Helmut Kroiss

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Helmut Kroiss, 2018
The three iwr professors, 2014 (from left to right: Helmut Kroiss, Wilhelm von der Emde, Jörg Krampe)

Helmut Kroiss (born July 22, 1944 in Mauterndorf / Salzburg) is an Austrian civil engineer and emeritus professor at the Technical University of Vienna. In 1987 he was appointed as successor to Wilhelm von der Emde at the Institute for Water Quality and Resource Management at the Vienna University of Technology , which he headed until his retirement in 2012.

Life

Helmut Kroiss was born on July 22nd, 1944 in Mauterndorf in Lungau, Salzburg. There he attended elementary school from 1950 to 1954. He completed his further schooling at the Federal Education Institute Graz-Liebenau (today: BG / BORG HIB Graz Liebenau), where he graduated in 1962. From 1962 he studied civil engineering at the Technical University of Vienna, specializing in hydraulic engineering. In 1971 he completed his studies with a degree in engineering. After completing his military service, he worked from 1972 to 1985 as assistant to Wilhelm von der Emde at the Institute for Water Quality and Landscape Water Engineering (today's name: Institute for Water Quality and Resource Management) at the Vienna University of Technology.

Helmut Kroiss concluded his doctoral studies in 1977 with a dissertation on the topic: "A contribution to the purification of sugar factory wastewater." The work was carried out in the course of an investigation on behalf of the sugar industry. The aim was to develop a wastewater treatment process in which the pre-clarified washing and alluvial water from sugar production that occurs during production can be biologically cleaned and then fed into the internal cycle. The successful approach shown served as a model for implementation in other branches of industry. In 1985, Helmut Kroiss completed his habilitation with work on anaerobic wastewater treatment and received the license to teach at the Vienna University of Technology in the field of wastewater treatment.

This was followed by two years as head of the research and development department for water and wastewater issues at VÖEST-ALPINE AG Linz, before he returned to Vienna University of Technology in 1987 as successor Wilhelm von der Emdes. He headed the department of water quality management at the institute and, alternating with Paul Brunner, the entire institute for water quality and resource management until his retirement in 2012.

Even after his retirement, Helmut Kroiss is active in national and international scientific committees, such as B. at the ÖWAV - Austrian Water and Waste Management Association , at the DWA - German Association for Water Management, Sewage and Waste , and the IWA (International Water Association), whose presidency he held from 2014 to 2016.

Services

At the beginning of his professional career he was involved in research with von der Emde within the framework of the International Commission for the Protection of Water for Lake Constance (IGKB). His first international project dealt with rain relief systems, from which the report No. 14 of the IGKB emerged, the contents of which in turn were integrated into the worksheet ATV-A 128 (1977/1) of the DWA. This was followed by investigations into the purification of Vienna's wastewater using the activated sludge process . For more than two years, Helmut Kroiss conducted experiments that formed the basis for the design of the Vienna sewage treatment plant. Due to its concept, a selector was used for the first time to control bulky sludge.

A main focus of his activities was the purification of industrial wastewater. Based on his research, the concept of the selector to combat bulky sludge was also used for the first time for industrial wastewater (sugar wastewater). His dissertation, which he completed in 1977, is based on this work.

Another focus of his work was the anaerobic wastewater treatment triggered by the energy crisis of the 1970s. The extensive experimental investigations became the cornerstone of a patented process for anaerobic purification of industrial wastewater, the EKJ process (Emde-Kroiss-Jungbunzlauer), which Kroiss developed together with his mentor Wilhelm von der Emde in cooperation with an Austrian company and which was used for energy-saving treatment concentrated industrial wastewater was used. The largest of these plants, with a reactor volume of 30,000 m³, was built for the citric acid factory in Pernhofen .

In addition, a focus of his scientific work was on the subject of energy minimization for sewage treatment plants and energy recovery from wastewater and waste: Work in this area dealt with the question of how an energy self-sufficient operation of a sewage treatment plant, e.g. B. the main sewage treatment plant in Vienna, or the sugar production can be converted to energy self-sufficiency in that natural gas is converted into biogas in the production process, which is obtained from the anaerobic treatment of the beet residues.

