The course includes a seminar programme. Eight seminars of which at least six must be attended to pass the course. Topics of the seminars:
- Current research rends in Environmental Chemistry and Ecotechnology.
- Binding of metals and nutrients in soil and ground. Mechanisms and environmental relevance.
- The arsenic problem in groundwaters - an overview.
- Use of ecotechnology for passive treatment of sewage and contaminated waters.
- Evaluating mineral phase composition by means of X-ray powder diffraction.
- Use of X-ray absorption spectroscopy to unravel speciation and structures.
- Geochemical modelling; overview of software and tools to interpret chemical data.
- Guest lecture on selected topic.
Between each seminar, participants should discuss defined aspects of each talk. Each seminar ends with discussion of the previous seminar.
Exercises:
- X-ray powder diffraction - data acquisition and interpretation.
- X-ray absorption spectroscopy - introduction to interpretation of EXAFS and XANES data.
- Speciation modelling with Visual MINTEQ.
In addition, a project work assignment is included in which course participants tackle data from own research with methodology related to the course.