Staff
Valentin Faust


Dr. Valentin Faust
About Me
I am an ETH environmental engineer and former PhD student in the Process Engineering department of Eawag under the supervision of Prof. Kai Udert. In my PhD project, I focused on optimizing nutrient recovery from urine for Space Missions. I am interested in modelling, decentralized waste water treatment, source separation, nutrient recovery and closed-loop systems.
Projects
PhD Project
The project is part of MELiSSA (Micro Ecological Life Support System Alternative), a project of the European Space Agency for the development of a biological life support system (closed-loop) for long-term space missions (ex. Mars mission). In the MELiSSA loop, urine is the main target for nitrogen recovery. However, urine has to be converted into a biologically stable solution, before it can be used as a fertilizer.
In this project, we aim to increase the stability of the urine treatment process in general and the nitrification in particular to allow the use for Space missions. A urine treatment chain for space application is proposed based on Eawag’s technology and MELiSSA’s experience. The treatment chain consists of five treatment units: (1) In the storage tank the urea, which is the main Nitrogen source, is hydrolysed. (2) The removal of the organics takes place in a membrane aerated biofilm reactor (MABR). (3) In a second MABR the urine is nitrified. No base is added, therefore only half of the ammonia is nitrified due to the limited amount of alkalinity. (4) Micropollutants are adsorbed in a granular active carbon column. (5) In the final step, the urine is disinfected and can be used for the plant compartment of the MELiSSA loop.
Curriculum Vitae
2024 - |
Researcher at University of Applied Science in Rapperswil-Jona (OST) in the field of applied chemistry |
2023 |
Post-Doc at Eawag in the department of process engineering. |
2018 - 2023 |
PhD student at ETH and Eawag in the department of process engineering. Supervised by Prof. Kai Udert |
2016 - 2017 | Research Assistant at Eawag working for the VUNA and AUTARKY project |
2010 - 2016 |
Bachelor and Master of Science in Environmental Engineering at ETH Zurich. Majors in urban water management and water resource management. Master's thesis at Polytechnique Montreal |
Publications
This member of staff no longer works at Eawag. Please contact info@eawag.ch for further information.
Research Group
Focalpoints
- Decentralized wastewater treatment and source separation
- Nutrient recovery
- Closed-loop system
- Modelling
- Optimization and process control