Cologne municipal sewage company (Stadtentwässerungsbetriebe Köln-StEB) operates, in the Cologne area, five wastewater treatment plants, including one in Rodenkirchen.

Developing an easy-to-implement solution for micropollutants removal

The "AdOx Cologne" project (Ad: Adsorption, Ox: Oxidation), funded by the Ministry of the Environment (MKULNV) NRW, focuses on the development of an optimal process engineering solution for converting a BIOFOR filter system to a treatment stage with micropollutants removal.

In November 2017, Filtralite® NC 1,5.2,5 was implemented as a filter media, for the project.

With its unique porosity, Filtralite® provides optimal conditions for water to flow through the filter bed to store and adsorb more contaminants. With this function, a larger contact area for the water is available for the same filter volume.

Public organizations, technical institutes and engineering firms collaborate for this project

Project Manager of the StEB is Dipl.-Ing. Manuel Hartenberger, who "lives" the project from the first day on with passion.

Dr.-Ing. Frank Benstöm from the Institute for Urban Water Management of the RWTH Aachen University (ISA) is responsible for the scientific monitoring of the project. He did his PhD on wastewater filtration.

The project partner is the Hydro-Ingenieure GmbH, Düsseldorf, which is already involved in a multitude of different micropollutants removal projects and contributes the resulting planning experience.


More details are available here and here.