13.12.2022 - Thomas Penner obtained his Ph.D. degree
We congratulate Thomas Penner on his Ph.D. degree and wish him all the best on his further way!
21.11.22 - Deutschlandfunk Kultur "Zeitfragen.Feature": How wood-burning heaters damage our health.
The program of 21.11. deals with the dangers posed by the eleven million wood-burning and tiled stoves in Germany. On the problem of exhaust pollution in residential areas, Prof. Dittler addressed the pollution of the air we breathe with harmful wood stove fumes.
Under this link you can download the audio or read the broadcast.
07.11.2022 - SWR2 WISSEN on the topic of the wood-burning stove boom - increasing health risk from particulate matter
This interesting contribution to the threatening pollution in winter by wood heaters was made with the cooperation of Prof. Dittler.
Under this link you can listen, read and download the manuscript of the broadcast.
20.10.2022 - Poster Award of the 4th Annual Meeting of the KIT Center MathSEE
We are pleased to announce that Felix Reinke's contribution "Applied geometry optimization of a novel 3D-printed wet-scrubber nozzle with Lattice Boltzmann Methods" was awarded with the poster prize (funded by DFG and MWK) at the 4th annual meeting of the KIT Center MathSEE. We would also like to thank ESTA Apparatebau GmbH & Co. KG, Dr. Haussmann and PD Dr. Krause for their excellent cooperation, which made the development of the results possible. The research project was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK) within the framework of a ZIM cooperation project.
The additional visualization of the simulation results in Augmented Reality (AR) was developed by Dennis Teutscher within the project Teaching4Future. This was funded by the MWK.
The full text for the publication of the presented results is available here (open access).
07.10.2022 Prof. Dittler on Deutschlandfunk about wood stove smoke gases
Prof. Dittler spoke with Deutschlandfunk radio on 7.10.22 about wood stove smoke gases, how they contaminate the air we breathe, what health effects are known and why the smoke gases in Stutensee pose a concrete threat to public safety.
Link to listen:
https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/bei-holzoefen-aufpassen-auf-feinstaub-und-co2-achim-dittler-kit-dlf-07f2a94e-100.html
05.10.2022 – 09.10.22 World Filtration Congress 2022, San Diego
Almuth Schwarz, member of our research group „Gas-Particle-Systems“, presented her results on “Transport Mechanisms of Soluble Particulate Matter Through Gas-Cleaning Filters” at Wold Filtration Congress 2022 in San Diego.
26.09.2022 - Prof. Dittler spoke to Bayern2 in Talk of the Day.
"More and more heating with wood: Is that ecologically justifiable?"
The contribution is available in the BR media library.
09/26/2022 - Prof. Dittler spoke with Mia Bucher in an article for the dpa (german press ageny)
about harmful wood stove smoke gases. The article was picked up by many media and can be read, among others, in the Zeit.
The link to the article in Zeit Online can be found here.
25.9.2022 - Interview in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung
Prof. Dittler spoke to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung about the threat to public safety posed by wood stove fumes in Stutensee, insufficient measurements/limit values, the ignorance of wood stove gate by politicians, the dismissal by authorities, and the bogus solution of "filters".
Here is the link to the article.
05-09.09.2022 – International Aerosol Conference, Athens
At IAC members of the research group presented their most recent results to fellow researchers and took the opportunity to look beyond their own research projects.
8.9.2022 - For the exchange about "Clean Breathing Air"
Amarjargal Dagvadorj visited the working group and reported about the situation of breathing air quality in Mongolia and current projects. Thank you very much for the visit and the exchange.
06.09.2022 - Interview in the business magazine Wirtschaftswoche
Prof. Dittler spoke with Wirtschaftswoche about what the boom in wood combustion will mean for our breathing air quality.
You can find the interview here.
05.09.2022 - The BNN reports about the pollution of the breathing air with wood stove smoke gases in Stutensee.
You can find the article of the BNN here.
29.08.2022 – "Wood firing in residential areas" - Talk with the Federal Environment Agency
Prof. Dittler spoke today with the Federal Environmental Agency about "Wood Firing in Residential Areas". Several problem areas of this multi-layered issue were highlighted. In addition to the aspect that wood firing can pose a concrete danger to public safety in residential areas, the topics of "chimney sweeps" and "how the authorities deal with the issue" were examined. Finally, a 12-point plan was presented and discussed. The multi-faceted problem #holzofengate is likely to keep us busy for a long time to come.
22.08.2022 - Excursion to ACHEMA
Students of the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Process Engineering visited ACHEMA today and were guided around the fair by two members of our research group on the topic "Mechanical and thermal processes for gas cleaning" .
09.08.2022 - Visit to the Bristol Aerosol Research Centre at the University of Bristol, UK
Almuth Schwarz, a member of the research group, visited Prof. Jonathan Reid's research group at the University of Bristol to discuss recent findings and took the opportunity to look across the borders of her own research topic.
30.03.2022 - Annual meeting of the ProcessNet specialist group "Gas Cleaning"
At the ProcessNet annual meeting "Gas Cleaning" in Bamberg we were allowed to present news from our research projects. More information about our projects can be found under Research Projects (GPS).
17.03.2022 - Article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Prof. Dittler spoke with the FAZ about wood stove emissions that are harmful to health and the climate.
Here you can find the link to the article.
08.-10.03.2022 – FILTECH, Coglogne
At this year's FILTECH members of the working group present results of large number of ongoing research project. They also took the opportunity to look beyond their own research projects and establish contacts with companies.
12.02.2022 - Fireplaces cause more particulate matter than all combustion engines combined.
Prof. Dittler spoke with Marco Evers from Spiegel about the pollution of the air we breathe with harmful wood stove fumes in Stutensee, its effects & outdated immission limits. #woodstovegate is bigger than #dieselgate
09.02.2022 - Excursion to the company Palas
Students of the lecture "Gas-Particle-Measurement Technology" visited the company Palas in Hagsfeld today within the scope of an excursion and gained exclusive insights into the production and application of aerosol measurement technology.
05.02.22 - Wood stoves cause particulate matter north of Karlsruhe like at the Neckartor.
Prof. Dittler spoke to the Badische Neueste Nachrichten about the fine dust pollution of the air we breathe caused by wood stoves in residential areas.
Here you can find the link to the article.
02.02.2022 - Third statement of the expert group "Aerosols" online!
The 3rd statement of the expert group "Aerosols" of the state government of Baden-Württemberg on the Omikron variant from December 2021 is now also online. If interested, free PDF download here.