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      Water analysis Conducting and evaluating physical-chemical and microbiological water testing in accordance with German Drinking Water Ordinance and other regulations.
    • Test centre and product testing
      Testing of products and devices Initial testing of products and materials in contact with drinking water. The test centre is accredited for more than 200 product standards.
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      Treatment technologies Develop sustainable water supply concepts. Implement, monitor and optimise new technologies. Test and further develop existing treatment methods.
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      Micropollutants and microorganisms Development and improvement of determination procedures. Investigating occurrence, behaviour and fate of inorganic and organic trace substances.
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      Network management and drinking water installation Advice on safeguarding the quality of drinking water in the distribution system, support in the development of specific network management strategies.
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      Risk management Supporting water supply companies in setting up continuous risk management for water supply facilities, based on our comprehensive expertise.
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      Drinking water catchments and resources Protection of drinking water resources by assessing potential hazards in water catchment areas, catalogues of measures, monitoring concepts, databases.
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      Environmental biotechnology and contaminated sites Environmental biotechnology to improve water quality. Degradation processes for water purification. Concepts and studies for pollutant contamination.
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      Digitalisation Solving complex questions and problems of water supply companies in digitalisation through technical support or practical research projects.
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      Practical projects Research and practice, water supply, scientific and technical expertise, technology concepts, resource protection, distribution network, digitalisation.
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      Resource protection Sustainable resource protection as an important factor for safe drinking water supply, management of hazards and risks in water catchment areas.
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      Environmental biotechnology Technical and biological methods for the elimination of microorganisms, microbiological degradation processes, risk assessment of microbial contamination.
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      Microorganisms Application and development of reliable detection methods for microorganisms in drinking water, evaluation of disinfection and treatment measures.
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      Micropollutants Reliable and sensitive determination of trace substances and microplastics, investigation of the behaviour in the water cycle, qualified risk assessment.
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      Waste water and water cycle Development of integrated water supply and waste water disposal concepts, Utilisation of biodegradation processes to eliminate persistent substances.
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      New technologies and products Technologies and products for the treatment, disinfection and post-treatment of drinking water, testing for performance, safety and robustness.
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      Asset management and infrastructure Development of asset management strategies to ensure a stable supply of high-quality drinking water, assessment of the condition of pipeline networks.
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      Digitalisation and Management Digitalisation in the areas of data collection, data management, data-driven applications and AI for the water supply.
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  • Environmental biotechnology

Environmental biotechnology

Human activities cause the entry of a wide range of substances to the aquatic environment. These substances often represent a hazard to the environment as well as human health. At TZW we work intensively on the microbiological degradation processes that contribute substantially to the reduction of these types of pollutants in an environmental friendly, cost effective and sustainable manner. Another focus is on combining technical and biological methods to eliminate especially persistent substances in waste water, surface water and groundwater. In addition to these aspects, our risk assessment activities also include evaluating microbial contamination in environmental samples using micro and molecular biological detection methods, for instance for antibiotic-resistant, hygienically relevant and pathogenic microorganisms.

Research areas

Microbiological pollutant degradation

TZW establishes innovative concepts in the field of microbiological degradation of contaminated groundwater to develop novel, simple, and economic methods with long-lasting efficiency to eliminate pollutants in groundwater.

Combination of technical and biological methods

Biological decomposition processes are often unusable or inadequate for persistent and/or toxic substances. By using technical methods such as cavitation, electrochemistry, ISCO or ozonation, substances can be subjected to microbial decomposition. Combining this with subsequent biological degradation makes it possible to develop cost-effective and sustainable concepts to effectively eliminate persistent substances.

Biomonitoring and efficacy tests

To detect and evaluate the activity of microorganisms in environmental samples, TZW develops micro- and molecular biological detection methods, for example, of antibiotic-resistant, hygienically relevant and pathogenic microorganisms. In addition, we use efficacy tests to monitor, assess and evaluate the risk of processes running in the aquatic environment, which are used and further developed as tools for a variety of investigations.

Water quality

In many places the quality of the water – whether surface water or groundwater – is at risk or may already be impacted by increasing contamination, extreme weather, accidents and changes in use. The identification and assessment of this contamination is often made more difficult due to a lack of suitable methods or because those that are used are too time consuming or lack sensitivity. Relevant research activities for TZW, therefore, are the establishment, further development, optimisation and validation of micro and molecular biological methods that can help monitor and improve water quality.

