News2 – Page 7 – Water Research laboratory

Biosystems Engineering conference in Tartu

From 2019 May 8-10 Kristina Tihomirova, Linda Mežule, Viktorija Deņisova, and Ksenija Golovko participated in the Biosystems Engineering conference organized by Estonian University of Life Sciences. The goal of BSE 2019 was to stimulate collaboration in various fields of biosystems engineering, to foster an environment conducive to exchanging ideas and information. This conference provides a great environment to develop new collaborations and meet experts on the fundamentals, applications, and products of the mentioned fields. Conference participants had the opportunity to get acquainted with our latest research developed under:

1) the INTERREG the Baltic Sea region international cooperation programme BEST (Better Efficiency for Industrial Sewage Treatment, #R054) during the cooperation with landfill management company the Llc ZAOO and Landfill Daibe “Management of wastewater from landfill of inorganic fiberglass” from K. Tihomirova, V. Denisova, K. Golovko, O. Kirilina–Gutmane, L. Mezule, T. Juhna.

2) INNO-INDIGO IPP3 project B-LIQ “Development of an Integrated Process for Conversion of Biomass to Affordable Liquid Biofuel” B-LIQ from L. Mezule, I. Berzina and M. Strods – “The impact of substrate-enzyme proportion for efficient hydrolysis of hay”

Our team had an opportunity to visit the wastewater treatment plant and cooling station in Tartu.

More information about the conference here.

Meetings during NOAH project

Since the end of February, within the framework of the NOAH project, RTU scientists Jānis Rubulis, Maris Kaļinka, Marta Zemīte, Gints Dakša and Valts Urbanovičs have several meetings in partner organizations – Jūrmala Water Ltd and Liepaja “Komunālajā pārvaldē”.
During the meetings were discussed about the NOAH pilot areas and there located stormwater infrastructure. On the meeting agendas were the issues related to data collection from pilot areas.
One of the pilot areas in Jurmala is the catchment area of Miera Street in Dzintari, but also pilot areas in Kauguri and Pumpuri are planned. In Liepaja, the pilot area was selected in the catchment area of Tebras Street.

Ogre River monitoring during NOAH project

In April in NOAH project, geospatial measurements were made, i.e. using a drone for the water and shore area of the Ogre River and some of the most important objects. Measurements were made in approximately 20 km distance from the A6 motorway in Ogre to the administrative boundary of Ogresgala parish. From the airborne surveys, measurements later will be generated the 3D model of the area for the flood modeling. Photos from J.Zvirgzds personal archive.

iWatermap project partners meeting in Heraklion (Region of Crete, Greece)

On 9 and 10 April, a meeting of iWatermap project partners took place in the Heraklion (Region of Crete, Greece).
Dāvids Štēbelis from Water Research Laboratory presented a summary of activities carried out in recent months. This included conclusions about the actors (prospects and leads) in the water industry that fit into the Triple Helix model developed by Henry Etzkowitz researcher from Stanford University.

The Triple Helix model describes the interaction between Academia, Industry, and Government to promote economic and social development.
David sketched out the key challenges for Academia-Industry; Academia -Government and Industry -Government relations.
The meeting was also attended by Jānis Rubulis senior researcher from the Water Research Laboratory; Marika Laudere and Ronalds Štrauhs representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science, as well as Gints Pērkons, Executive Director of the Latvian water and wastewater works association, and Marita Stradere, Deputy Director of education and research at Mechanics and Technology College of Olaine.

Practical lesson at the Jelgavas ūdens

On 11.04. our students had a practical lesson at the Jelgavas ūdens water treatment plant. It was a great opportunity for students to see all water treatment at work, get a better understanding of the whole process and solve real tasks in water treatment plant. Many thanks to Jelgavas ūdens for this great chance and warm welcome!

Interreg BEST Project Partners meeting in Riga

From April 2 to 4, Riga Technical University (RTU) Water Research Laboratory within the Interreg Baltic sea region Programme 2014-2020 project #R054 BEST – Better Efficiency for Industrial Sewage Treatment organized a meeting of project partners in Riga, which took place at the premises of RTU Faculty of Architecture. At the partner meeting, Water Research Laboratory was represented by scientists Kristina Tihomirova, Sandis Dejus, Jānis Zviedris, Ksenija Golovko and Tālis Juhna, and Arta Čakša-Lapsiņa, Head of Project Preparation and Development Unit of RTU Project Management and Development Department.

