Is it potential to safely employ treated wastewater ( effluent ) from sewage treatment plants ( WWTPs ) as irrigation piss in agriculture and horticulture ? A chemical group of weewee boards , cognition institution , and companies , contribute by Wageningen University & Research , have launched a field to look into how this can work in practice .
Last summer , it became painfully clear once again that drouth and water shortages for factory farm and horticulture can conduct to major equipment casualty to crop . specially in Zeeland and Brabant , the urgency of this job has been strongly feel in late year . A numeral of local and national parties led by Wageningen University & Research have link up forcefulness and are collectively searching for alternative source of water for irrigation . One obvious seed is deal wastewater , effluent , from sewage intervention . However , this water is not clean enough because of the micropollutants present , a collective name for drug residues , plant protection production , and other tenacious chemical substance . Within the EffluentFit4Food project , a direction is now being developed to analyze the water quickly and inexpensively and , if necessary , post - handle and purify it in a way that is safe , low-cost , sustainable , and scalable .
extra purification and testing on growing cropFor this inquiry , a pilot installation with purification equipment has been put at the Scheldestromen Water Board ’s sewage treatment plant in Ritthem that now shows a working system as the water could be purified . In the coming calendar month , further examination will be done on this to see if everything is working properly . The technology used , MicroForce++ , is based on a combining of degradation by ozone ( Oxidation Process ) and natural processes . The pilot installation was instal by PureBlue , a company from Kapellebrug that germinate innovative systems to sublimate water .
In another part of the project , this post - cleaned wastewater will be used as irrigation piss to grow various craw such as potatoes , onions , and pears , and these crop will be examine after harvest for the bearing of micropollutants and nutrient safety . The results will be annunciate later this year . This research should show whether post - cleaning , for instance , with the system install at the sewerage handling industrial plant in Ritthem , is appropriate for the contamination found in the crop .
Legislation and regulation from the EUThe European Union recently published a directive : minimum requirement for water reuse . It is now up to national government to put through these road map in laws and regulations . So it will be permitted to use the effluent , but condom has not yet been by rights investigate and guaranteed . projection leader Wilfred Appelman : " specially in the country of micropollutants , I have fear about their impact on intellectual nourishment safety . So far , this has actually not been sufficiently researched in the Dutch situation . In Israel , this has been study , and sometimes a agent 1000 concentration addition of these substance in food has been regain . "
Project partners EffluentFit4FoodThe follow cognition mental hospital , water board , agricultural interest chemical group , applied science suppliers , and governing are contributing to this research :
Wageningen Food & Biobased Research , Wageningen Plant Research , Wageningen Food Safety Research , HZ University of Applied Sciences , HAN Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen , waterschap Scheldestromen , Waterschap Brabantse Delta , Nederlandse Fruittelers Organisatie NFO , PureBlue B.V. , microLAN B.V. , Pharem Biotech AB , Provincie Zeeland , Provincie Noord - Brabant en de Topsectoren Agri & Food , Tuinbouw & Uitgangsmaterialen en Water & Maritiem .
For more entropy : Wageningen University & Researchwww.wur.nl
