

He is currently the Director of the Sanitary Engineering Laboratory, and since 2017 a member of the Senate of the School of Civil Engineering, NTUA. He is the author of over 170 publications in scientific journals with impact factor and more than 2500 citations.

Costas Noutsopoulos

Associate Professor
cnoutso@central.ntua.gr

He has been engaged in more than 70 research projects (in 18 as coordinator) dealing mainly with water, wastewater and sludge treatment and reuse, circular economy and resources recovery. He is the author of more than 120 papers in scientific journals with impact factor and has acted as consultant to various Ministries, Water and Sewage Corporations and Local Authorities on environmental issues.

Stergios Vakalis

Assistant Professor
vakalis@aegean.gr

He works in the Energy Management Laboratory on the production/ analysis of biofuels, and the energy efficiency of energy systems. He teaches courses on Renewable Energy Technologies, Waste Management and Thermodynamics. He is a member of the Global WtERT Council in collaboration with the Earth Engineering Center of Columbia University.

Dimitris Andreadakis

He specializes in wastewater treatment processes and particularly advanced biological nutrient removal. From 2016 up to the present day, he has been involved in many projects of the Sanitary Engineering Laboratory, performing both laboratory work and mathematical simulations.

Argyro Plevri

Senior researcher
plargyro@gmail.com

She specializes in advanced wastewater treatment processes, including membrane technology and anaerobic and aerobic processes. She’s worked as a research fellow in the R&D of the Athens Water Supply and Sewerage Company and has held key positions in Horizon 2020 projects (NextGen, Intcatch, AccelWater) and FP7 projects (DESSIN, Marsol). She was responsible for many pilot plants (MBR/RO,AnMBR,MBR/UV composting unit).

Christos Ioannides

PhD candidate / Researcher christos.ioanides@gmail.com

He specializes on mathematical simulations and optimization of wastewater and sludge treatment processes and presently he participates in key position in national research project Circ4FooD.