He also dealt intensively with the topic of nutrient emissions and river basin management. The EU project daNUbs dealt under his leadership with nutrient emissions in the catchment area of ​​the Danube and their effects on the Black Sea. His work also laid the foundations in the field of benchmarking on sewage treatment plants. Furthermore, he dealt with questions of sewage sludge recycling and disposal up to nutrition and sustainability as well as climate change in connection with water quality management.

Helmut Kroiss managed national and international projects in the areas of industrial and municipal wastewater treatment, plant planning and operation and, in later years, increasingly in the area of ​​river basin management, in Austria, Germany, Singapore, Indonesia, India, China, Hong Kong, Finland, Croatia, Slovenia and Hungary. He was also involved, in continuation of the work of his predecessor, in cooperation with the Austrian Water and Waste Management Association (ÖWAV) in the training of sewage specialists. In this context, he organized and led specialist courses and also helped appropriate training programs in the years after the opening of the East. B. in Macedonia. At the Austrian Water and Waste Management Association, Helmut Kroiss was Vice President and President from 1996 to 2002. Then, from 2002 to 2015, he was a member of the board. Since 2006 he has been honorary president of the ÖWAV.

He also put his expertise at the service of international, subject-relevant non-university organizations and scientific bodies. In 2001 Helmut Kroiss became a full member of the European Academy of Science and the Arts and he has been a member of the technical and scientific committee of the European Water Association (EWA) for many years. Helmut Kroiss worked as a consultant for wastewater disposal in the greater Paris area in the early 2000s and has been a member of the Syndicat interdépartemental pour l'assainissement de l'agglomération parisienne (SIAAP) since 2004 .

He developed special activities as a representative of Austria on the Board of Directors of the International Water Organization (IWA). From 2004 to 2008 he chaired the “International Program Committee”. In 2008 he was accepted into the “Council of Distinguished Water Professionals”. Helmut Kroiss was also Chairman of the IWA Publishing Committee and Editor-in-Chief of Water Science and Technology, Water Science and Technology: Water Supply and Water Practice and Technology (journals of the IWA publishing house), as well as Chairman of the IWA Specialist Group 'Design Operation and Costs of Large Wastewater Treatment Plants. In 1995 as well as in 2007 he organized the conferences of this specialist group in Vienna, which his predecessor, Wilhelm von der Emde, had brought to life. At the IWA World Water Congress and Exhibition 2014 in Lisbon, Helmut Kroiss was appointed President of the IWA. He held this office until 2016.

In addition to managing the institute, he held various positions at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and in the Senate of the Vienna University of Technology. From 1988 to September 2010 he was a member of the Senate of the Vienna University of Technology. He was vice dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering in the academic years 1992/93 and 1993/94, and its dean in the academic years 1994/95 to 1997/98. He will hold the office of Deputy Chairman of the Senate from October. 2003 to September 2010.

At the end of the 1990s he was instrumental in setting up the German-language course in "Hydraulic Engineering" at the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy in Sofia, Bulgaria, for which he received an honorary doctorate from this university in 2003. In 2013 he was a visiting professor at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

Awards and honors

National

International

  • 2000: Honorary member of the Bulgarian Association for Water Management
  • 2002: Votocek Medal of the Chemical Technological University in Prague
  • 2003: Honorary doctorate from the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy, Sofia
  • 2004: Honorary membership ATV / DVWK
  • 2005: William Dunbar Medal of the European Water Association (EWA)
  • 2008: Appointment as a member of the Council of Distinguished Water Professionals of the International Water Association (IWA)

Works (selection)

  • H. Kroiss: Anaerobic wastewater treatment. In: Wilhelm vd Emde (Ed.): Wiener Mitteilungen . Volume 73, TU Vienna, 1988.
  • B. Raschauer, E. Morscher, H. Schröfelbauer, H. Kroiss: Water as a vital element - legal, economic and ecological aspects of use. Facultas, 2003, ISBN 3-85076-617-9 .
  • C. Schmelz, H. Haider, H. Kroiss, W. Schönbäck, W. Becker, E. Matzner: Ecology - Humans - Economy; Market economy and common good in the water and energy industry. Facultas, 2004, ISBN 3-85076-660-8 .
  • K. Rosenwinkel, H. Kroiss, N. Dichtl, C. Seyfried, P. Weiland (eds.): Anaerobic technology: wastewater, sludge and residue treatment. Springer, 2015, ISBN 978-3-642-24894-8 .

