Micropollutants in the aquatic enviroment

MIKROLIGHT

Strengthening municipal sewage plants with UV radiation processes

This project consists in removing germs and micropollutants from the effluent of municipal sewage plants with UV radiation. UV radiation is commonly used to disinfect water. By combining it with other oxidation processes, micropollutants can be removed.These combined processes are called advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). During this project the following AOPs will be investigated by laboratory experiments:

• ozonation and UV radiation
• hydrogen peroxide and UV radiation
• ozonation and hydrogen peroxide
• titanium dioxide and UV radiation

Main goals of these experiments are the evaluation of their performances and their suitability for daily use. Moreover their cost effectiveness will be reviewed. Further experiments with short wave UV radiation (<200 nm) will be conducted. This process presents a new and innovative way to eliminate micropollutants. The project is divided into two phases. During the first one, laboratory experiments are conducted to ascertain if the processes are able to eliminate micropollutants. The second one consists in constructing a pilot plant at the wastewater treatment plant in Essen-Süd to investigate AOPs with UV, ozone and hydrogen peroxide at a larger scale. As the sewage plant Essen-Süd discharges water into a swimming lake the elimination of micropollutants and germs from its inflowing water is of particular importance.