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At the end of this month, two years have passed since I started working at the African Water Corridor Initiative. It will be also 18 months since I have left behind my life in the Netherlands to start my new life in West Africa, in Ghana. My name is Jasper Schakel and in contrast like many other people working at the TU Delft, my employer is not the TU Delft, but the international engineering firm Witteveen+Bos. Two years ago I talked with Doris van Halem where she introduced me to the African Water Corridor

An important milestone in the preparation of ESA’s tenth Earth Explorer candidate satellite mission, Harmony, has been reached thanks to two aircraft flying in tight formation over the Dutch Wadden Islands collecting key data on sea state and currents. The main purpose of this tricky airborne experiment is to mimic the geometry at which the Harmony satellites will measure various aspects of ocean dynamics to understand how air and the ocean surface interact, which, in turn, will improve weather prediction and climate models.

After almost four years of lab research, the AdOx process will be tested on pilot plant scale. AdOx is an innovative technology for removal of organic micropollutants (OMPs), such as pharmaceuticals, from domestic wastewater effluent. It combines adsorption with oxidation: zeolite granules remove OMPs from treated wastewater effluent by adsorption in a fixed bed filter, and the zeolite filter is regenerated with ozone gas after the zeolite granules are exhausted. The process is very selective for OMPs, cost-effective and extremely sustainable: the CO2-footprint is low, no bromate and oxidation by-products are released to the receiving surface water, and the ozone use is low. It is a very competitive technology compared to GAC filtration and direct ozonation of wastewater effluent.

Lithium is a scarce resource that is essential for the production of batteries. Yet batteries we urgently need to enable the energy transition, as they provide efficient ways to store wind and solar energy. We therefore need ways to process lithium more efficiently, techniques to refine and ways to recycle. A consortium of European companies and universities, including TU Delft’s Resources & Recycling group, aims to set up the first-ever Lithium supply chain in Europe.

Every opinion counts! But how can Dutch Rail (NS) accommodate to the wishes of a wide range of train travellers when creating the perfect match between bike use and public transport? Master student Civil Engineering Simone Hoskam was happy to tackle this real-life transportation challenge. In the end she presented Dutch rail company NS with some straightforward recommendations to make the relationship between bike and train an even happier one.