n.BA.BT.UBT2.23HS (Environmental Biotechnology 2) 
Module: Environmental Biotechnology 2
This information was generated on: 17 May 2024
No.
n.BA.BT.UBT2.23HS
Title
Environmental Biotechnology 2
Credits
2

Description

Version: 1.0 start 01 August 2023

 

Study Programme Biotechnology
Regulations Applicable RPO, 29 January 2008, School of Life Sciences and Facility Management Academic Regulations, 15 Dec. 2009, Annex for the Bachelor of Biotechnology degree programme
Module Type  
X Compulsory Module    Elective Module    Optional Module
Planned Semester 5th Semester
Module Coordinator Rolf Warthmann
Telephone / E-Mail +41 (0)58 934 58 74 / rolf.warthmann@zhaw.ch
Lecturer(s),
Speaker(s),
Associate(s)		 Rolf Warthmann and various internal lecturers
Entrance Requirements Environmental Biotechnology 1
Learning Outcomes and Competencies Students will
  • become familiar with the possibilities of controlling material flows in waste management and recognise the advantages and disadvantages of recycling individual classes of material.
  • recognize biogas as a renewable energy source and be able to identify biomasses with which biogas can be produced sustainably.
  • gain insight into environmental biotechnological processes for the protection of the geosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere against harmful anthropogenic influences for the treatment of biomass and the production of renewable energy.
  • review the principles concerning the most important environmental biotechnological process steps in the fields of biological wastewater treatment, biomass fermentation and composting.
  • be able to recognise and explain environmental biotechnological instalations as biological systems.
  • be able to quantitatively analyse and balance biotechnological process steps with regard to the most important process and balance parameters and solve simple dimensioning tasks.
  • be able to calculate the stoichiometry of biological degradation reactions (biogas, denitrification) and population dynamics.
Module Content
  • Biotechnological processes in the field of water, soil, air, biomass and energy
  • Introduction: biowaste treatment and potentials, circular economy in Switzerland.
  • Biogas technology: basic principles concerning anaerobic mass transfer and reactor systems for the production of renewable energy sources; overview of the most important parameters for process control; overview of plants/processes. Familiarisation with relevant parameters for sizing biogas production facilities; principle of anaerobic digestion tests.
  • Processes for biodegradation of biopolymers.
  • Composting: material recycling, microbiological and process fundamentals; hygiene, specification of the most important parameters for the control of a technical composting.
  • Field trip composting and fermentation.
  • Biological wastewater treatment: Fundamentals of the biological process steps of a wastewater treatment plant; overview of aerobic and anaerobic degradation processes; balancing of biological process steps using appropriate analytical parameters; characterization of activated sludge and activated sludge biology. Nitrogen elimination, nutrient recovery. Organic micropollutants in water and processes for elimination. Legislation.
  • Field trip to wastewater treatment plant (municipal and/or industrial).
  • Biological exhaust air treatment of gaseous emissions from plants, monitoring, airborne bacteria, exhaust air treatment with biofilter, bioscrubber and trickle-bed reactor.
  • Biotechnological uses of CO2 sources (power-to-X technologies, carbon capture and storage).
  • Outlook: Presentation of new bio-technologies that are still in the research & development stage and current research projects.
Follow-up Modules Minor in Environment (also takes place in the 5th semester)
Methods of Instruction  Lectures, tasks, quizzes, calculation tasks, theoretical tasks (e. g. balancing), excursions to companies and installations, self-study
Digital Resources -
Lesson Structure / Workload  
 Contact Hours 20
 Guided Self-Study 12
 Independent Self-Study 28
 Total Workload 60
Classroom Attendance Only for excursions
Assessment
Written exam at the end of the semester 100%
 
If there is a low number of participants, the lecturer may change the form of a repeat examination after consultation with the head of the study programme: e.g. an oral examination can be used to replace a written one. Please report any changes to the form of examinations by e-mail to pruefungsadmin.lsfm@zhaw.ch and Cc. Head of study programme.
Language of Instruction  German
Comments -

 

Note

Course: Environmental Biotechnology 2
No.
n.BA.BT.UBT2.23HS.V
Title
Environmental Biotechnology 2

Note

  • No module description is available in the system for the cut-off date of 17 May 2024.