The Brno University of Technology has a new building worth 220 million

Brno - The Brno University of Technology has completed the construction of the main building of the Centre for New Technologies in Mechanical Engineering (NETME Centre). Thanks to a grant of 220 million Czech crowns from European funds, the school has acquired modern laboratories and a machine workshop. Researchers in the new building will explore, for example, the possibilities of using biodegradable waste and will attempt to create a laundry line of the future.
    "The building houses or will house a number of - often unique - devices or technologies," said the head of the NETME project, Petr Stehlík. These include a climate chamber, as well as an experimental steam apparatus and an electron gun that enables machining, welding, or surface treatment of metals using an electron beam.
    Researchers will particularly focus on the development of a technological unit for large-scale laundry, for example, in hotels, hospitals, and industrial enterprises. They want to experimentally investigate the process where dirty laundry is "raw material" and clean laundry is "product".
    Another facility consists of experimental fermenters used for research on the processing of biodegradable waste and sludge from wastewater treatment plants. Researchers will, for example, examine the effect of pre-treatment of materials, such as crushing kitchen waste, on the subsequent production of biogas. They will also investigate the appropriate composition of input raw materials, such as the optimal proportion of waste from green maintenance, kitchen waste, and various types of municipal and industrial sludge.
    The central NETME building on U Vodárny Street is also remarkable from an architectural perspective. Architects used a special material for its cladding that corrodes in a controlled manner. Eventually, the corrosion stops, and the material requires no maintenance afterward.
    The entire NETME centre required an investment of 768 million Czech crowns. The goal is to connect the scientific and research tradition of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering with the industrial sphere. The centre collaborates with several companies, recently with the energy giant ČEZ.