literature

  • Roland Berger, Friedrich Ehrendorfer (Hrsg.): Ecosystem Vienna, The natural history of a city. Böhlau-Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-205-77420-4 .
  • David Jenkins, Jiri Wanner (Eds.): Activated Sludge - 100 Years and Counting. IWA-Publishing, 2014, ISBN 978-1-78040-493-6 ,
  • Personal details, Helmut Kroiss 65 years. In: Correspondence water management. Volume 2, No. 8, 2009, pp. 448-449.

Web links

Commons : Helmut Kroiss  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Helmut Kroiss: A contribution to the purification of sugar factory wastewater. In: Wilhelm vd Emde (Ed.): Wiener Mitteilungen. Volume 25, Vienna University of Technology, 1978.
  2. ↑ Helmut Kroiss: Anaerobic wastewater treatment. In: Wilhelm vd Emde (Ed.): Wiener Mitteilungen. Volume 73, TU Vienna, 1988.
  3. ↑ International Water Protection Commission for Lake Constance (IGKB): Report No. 14: Rain relief systems - dimensioning and design. 1973. (igkb.org)
  4. ↑ Patent DE 3324072 C2 Device for anaerobic wastewater treatment. 1983 (google.at)
  5. ↑ Helmut Kroiss, Franz Klager: How to make a large nutrient removal pant energy self-sufficient: Latest upgrade of the Vienna Main Wastewater Treatment Plant (VMWTP). In: Water Sci Technol. Volume 77, No. 10, 2018, pp. 2369-2376. doi: 10.2166 / wst.2018.159
  6. ↑ Helmut Kroiss: Biogas from the residues of beet sugar production. In: Correspondence waste water. Volume 66, No. 6, 2019, pp. 472-477.
  7. ↑ Lydia Brooks, Vanessa Parravicini, Karl Svardal, Helmut Kroiss, Leopold Prendl: Biogas from sugar beet presspulp as substitute of fossil fuel in sugar beet factories. In: Water Sci Technol. Volume 58, No. 7, 2018, pp. 1497-1503. doi: 10.2166 / wst.2008.516
  8. ↑ Helmut Kroiss, Matthias Zessner, Christoph Lampert: Lessons learned for nutrient management in the Danube Basin and its relation to Black Sea euthrophication. In: Chemistry and Ecology. Volume 22, No. 5, 2006, pp. 347-357. doi: 10.1080 / 02757540600917518
  9. ↑ Helmut Kroiss, Christoph Lampert, Matthias Zessner, Oliver Gabriel: DANUBS - Nutrient Management in the Danube Basin and its Impact on the Black Sea, EVK1-CT-2000-00051, Final Report Section 1 - 4, Period covered: 01.02.2004 - January 31, 2005.
  10. ↑ Helmut Kroiss, Christoph Lampert, Matthias Zessner, Oliver Gabriel: DANUBS - Nutrient Management in the Danube Basin and its Impact on the Black Sea, EVK1-CT-2000-00051, Final Report, Section 5: Executive Summary Section 6: Detailed Report .
  11. ↑ Stefan Lindtner, Heidemarie Schaar, Helmut Kroiss: Benchmarking of large municipal wastewater treatment plants treating over 100,000 PE in Austria. In: Water Sci Technol. Volume 57, No. 10, 2008, pp. 1487-1493. doi: 10.2166 / wst.2008.214
  12. ↑ Helmut Kroiss: What is the potential for utilizing the resources in sludge? In: Water Sci Technol. Volume 49, No. 10, 2004, pp. 1-10. doi: 10.2166 / wst.2004.0595
personal data
SURNAME Kroiss, Helmut
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian hydraulic engineer
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Mauterndorf