The partner meeting was led by Sandis Dejus, during which he presented the WP2 Progress Report and a presentation on the project’s legislative summary of legislation and RTU’s experience of interviews with manufacturing companies and municipal water management related to wastewater discharges into centralized sewerage systems.

Important speakers as Iveta Teibe (Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development of the Republic of Latvia), Jānis Jansons (Lakalme ltd), Karina Steinberga (A/S Smiltenes piens), Katarzyna Umiejewska (Warsaw University of Technology), Kuldar Kipper (E-Piim Tootmine and Põltsamaa Varahalduse), Imants Bozovics, (Latvijas Piens LTD), Romans Neilands (Riga Technical University, Rigas udens ltd), Pirjo Patala (JVP-Eura Oy), Paweł Królak (City of Warsaw), Esa Nikunen (City of Helsinki) were participated in open day workshop at 03 April.

During the partner meeting, a wide range of stakeholders had the opportunity to participate in a seminar on the management of wastewater from food production, with particular emphasis on the specifics of wastewater treatment in dairy companies. The project partners also visited the LTD Adazu udens Waste Water Treatment Plant and the Orkla Confectionery & Snacks Latvija chip factory in Adazi to discuss the established cooperation model between the two companies and get acquainted with the wastewater treatment processes of both companies.

Thanks to all participants for active participation in the partner meeting and workshop, as well as the teams of LTD “Adazu udens” and Orkla Confectionery & Snacks Latvia for the support and admission of project participants!

The next project partner meeting is scheduled for November 2019 in Kaliningrad! More information about the project: https://bestbalticproject.eu

NOAH 1st Progress Meeting in Pori, Finland

On 20-21.03., the partners of the NOAH project met at the progress meeting at SAMK (Satakunta University of Applied Sciences) in Pori, Finland. The wholel project aims to protect the Baltic sea and reduce climat change, which are currently a global problem. It was a great oportunity to our colleagues to take a part in workshops, visit Pori pilots and meet face-to-face all partners from Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Denmark and Finland. Some of workshop topics were “Build-up of Extreme Weather Layer”, “Water quality sampling and analysis” and “Real time control”.

More about NOAH project You can see in their home page and more photos from the 1st Progress meeting in their Facebook page .

Next NOAH progress meeting will start on 09/2019.

Bielefeld University (Germany) partners visit at Water Research laboratory

At the beginning of March, partners from Bielefield Univeristy, Faculty of Physics (Germany) came to Riga, to Water Research Laboratory, to meet Prof.Talis Juhna and Asoc.Prof.Jānis Rubulis. Thus partners from Germany (physics of supermolecular systems and surfaces) introduced more closely with plans about developing a new material for forwarding osmosis applications. They were shown laboratory and introduced with us. Also partners discuss about possible cooperation in the future, in the field of carbon nanomembranes.

New Doctor in Water Research Laboratory

We are proud to announce that Sandis Dejus, a researcher at our Water Research Laboratory, successfully defended his doctoral thesis “Online Monitoring of Drinking Water Quality”. Within the framework of the doctoral thesis, analysis of drinking water quality monitoring requirements and systems was performed and a new solution for drinking water quality online monitoring was developed.

And on 25th of February at the meeting of the Senate of the Riga Technical University (RTU) our new Dr.Sc.ing. Sandis Dejus received his diploma!

Congratulations!

The International Education fair “Skola 2019”

The 25th International Education fair “Skola” (From 1 to 3 March, Ķīpsala ) – the most important event for thousands of young people in Latvia to offer the broadest and quality coverage of study opportunities in Latvia and abroad. Also, Senior researcher Jānis Rubulis and Dr.Sc.ing. Sandis Dejus from Water Research Laboratory, one from the more than 140 participants, took a part in this fair by introducing with the workshop “Drinking water miracle” to help visitors raise interest to water science and, probably, to become one of us!