Germany's largest water management laboratory undergoes extensive modernisation

The water management cooperation laboratory, which the Ruhrverband and Emschergenossenschaft/Lippeverband (EGLV) water associations have been jointly operating on Steinstraße in Essen
since 2008, is being extensively modernised. Prof. Norbert Jardin, CEO of the Ruhrverband, and Dr Frank Obenaus, Chief Technical Officer of EGLV, jointly gave the official go-ahead for the extensive project on Monday, 20 January 2025.

In two construction phases, each lasting around one year, the electrical systems are to be renewed, LED lighting installed, the IT infrastructure overhauled and the floor coverings replaced, among other things. Particular attention will be paid to the technical centre, which will be optimised in terms of energy efficiency by replacing the supply and exhaust air units, installing an energy recovery system, using heat pumps (cooling/heating) and installing a photovoltaic system on the roof.

Further energy savings will be achieved through the future centrally controlled cooling generation and provision via a cooling distribution network designed as a ring circuit, as well as the elimination of the numerous refrigerators and freezers previously used for sample storage; these will be replaced by more energy-efficient cold storage cells and a central freezing cell for retained samples. In line with the requirement to work with smaller sample quantities and less hazardous materials, the more than 70 digestors (laboratory fume cupboards) will be replaced by new, energy-saving devices with better control options and at the same time reduced to fewer than 50 units. This will enable more sustainable laboratory operations with lower energy and maintenance costs.

As the laboratory conversion is taking place during ongoing operations, the almost 120 people working in the building will face a long phase of construction-related disruption and temporary accommodation, as the northern part of the building will be vacated and remodelled first. This will be followed by the relocation of the entire laboratory to the completed wing and the remodelling of the southern part of the building. Once the construction work, estimated at around 23 million euros, has been completed, however, the employees will find significantly improved working conditions in a completely modernised building that will enable resource-conserving, process-stable and safe laboratory operations for decades to come.

The conversion will also involve the partial reallocation of some laboratory rooms and the creation of new laboratories in which, for example, investigations into trace substances and
transformation products can be carried out in future in connection with the introduction of a fourth purification stage at wastewater treatment plants. A safety level 2 laboratory will be further expanded for wastewater epidemiological investigations, analyses of antibiotic resistance and targeted detection of pathogens and ecotoxicological effects. The operators, Ruhrverband and EGLV, consider themselves well positioned for future requirements, such as those that could be imposed on the laboratory by the transposition of the new Urban Wastewater Directive (KARL) into national law.

Background:
The five-storey building of the cooperation laboratory was built in 1995/96 on the site of the Ruhrverband headquarters (between Kronprinzenstraße, Helbingstraße and Steinstraße in Essen) and originally only housed the Ruhrverband laboratory. In 2008, the co-operation with the Emschergenossenschaft/Lippeverband water association (EGLV), whose head office is located on the opposite side of Kronprinzenstraße, took place.

Most of the technical systems date back to the early days and are still in continuous operation today. The ventilation system in particular has reached the end of its technical service life. In addition, the requirements for the laboratory and its orientation have changed considerably over the past three decades. The upcoming investments in conversion and modernisation measures are therefore unavoidable.

Dr Jochen Türk, who holds a lectureship in water analysis and oxidative processes at the University of Duisburg-Essen, has been head of the cooperation laboratory since October 2023. A memorial plaque at the entrance to the laboratory building commemorates Dr Hermann Bach, the former head of the chemical department of the Emschergenossenschaft, who was hounded out of office in 1935 because of his Jewish ancestry and murdered in Gestapo custody in 1944.