StEB Cologne Tests Filtralite® in Micropollutants Pilot

Stadtentwässerungsbetriebe Köln (StEB), Cologne’s municipal sewage company, is piloting a project at its Rodenkirchen wastewater treatment plant to explore new methods for removing trace substances. The initiative, known as AdOx Cologne, is supported by the Ministry of the Environment of North Rhine-Westphalia (MKULNV) and focuses on adapting existing BIOFOR biofilter cells for micropollutant removal. In 2017, Filtralite® NC 1,5–2,5 was installed as the filter media, selected for its highly porous structure that maximizes water contact surface and improves adsorption capacity.

The project brings together several partners from research and engineering. Scientific oversight is provided by RWTH Aachen University’s Institute for Urban Water Management (ISA), while Hydro-Ingenieure GmbH contributes its planning experience from similar projects. The goal is to identify a treatment method that is both technically effective and economically viable, while remaining relatively straightforward to integrate into existing plant operations.

“Our objective with the AdOx Cologne project is to determine the most effective and economical variant for trace substance removal using the existing biofiltering cells,” explained Dipl.-Ing. Manuel Hartenberger, Project Manager at StEB.

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