In the face of declining groundwater levels and increasingly prolonged droughts, effective water treatment processes for water reuse are becoming ever more important across a wide range of industrial sectors. The BayWater project aims to examine the generation of wastewater in a production-specific manner and to establish customized, energy-efficient, and resource-conserving technologies for process water recycling. 

Sub-project C of the BayWater project network focuses on optimizing and applying a UV-activated, persulfate-based advanced oxidation process (AOP) to prevent biofouling in filtration units. The UV-based oxidation process will be optimized and its efficiency in reducing micropollutants and pathogens will be analytically characterized. Regarding the EU’s targeted premise (EU Action Plan “Zero Pollution”) of eliminating as many micropollutants and pathogens as possible, wastewater treatment processes must be optimized and analytically evaluated, targeting at more than 80% reduction of micropollutants.

To achieve this, we will employ and evaluate a range of rapid analytical methods for detecting micropollutants and pathogens, including immunoassay microarrays, flow cytometric cell counting, and cartridge-based qPCR. These methods will be used for analyzing the degradation of micropollutants and the inactivation of bacteria during the AOP to determine the reduction efficiencies. In addition, they have the potential to serve as rapid, on-site analytical tools for monitoring and controlling industrial wastewater treatment processes.

Funding                                   Cooperation
TFoStG                                     Polymer Optical Fiber Application Center (POF-AC), TU Nürnberg
                                                  Endress & Hauser Conducta GmbH & Co KG
                                                  MTU Aero Engines AG