Boosting Pristine water in treatment systems

Five partners from three different EU countries (Spain, the Netherlands and Germany), covering the entire value chain (research organisations, technology providers, water operators and end-users), joined forces to tackle the elimination of Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CEC’s) from the water cycle. 

Contaminants of emerging concern are compounds of different nature, frequently detected in water bodies, that could pose a significant risk for the environment and for human health depending on their concentration, occurrence, their toxicity and adverse effects. 

CECs, including pharmaceuticals, pesticides, microplastics, antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and other chemical compounds, are continuously released to the environment through different man-made sources. Their presence, usually in parts per billion or trillion levels, can be quantified thanks to the latest developments in analytical techniques. However, the same advances have also highlighted that current water treatment systems are not designed for the total and efficient removal of these substances. 

In this scenario and in opposition to other existing technologies, the PRISTINE Integrated Solution aims to permanently remove CECs from wastewater and drinking water streams. To this end, the LIFE PRISTINE project proposes a solution that integrates the combination of three individual technologies: encapsulated adsorbents, hollow-fibre nanofiltration membranes and UV-LED Advanced Oxidation Processes. These technologies alone, or combined, will be supported by an artificial intelligence-based soft sensors to predict influent CECs concentration, and a decision support system which will optimize the CECs elimination while minimizing energy and reagents consumption of the solution for each case scenario.

An exhaustive characterisation campaign (more than 150 CECs analysed) has already been conducted in both wastewater and drinking water scenarios. It allowed to develop a short list of +15 CECs of different families whose removal will be monitored throughout the project. Currently, the LIFE PRISTINE integrated solution is being demonstrated in the Ceutí WWTP in Murcia, Spain, and later on it will be tested in a drinking water scenario in the North of Spain. 

The optimized treatment will remove at least 80% of emerging contaminants in wastewater and drinking water, always below existing legislation limits, while reducing the operational costs. By implementing the LIFE PRISTINE project, the consortium expects to provide a promising solution to tackle water pollution and thus, contribute to achieve high quality water while reducing the environmental impact. 

#WaterWiseEU campaign 

This story has been submitted by a partner of the #WaterWiseEU campaign. The EU-wide campaign focuses on water resilience, aiming to change the way we see, use and value water. Find out more about the campaign and how you can get involved.