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Alicja Sobantka

Research Interests

•    Waste management
•    Impact assessment
•    Wastewater treatment
•    Resource management in agriculture

Alicja completed her studies in chemical engineering with the main focus on process engineering and polymer technology at the University of Applied Science in Kaiserslautern, Germany. As a research assistant at the Institute for Composite Materials at the Technical University in Kaiserslautern she was responsible for developing composite materials based on natural fibres and aquatic polymers. During a research term at the Research Centre in Jülich, Germany, at the Institute of Solid State Physics, she worked on specific silicium containing polymers, which are used to extend the theory of neutron and light scattering. Alicja also completed her diploma thesis at the Forschungszentrum Jülich, at the Institute for Reactor Safety. She has been synthesizing and analyzing modified Al-Mg-LDHs (layered double hydroxides), containing each Fe, Co and Ni. Such LDHs have been found to be able to adsorb various radionuclides. The aim for this work was to create a method for the safe long-time storage of burned-out research reactor fuels in salt domes, with particular focus on the risk presented if water enters the salt dome. Hence the reaction of water, salt and the out burned reactor fuel creates mobile radionuclides, which can move into the atmoshphere and may enter the groundwater, with severe environmental consequences.

 

Key Facts

After having studied food chemistry at the Technical University in Kaiserslautern, Germany, up to the first diploma, Alicja changed her studies to chemical engineering at the University of Applied Science in Kaiserslautern and obtained a Diplom-Ingenieurs degree there in 2009. Her interest in waste management and environmental protection was initiated during her studies and developed during her diploma thesis at the Research Centre Jülich.

Alicja graduated from the Vienna Doctoral Programme in 2013. Her PhD thesis in resource management was on "The extension of Statistical Entropy Analysis to chemical compounds".

Currently she is employed at Agrocampus Ouest, Science et technologie du lait et de l’œuf. Her main responsibilities there are the eco-design of food processes, especially multi optimization of the dairy industry.
Keywords: impact assessment (ecological, economic, social), water quality, tox. aspects ab.