SpurO
SpurO - Optimization of micropollutant removal from a water body perspective
Project duration: 01/2024 - 12/2025
Project work by:
Funded by:
Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy and Mobility Rhineland-Palatinate
Project Description:
Municipal wastewater treatment plants and combined sewer overflows discharge micropollutants such as pharmaceutical residues, food additives and industrial chemicals into water bodies. Some of the micropollutants are readily biodegradable and are already sufficiently eliminated in conventional municipal wastewater treatment plants. However, these substances can enter water bodies via combined sewer overflows, meaning that even readily biodegradable trace substances such as ibuprofen or caffeine represent a burden for water bodies (Launay et al. 2013).
The legislative proposal of the EU Urban Wastewater Directive stipulates that municipal wastewater treatment plants should be expanded with an additional treatment stage for the targeted elimination of micropollutants by 2040, depending on their size and risk to humans and the environment (EU Commission 2022). The expansion of wastewater treatment plants is particularly relevant for the short-term improvement of water quality.
The aim of the project is to develop a simple process for the elimination of trace substances by means of a parallel connection of near-natural (constructed wetland) and technical (granulated activated carbon filter) processes, which can be applied in particular to small wastewater treatment plants. In Rhineland-Palatinate there are 104 wastewater treatment plants between 10,000 and 30,000 E out of a total of 596. In Saarland there are 16 plants, which corresponds to just under half of the Saarland wastewater treatment plants with a capacity of over 10,000 E.
To this end, a pilot plant is being operated at the Landstuhl wastewater treatment plant, which was developed and operated for the first time as part of the INTERREG GR project CoMinGreat. This includes four lines with four constructed wetlands, three GAC columns and an ozonation system with three GAC columns.