Josef Ressel Center

The "Josef Ressel Center for the Production of Powdered Activated Carbon from Municipal Residues", which was established in autumn 2020 for a period of five years at the Department for Environmental-, Process- and Energy Engineering, is concerned with the development of a manufacturing process for high-quality activated carbon out of a by-product of wood gasification: charcoal. Municipal residues, mainly wood from landscape conservation and untreated waste wood from municipal collections serve as the basic raw material for the production of the coal. The high-quality activated carbon should then be returned to the municipal cycle and used primarily in the field of wastewater treatment to remove trace substances (e.g. medication, pesticides…) from the wastewater. In this context, it is primarily examined which surface properties the activated carbon must have for highly efficient removal of trace substances and how these can be achieved during the production of the activated carbon. An extensive test program at the sewage treatment plants of the municipal companies involved should prove the suitability of this special activated carbon.

With this overall project, in addition to electricity and heat, a high-quality additional product can be produced from municipal residues, which is fed back into the local material cycle. This research center is supported by the Christian Doppler Research Association as well as the corporate partners SynCraft Engineering, Innsbrucker Kommunalbetriebe AG, Stadtwerke Schwaz and the Gemeindewerken Telfs.