Applied Chemistry: Waste Water, Water and Odour

Expertise

Our core expertise lies in the application of chemical processes to solve environmental problems. In our laboratory, we carry out tests to clean leachate, wastewater, contaminated soil and polluted air. The contaminants are heavy metals, micropollutants, odorous substances, solvents and other organic pollutants. We also utilise chemical properties such as the solubility of salts to produce desirable products (e.g. magnesium ammonium phosphate MAP for recovering phosphate from sewage sludge) or to prevent undesirable precipitation (e.g. limescale protection).

We know that successful processes must not only function technically, but must also be economically competitive. We are therefore always looking for the best economic option. In our odour measurements, we regularly compare ourselves with other laboratories in Switzerland and abroad in round robin tests to ensure that our measurements are correct.

Factsheet Applied Chemistry (DE)

Projects

In our current and completed projects, we work with the federal, cantonal and municipal authorities, e.g. BAFU (Federal Office for the Environment) or AWEL (Environmental Agency of the Canton of Zurich), and with a wide variety of industrial companies such as asphalt mixing plants, wastewater treatment plants, livestock farms, the textile industry, cement plants, biogas plants, landfill operators, the machinery industry, liability insurers, building material manufacturers, composting plant operators, exhaust air purification plant manufacturers, cleaning agent manufacturers, property management companies and heating companies.

Our projects are financed by public funding organisations such as Innosuisse, direct orders from industrial partners, a combination of both and private funding foundations. The scope of our projects ranges from small feasibility studies, bachelor or student research projects to large, multi-year projects. We are also happy to carry out smaller projects such as odour measurements or odour expertise with private clients.

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Infrastructure

In our chemistry laboratory we have an experimental and an analytical area. In the experimental area, we are equipped to carry out experiments on a small to pilot scale. We produce contaminated air, polluted water and soil or obtain them from our project partners. We use these samples to develop new processes and then investigate how we can optimise cleaning.

In the field of analytics, we measure success with our analytical methods ICP-OES (optical emission spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma), ion chromatography, photometry, TOC analyser (total organic carbon) and olfactometry. In addition, the usual basic equipment of a chemistry laboratory such as pH meters, shakers, conductivity meters, drying ovens and turbidimeters are also used.

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Teaching and further education

We have many years of experience in teaching chemistry and related subjects at various levels. We believe that chemistry has brought us much prosperity and a comfortable life, but also that we can or must solve many of our current problems with chemistry. We are therefore committed to promoting STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) among children and young people so that the important resource of scientific knowledge is preserved in Switzerland. At the OST, we teach students on Bachelor's and Master's programmes, we train apprentices in the field of chemistry EFZ, and we offer taster days for pupils from primary and secondary schools. We also maintain contact with teachers from other institutions and levels.

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About us

Our employees are engineers and scientists specialising in chemistry, environmental and energy engineering and environmental sciences. They are complemented by a chemical laboratory technician, our EFZ chemistry apprentices and interns. We work closely with our colleagues from the other two specialist groups at the KMN on issues relating to maths and physics. For our odour measurements, we draw on a panel of around 25 test subjects, which we select and train within the OST student body.

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