Cooperation between researchers and practitioners
VA-kluster Mälardalen is a Swedish research and education consortium within the water and sanitation area. The consortium was established in January 2010 and cooperates within wastewater and sludge management. The members are universities in the Mälardalen region (Uppsala University, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Mälardalen University (MDH)), Lund University (faculty of engineering, LU), six wastewater utilities in Mälardalen and 2 research institutes (IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, JTI - Swedish Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering). The consortium receives support from the Swedish Water & Wastewater Association, SWWA, and is a part of the project programme for universities launched by SWWA. The consortium is also financially supported by the wastewater utilities in the region.
The foremost focus of the consortium is to support the work at the wastewater treatment plants in the region and in the whole of Sweden. The objective is to contribute to more efficient wastewater and sludge management systems with respect to energy and resource utilisation.
Education for the future
Concerning education, the consortium will continue to educate future professionals in the water and sanitation sector. Here, the goal is to create first-rate water and sanitation educations both on the undergraduate level, postgraduate level and for professionals working in the sector. We also wish to highlight the water and sanitation area as an important and interesting topic with several applications in society and for environmental protection.
Focus areas
With its broad competence, VA-kluster Mälardalen covers the whole system from wastewater treatment to nutrient recycling and our strength is the possibility for researchers and process engineers at the plants to jointly face future challenges of the wastewater industry. Also, the collective competence among the consortium members within measurement technology, modelling and control with application to wastewater treatment is unique in Sweden.
VA-kluster Mälardalen is performing research within resource efficient wastewater treatment and sludge management with special emphasis on:
- Handling of new restrictions on discharge of nitrogen and phosphorous
- Monitoring, automatic control and optimisation
- Sustainable reuse of nutrients and organic material on farm land
- Biogas production
- Management of persistent pollutants in wastewater
- Reduced discharge of climatic gases
