Improving quality of BSR waters by advanced processes
active 1 year, 10 months agoEnvironmental pollution by hazardous substances has become a serious problem in the Baltic Sea Region. Over the last decade, an increasing number of studies have shown that various hazardous substances are found in natural water reservoirs, wastewater, and treated effluents. Their often largely unknown transformation products present a risk to the exposed living organisms. Among them, (i) pesticides, (ii) pharmaceuticals, (iii) industrial chemicals, and (iv) heavy metals are of emerging concern.
Effective changes can be introduced only with the full understanding of the general public. Currently, there is little recognition at the social and policy level of the potential risks of emerging pollutants to human health. Therefore, the fundamental challenge within this project is to increase awareness among different target groups to understand the need of introducing additional advanced processes for removing emerging micropollutants.
The project aims to show strategies in improving the quality of waters by new alternative processes to challenge emerging micropollutants by:
– Identifying specific types of emerging micropollutants: pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, and pesticides based on monitoring data and scientific reports.
– Proposing the ways of additional wastewater treatment and residual sludge handling for persistent pollutants and coupling them with the biological processes.
– Contributing possible solutions addressed to wastewater treatment plants and policy-makers.
