DESSIN scientist Dr. Koen Zuurbier (KWR) graduates at TU Delft on findings from the Westland demo site

On May 10, Koen Zuurbier obtained his doctoral degree at the TU Delft on his findings during his research on ‘Increasing Freshwater Recovery upon Aquifer Storage’. The DESSIN Westland demosite was one of the pilot sites where a dedicated configuration of groundwater wells was installed to improve the recovery of rainwater surpluses stored in a brackish water aquifer more than 20 m below surface level. In coastal areas like the Westland, recovery of freshwater is often hampered by buoyancy effects: the injected freshwater is simply ‘lighter’ than the surrounding brackish water and is displaced to the top of the targeted aquifer.

As a consequence, it can hardly be recovered unmixed, which significantly decreases freshwater recovery upon aquifer storage. Dr. Zuurbier developed new, dedicated well configurations of water wells to counteract this loss of recoverability and tested those at three locations in the Netherlands (Nootdorp, Ovezande, and the Westland). The promotion committee marked the performed research as ‘excellent’, practical, and extremely relevant for a more-and-more water scarce world.

Congratulations from the whole DESSIN team!

Find Dr. Zuurbier’s thesis here.