Development and optimisation of an innovative roof biofilter

The roof biofilter project is developing a biofilter based on renewable raw materials that can be installed on pitched roofs and used to purify domestic wastewater. Other functions of the roof biofilter include building air conditioning and rainwater retention. The purified wastewater is to be utilised on site as service water.

In the development of the roof biofilter, the plants usually found on green roofs are to be replaced by structures that are to a considerable extent equivalent to the planted model in terms of capillary water transport and evaporation. The water storage space is constructed using bio-based materials and can be adapted to local requirements. It will be investigated to what extent the selected material supports the desired build-up of cleaning-active microorganism biomass in the base mat and how the climate effectiveness (e.g. albedo) can be increased through special but natural-looking colouring. By replacing the plant-based soil filter with a textile structure, secondary pollution from dead plant material is to be avoided and the not inconsiderable maintenance effort (dry periods, winter) for the plants is to be drastically reduced - while maintaining a good cleaning performance.

Projectpartner:
- Sächsisches Textilforschungsinstitut e.V. (Projektcoordinator)
- TECNARO GmbH
- Lightweight Structures Engineering GmbH
- Ingenieurbüro Blumberg
- Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research

The project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) through the ZIM programme (FKZ KK5351604BA3).