| Grant number: | 18/12780-4 |
| Support type: | Regular Research Grants |
| Duration: | May 01, 2019 - April 30, 2022 |
| Field of knowledge: | Engineering - Sanitary Engineering |
| Cooperation agreement: | European Commission (Horizon 2020) |
| Principal Investigator: | Raquel Fernandes Pupo Nogueira |
| Grantee: | Raquel Fernandes Pupo Nogueira |
| Principal investigator abroad: | Serge Chiron |
| Institution abroad: | Institute de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), France |
| Home Institution: | Instituto de Química (IQ). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araraquara. Araraquara , SP, Brazil |
| Assoc. researchers: | Adriano Luiz Tonetti ; Peter Hammer |
Abstract
Wastewater reuse is increasingly seen as a way to alleviate water scarcity and decrease the pollution load to surface waters. Water reuse, for instance in agriculture, is projected to grow in Europe and Southern countries due to the overall expected decrease in summer precipitation and rising temperatures. Furthermore, wider reuse of treated wastewater for irrigation and other non potable purposes is faced with a new challenge: the perceived food safety risk from emerging contaminants (ECs) including chemicals and pathogens. Hence, an increasing number of studies have documented the presence of ECs in reclaimed water for irrigation, and in some cases very high risk of uptake by crops. These ECs are highly persistent to conventional wastewater treatment, and their removal by advanced treatment options requires large amounts of chemicals and/or is energy-intensive. Moreover, reliance on the centralized water reclamation plants involves the construction of costly piping systems and long distance transfer of recycled water and, depending on the topography, high pumping requirements. Reduction in the treatment and transportation costs in water reuse requires a shift towards decentralized treatment systems placed close to the point of generation, and using cost-effective technologies. This proposal aims to develop new hybrid wastewater treatment technologies capable of ECs removal from contaminated source water to provide water with optimum quality for further non-potable reuse. Considering that ECs encompass numerous compounds from diverse chemical classes, it is necessary to establish a priority list of contaminants and pathogens exhibiting the greatest hazard for human health. In this context, antibiotics and ARB&Gs on these processes will enable to obtain unifying concepts and conclusions that can be extrapolated to predict the fate of other contaminants and their metabolites/transformation products. The implementation of bioaugmented microorganisms CWs coupled to heterogeneous Fenton processes will increase the safety of wastewater reuse practices by providing contaminant and pathogen-free water especially for crop irrigation. Effective satellite wastewater treatment units will allow a better control of the quality of treated wastewater according to the pollution status of the entering effluents, easing the pressure on centralized systems, thus expanding their asset life-time and reducing the treatment costs. The specific objectives are:- To select a common strategy to compare the performance of the different technologies to be investigated. This includes the selection of indicator substances by carrying monitoring studies and by investigating the transformation / persistence of antibiotics and ARB&G in treated wastewater in each participating country.- Development of bioaugmented microorganisms CWs for the removal of indicator substances from wastewater by using selected macrophytes and microorganisms (e.g., fungi, endophytic bacteria and microalgae).- Development of nano-structured materials for the removal of indicator substances from wastewater by catalytically activated persulfate or hydrogen peroxide.- Case study (4) - application of innovative combined technologies for the on-site production of treated wastewater for non potable reuse purposes. (AU)