Among nutrients, phosphorous, organic material and other micropollutants, the wastewaters in Uppsala, Sweden, contain microscopic but resilient pharmaceutical residues. What are the most cost-effective ways to clean these residues and prevent them from further harming our environment?
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00:00 Among nutrients, phosphorus, organic material and other micro pollutants, these waste waters
00:06 in Uppsala, Sweden, contain microscopic but resilient pharmaceutical residues.
00:12 An ongoing pilot trial at this water treatment plant is assessing the best innovative techniques
00:18 to remove up to 80% of pharma residues and micro pollutants.
00:23 The engineer coordinating the project explains what they've learned so far.
00:27 We started off with a pre-study looking at different technologies to improve the removal
00:32 of pharmaceuticals and micro pollutants from the waste water.
00:36 Some of them are removed already today in the treatment plant, but some are more difficult
00:42 to degrade and are not removed, so we have decided that we want to install a new treatment
00:46 step.
00:47 And the technologies evaluated in the pre-study was activated carbon, which is an absorptive
00:53 technology where the residuals are attached to the carbon.
00:58 We also looked into ozonation, which is a process where you degrade by ozonation.
01:05 But since ozonation does not degrade PFAS, we decided not to continue with ozonation.
01:11 However, we found a new technology not used in the waste water application, but in the
01:16 drinking water application, and that's the ion exchange, which is also an absorptive
01:21 technology, but which absorbs negatively charged ions.
01:26 So now we look into the combination of activated carbon and ion exchange.
01:31 [Music]