13 December 2010
German student investigates sludge management practice
David Schenker and Professor Paul Slatter.
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German student David Schenker has spent an exchange semester at RMIT University comparing sludge management practice in the European Union and Australasia. Sludge is produced during the treatment of waste water.
Mr Schenker has been hosted by the Rheology and Materials Processing Centre in the School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering.
"I've been looking at how sludge is produced and disposed of in Australia," he said.
"Landfill is cheap and uses less fuel for transport and incineration, but requires much larger land areas."
Mr Schenker is a student at Hochschule Wismar University of Applied Science Technology, Business and Design.
Professor Paul Slatter, Director of the Rheology and Materials Processing Centre, said RMIT and Wismar already shared a link.
"Professor John Buckeridge, who is our Head of School, is an honorary professor at Wismar, in recognition of his work in engineering ethics. David's exchange semester with us arose from this link."
Professor Slatter said the Centre had enjoyed hosting Mr Schenker.
"What I'm really keen on is diversity. You can get stuck in your own viewpoints, so someone coming in and asking why we do things this way can be very valuable."
While in Australia, Mr Schenker has visited the Great Ocean Road and Wilsons Promontory - and played for the Northern Territory in the Australian Handball National Championships.
"It's been great studying at RMIT," he said. "There's a lot of feedback when you have a problem and people are always happy to help."
