Karl Imhoff (7 April 1876 in

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's ...

– 28 September 1965) was a German

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

, author, and a pioneer of

wastewater treatment Wastewater treatment is a process used to remove contaminants from wastewater and convert it into an effluent that can be returned to the water cycle. Once returned to the water cycle, the effluent creates an acceptable impact on the environme ...

used throughout the world.

Action

Karl Imhoff was the driving force in the development and invention of the technical apparatuses and methods of

sewage treatment Sewage treatment (or domestic wastewater treatment, municipal wastewater treatment) is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable for discharge to the surrounding e ...

(the trickling - and activated sludge process). Imhoff provided not only significant technical innovations, but also design rules derived from experience in the operation of sewage treatment plants. He wrote a book ''Handbook of Urban Drainage'' in 1906, which today is released in new editions. In its 100-year history, the book has been translated 40 times. It has appeared in a total of 20 languages. From 1906 Imhoff was the Emscher Society served as head of the Office wastewater. 1907, where he developed the Emscher fountain with an

anaerobic Anaerobic means "living, active, occurring, or existing in the absence of free oxygen", as opposed to aerobic which means "living, active, or occurring only in the presence of oxygen." Anaerobic may also refer to: *Adhesive#Anaerobic, Anaerobic ad ...

sludge treatment. From 1922 to 1934, Imhoff was managing director of the Ruhrverband, where he planned five Ruhr dams, until he was replaced by the Nazis. On May 10, 1948 on his initiative and to the Director of the Ruhr Association, Max Prüss, the Wastewater Technical Association. Founded eV (ATV) in Düsseldorf Imhoff was at that time in Germany, the largest capacity for wastewater treatment.

Honours

Imhoff was awarded

honorary degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad ho ...

s by the Institutes of Technology in Karlsruhe, Stuttgart and Aachen and, in 1953, the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and in 1959 the "Bunsen Pettenkofer honor roll". This is awarded to individuals who have made in an excellent way to promote water and wastewater management in scientific or practical way by the

Deutscher Verein des Gas- und Wasserfaches The Deutscher Verein des Gas- und Wasserfaches (DVGW) is the German association for gas and water with headquarters in Bonn. Its official English translation is the German Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and Water. The DVGW was fo ...

. The 10,000 euro ''Karl Imhoff Award'' was donated to the recognition of the great merits of his wastewater management and as a permanent reminder of his work. He is of the DWA - awarded German Association for Water, Wastewater and Waste, for the Promotion of scientific work in the field of waste water system for outstanding research, dissertations or examination papers. ImhoffGlas

Imhoff tank, which are used for treatment of waste water, and the Imhoff cone for determining settleable matter. In

Hannover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

, Langenhagen, Mannheim,

Schleswig The Duchy of Schleswig ( da, Hertugdømmet Slesvig; german: Herzogtum Schleswig; nds, Hartogdom Sleswig; frr, Härtochduum Slaswik) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km ...

and

Straubing Straubing () is an independent city in Lower Bavaria, southern Germany. It is seat of the district of Straubing-Bogen. Annually in August the Gäubodenvolksfest, the second largest fair in Bavaria, is held. The city is located on the Danube f ...

streets were named after him.

Journals (selection)

*'' Handbook of Urban Drainage.'' R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1906th ** 30 Edition (the 100th anniversary of the first edition), Oldenbourg industry Verlag, Munich 2006, . ** English edition:'' Karl Imhoff's Handbook of Urban Drainage and Wastewater Disposal.'' Wiley, New York 1989, .. * (With G. M. Fair): ''Sewage treatment.'' John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1949. * (With W. J. Müller, D. K. B. Thistlethwayte): ''Disposal of Sewage and other Water-borne Wastes.'' 2nd Edn., Butterworths, London, 1971.

Literature

* * Herbert Ricken:'' Memory of Karl Imhoff (1876-1965)'' In.'' Construction technology'', 78 Class of 2001, No. 5 (May 2001), p #. * Hans-Erhard Lessing:'' pioneers'' Mannheimer Wellhöfer-Verlag, Mannheim 2007th.

External links

*
wastewater technology at a crossroads - disposal or resource recovery? (With picture of Imhoff)
(PDF, 200 kB)
history of DWA (page 5, with photo of Imhoff)
(PDF file) {{DEFAULTSORT:Imhoff, Karl 20th-century German inventors German civil engineers Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 1876 births 1965 deaths Engineers from Baden-Württemberg Scientists from Mannheim