Micropollutants

Team
Urs von Gunten, Lisa Salhi

Goal
To evaluate the behavior of micropollutants (originating from water resources or being formed during treatment processes) in water treatment processes, and optimize their removal.

Description
Micropollutants are being studied extensively in several Eawag (Novaquatis, Fischnetz, etc..) and externally funded projects (e.g. Poseidon, Toxic etc.) . In these projects, processes for micropollutant removal in waste water and drinking water are studied. Extensive knowledge on the fate of micropollutants in surface waters and wastewater is available at EAWAG and from other sources.

The research activities with respect to micropollutants are mainly focused on following the behavior of micropollutants in treatment processes and on the possible formation of by-products in oxidation processes. In the first phase of the project the information available from other Eawag projects and external sources are gathered, to build a data base with physical chemical properties of critical classes of compounds and estimate their removal efficiency during various drinking water treatment steps.

In the second phase, selected compounds will be tested for their removal efficiency during treatment processes. Finally, the fate of compound during treatment chains will be tested in the planned pilot experiments and integration of processes.

Further activities related to micropollutants include the identification of products formed during oxidation of natural organic matter (NOM) (e.g. AOC) and by-product formation during oxidation processes.