Projects

Experimental Setup to determine the electrokinetic mobilisation of aerobic chloroethene degraders
Abgeschlossen-2024
Enhanced and innovative in-situ Biotechnologies for Contaminated Land Remediation (EiCLaR)

With EiCLaR, an EU/China consortium, scientific and technical innovations for in-situ bioremediation processes were promoted. As part of the project,…

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Sensitive Kinetics System: Continuous measurement of biomass growth via light scattering
Contaminated sites
Reactive transport modeling for aerobic metabolic trichloroethene degradation

A new biologically productive degradation pathway of trichloroethene is promising for the elimination of pollutants in groundwater. To determine the…

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Van und Ausstattung für Gewinnung von kontaminierten Grundwasserproben
Taking contaminated groundwater samples for molecular biological analysis
Contaminated sites
Molecular biological detection of the anaerobic degradation of BTEX

Using molecular biological methods, additional information can be obtained to assess the microbial degradation of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and…

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Column experiment with gas collection to investigate the interactions between abiotic and microbiological processes
Technology
Use of nanoparticles for the rehabilitation of groundwater safety incidents (NAPASAN)

Nano-iron(0) technologies are a promising option to rehabilitate contaminated sites. The microbiological degradation of perchloroethene (PCE) was…

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Abgeschlossen-2023
Aerobic metabolic degradation of Trichloroethene (TCE) (BioChlor)

In the German-Israeli cooperation project BioChlor, in cooperation with the Ben Gurion University (Israel), the aerobic metabolic chloroethene…

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Growing experiments for PFAS transfer soil-plant
Projekte
Substance transfer of PFAS and PBDE of polluted soils in crops (FLUORTRANSFER)

The project’s objective was to develop assessment principles for the derivation of test and action values for soil-relevant pollutants and pollutant…

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More projects
Publications

Brinkmann M., Maletz S.X., Krauss M., Bluhm K., Schiwy S., Kuckelkorn J., Tiehm A., Brack W., Hollert H.: Heterocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons show estrogenic activity upon metabolization in a recombinant transactivation assay. Environmental Science and Technology 48(10): 5892-5901 (2014)

     

Gaza S., Schmidt K.R., Weigold P., Heidinger M., Tiehm A.: Aerobic metabolic trichloroethene biodegradation under field-relevant conditions. Water Research 151: 343-348 (2019)

     

Kranzioch-Seipel I., Beckert U., Shen C., Yin D., Tiehm A.: Microbial dechlorination of HCB, PCP, PCB180, HCH and PCE in a Yangtze Three Gorges Reservoir enrichment culture, China. Environmental Earth Sciences 75 (10): published online 20 May 2016 (2016)

     

Kranzioch I., Ganz S., Tiehm A.: Chloroethene degradation and expression of Dehalococcoides dehalogenase genes in cultures originating from Yangtze sediments. Environmental Science and Pollution Research 22(4): 3138-3148

      

Schmidt N., Page D., Tiehm A.: Biodegradation of pharmaceuticals and endocrine disruptors with oxygen, nitrate, manganese (IV), iron (III) and sulfate as electron acceptors. Journal of Contaminant Hydrology 203: 62-69 (2017)

      

Schneider A.-L., Schell H., Hild S., Mangold K.-M., Tiehm A.: Studies into design and operation of microbial fuel cells using oxygen gas diffusion electrodes. Desalination and Water Treatment 91: 222-227 (2017)

    

Schneider A.-L., Tisler S., Schell H., Matthee T., Behrendt-Fryda B.., Tiehm A.: Electrochemical oxidation of iodinated X-ray contrast media by boron-doped diamond electrodes. Desalination and Water Treatment 91: 268-272 (2017)

      

TZW publication series:

Volume 66: Aerob-produktiver Abbau von Chlorethenen: Nachweis eines neuen Abbauweges für Trichlorethen [Aerobic productive degradation of chloroethenes: evidence of a new degradation pathway for trichlorothene]

Volume 62: Elimination anthropogener organischer Spurenstoffe im Zuge der Grundwasseranreicherung [Elimination of anthropogenic organic micropollutants during groundwater enrichment]

Volume 67: Anaerober CKW-Abbau: Molekularbiologie, Substanzspektrum, Isotopenfraktionierung [Anaerobic CHC degradation: molecular biology, substance spectrum, isotope fractionation]

Volume 76: Verhalten von Antibiotikaresistenzgenen bei der Trinkwasseraufbereitung [Behaviour of antibiotic resistance genes in drinking water treatment]

 

Volumes from the TZW publication series can be purchased here.

Contact

Prof. Dr. Andreas Tiehm +49 721 9678-137 Send email
 

List of publications

Environmental biotechnology and molecular biology (pdf file)

Solutions
  • Water analysis
  • Testing of products and devices
  • Treatment technologies
  • Micropollutants and microorganisms
  • Network management and drinking water installation
  • Risk management
  • Drinking water catchments and resources
  • Environmental biotechnology and contaminated sites
  • Digitalisation
  • Practical projects
Research
  • Resource protection
  • Environmental biotechnology
  • Microorganisms
  • Micropollutants
  • Waste water and water cycle
  • New technologies and products
  • Asset management and infrastructure
  • Digitalisation and Management
About TZW
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Information
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  • Annual report 2024
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