Mülheim Water Award 2018 presented

Mülheim an der Ruhr, 18-09-2018

For the sixth time Mülheim Water Award was granted. Mr. Ulrich Scholten, Lord Mayor of Mülheim, acted as patron and led through the ceremony during 3. Mülheimer Wasseranalytisches Seminar (MWAS 2018) conference dinner in Mülheim an der Ruhr, September 12^th 2018.

In his laudation, Scholten emphasized how pleased he is that numerous modern companies from the water industry have established themselves in Mülheim and the Ruhr Area within the last decades. Ranging from utilities, providers of analytical systems to research institutes.

The Award honours practice-oriented research and development projects as well as the implementation of innovative concepts for a secure drinking water supply and water analysis.

This time the international jury decided in favour of two projects. Each project received prize money of 5.000,- €.

The first winning project titled “Development of a fast and robust method for the analysis of microplastic in water“ was carried out by Dr. Ulrike Braun and Dr. Erik Dümichen from „Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM)“ in Berlin and their project team.

The analysis of microplastics is a current topic. So far, methods have been used that are extremely time consuming and do not provide quantitative information on the content of various polymers in environmental samples. A complementary method has been developed that allows both secure identification and quantification. The human effort and the required measuring time per sample are low.

The second winning project, submitted by Dr. Iacopo Borsi, Pisa, is entitled “FREEWAT – Free and open source software tool for water management”. In this project a Q-GIS-Plug-In was developed to optimize numeric simulation of water quality and water quantity based on hydrological and hydrogeological data. It helps authorities, planners and consultants to cope with challenges within the field of water resource management, using an innovative and open-source based solution.

Interested applicants from Europe had the possibility to apply from 1 December 2017 to 28 February 2018. This year’s overall topic was: “Innovations for water systems and water analysis for sustainable water management and safe and secure drinking water supply”.

28 applications from 13 countries were submitted, which had to pass a two-tier-selection procedure.

The Mülheim Water is sponsored by RWW Rheinisch-Westfälische Wasserwerksgesellschaft mbH and GERSTEL GmbH & Co. KG. Both companies are located in Mülheim an der Ruhr.

The Mülheim Water Award was first granted in 2006. In five competition rounds, more than 100 applications from 20 different European countries were submitted, covering the entire range of water management topics.

For more information visit www.muelheim-water-award.com.

Contact
Coordination Office Mülheim Water Award
c/o IWW Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wasser Beratungs- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH
Peter Lévai
Moritzstraße 26
45476 Mülheim an der Ruhr

Germany

Tel.:                 +49 208 40303-435
Fax:                 +49 208 40303-80
E-Mail:            info@Mülheim-water-award.com