Steffen Buetehorn

Current Contact Information: AVT - Aachener Verfahrenstechnik RWTH Aachen University 52056 Aachen, Germany Tel: +49-241-80 95995 Fax: +49-241-80 92252 E-mail: click here

• PhD Student (2005 - present) RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
• Practicum Student (2008) University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
• Dipl.-Ing. (2005) Leibniz University of Hannover, Hannover, Germany
• Affiliate Student (2004) University College London, London, UK

• Internship (2005) German Aerospace Center, Hardthausen, Germany
• Internship (2003) Continental AG, Hannover, Germany
• Internship (2002) Koerting Hannover AG, Hannover, Germany
• Internship (2000) Stadtwerke Hannover AG, Hannover, Germany

In submerged membrane bioreactor (sMBR) processes, air is injected into the stationary suspension to induce flow and to generate shear at the surface of the membrane. Besides this, the bubble-induced movement of hollow-fibres is contributing to the removal of the cake layer. This air bubbling sequence is investigated at different scales (single fibres, small fibre bundles) and under different operating modes (cross-flow / submerged filtration) within the framework of this study. The overall objective is to evaluate the impact of operating parameters, characteristics of the model suspension and membrane module design parameters on the efficiency of air bubbling.

A/Prof Greg Leslie

Dr Pierre Le-Clech

• Buetehorn S., Koh C.N., Wintgens T., Melin T., Volmering D. and Vossenkaul K., Investigating the Impact of Production Conditions on Membrane Properties for MBR Applications, Desalination, 231 (2008) 191-199.

• Buetehorn S., Carstensen F., Wintgens T., Melin T., Volmering D. and Vossenkaul K., Permeate Flux Decline in Cross-Flow Microfiltration at Constant Pressure, 12th Aachener Membran Kolloquium (AMK), Aachen, Germany, 29-30 October 2008.
• Buetehorn S., Brannock M., Le-Clech P., Leslie G., Volmering D., Vossenkaul K., Wintgens T. and Melin T., Observation of Cake Layer Formation and Removal on Microporous Hollow-Fibre Membranes, Conference on Membranes in Drinking Water Production and Wastewater Treatment (MDIW2008), Toulouse, France, 20-22 October 2008.
• Buetehorn S., Koh C.N., Wintgens T., Melin T., Volmering D. and Vossenkaul K., Hydrodynamics in Submerged Hollow-Fibre Membrane Filtration Units: A Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Approach, 6th International Membrane Science and Technology Conference (IMSTEC07), Sydney, Australia, 5-9 November 2007.
• Buetehorn S., Koh C.N., Wintgens T., Melin T., Volmering D. and Vossenkaul K., Investigating Hydrodynamics in Submerged Hollow-Fibre Membrane Filtration Units in Municipal Wastewater Treatment using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), 2nd IWA National Young Water Professionals Conference, Berlin, Germany, 4-6 June 2007.