A green remediation route to healthier waters
Aquaculture, one of the fastest growing food-producing industries, depends heavily on water availability and quality. As only 37 % of Europe’s surface waters(opens in new window) meet environmental requirements, water pollution represents an increasing challenge. The EU-funded SusWater(opens in new window) project brought together a consortium of nine partners from three continents to develop tools to monitor and treat polluted water, with emphasis on supplying safe water for aquaculture use. The partners’ expertise, ranging from analytical and environmental chemistry to materials science, biology, toxicology and industrial implementation, was key in the project’s success, allowing to jointly develop complete water treatment strategies rather than isolated technologies.
A multi-component approach
To remove contaminants of emerging concern and potentially toxic elements from waters, SusWater developed sustainable materials obtained from renewable and waste-derived resources. These included functionalised adsorbents based on cellulose, chitosan, starch and gelatine, and fungi isolated from wastewater streams. “We combined these with advanced photocatalytic materials and membrane technologies, linking photocatalysis, adsorption and biological processes,” says Paola Calza, professor at the University of Turin who served as project coordinator. New photocatalysts included graphitic carbon nitride for contaminants degradation; the project also produced hydrogen peroxide in situ to drive advanced oxidation processes and used multifunctional photocatalytic membranes for water purification. SusWater also developed and applied an analytical workflow for monitoring key known contaminants during treatment and unravelling the presence of a broader and unknown fraction of microcontaminants in a wide range of water streams, paving the way for cross-regional and cross-regulatory assessments. Project work also led to engineering and patenting portable electrochemical sensors to monitor trace metals and pharmaceuticals in situ, offering a low-cost alternative for environmental monitoring and water quality assessment. The SusWater technologies were successfully tested using waters collected in Denmark, Italy, Japan, Spain and Thailand.
A lasting legacy
The impacts of SusWater extend way beyond its lifetime. “Several research lines initiated within the project are now being further developed, transferring the application of advanced materials, analytical methodologies and sustainable water-treatment technologies to new contaminants, environmental scenarios and industrial contexts,” Calza points out. SusWater has also partnered with institutions across Europe, Asia and South America, and it generated follow-up project proposals, industrial collaborations and entrepreneurial initiatives. A notable example is Penso Green(opens in new window), a spin-off company that develops sustainable zero-liquid-discharge solutions for industrial water reuse. Beyond scientific excellence and technological innovation, the consortium invested heavily in communication, education and public engagement. Activities such as workshops, stakeholder meetings, science festivals, Researchers’ Night events and international training schools helped engage researchers, students, policymakers, industry representatives and citizens at large. The project also experimented with accessible communication formats. One example is a comic book titled ‘A SusWater story’(opens in new window), which relates aspects of project work in a simple-to-understand way. “These initiatives demonstrated that complex scientific concepts can be communicated in engaging ways without compromising scientific accuracy,” says Calza. Looking to the future, the SusWater technologies can be applied to other sectors where emerging contaminants represent an increasing challenge, for example the pharmaceutical industry, food production and chemical manufacturing. The scientific knowledge generated can also support implementation of the revised EU Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive(opens in new window), which introduces more ambitious requirements for the removal of micropollutants from urban wastewater. “Ultimately, the project’s impact extends beyond technology development, contributing not only to future water treatment solutions but also to raising awareness among stakeholders and supporting evidence-based decision-making in environmental management,” Calza concludes.
