INNOWATECH

Innovative and Integrated Technologies for the Treatment of Industrial Wastewater.

The main objective of the specifically targeted research project INNOWATECH was to develop and assess the potential of advanced technologies to treat industrial wastewaters with the aim to provide industries with specifically designed treatment systems for their wastewaters. The approach was to integrate the developed technologies to treatment systems, which were then assessed with regard to their efficiency, environmental impact and economy.

The project comprised the following workpackages:
1. Aerobic granular sludge systems.
2. Advanced oxidation processes combined with biological treatment in membrane bioreactors or in reactors with immobilised biomass.
3. Membrane extraction processes and photocatalytic membrane reactors.
4. Assessment of treatment systems with LCA methodology in order to quantify the performance of the new treatment technologies compared to existing technologies and in order to compare avoided environmental impacts to induced impacts from the operation of the treatment systems.

The project was coordinated by CNR-IRSA (National Research Council- Water Research Institute) in Bari, Italy. Institutes and companies from Germany, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Australia participated. IVL led workpackage 4.

The project was financed by the 6th Framework Programme of the European Commission. It ended on March 31, 2010. The results have so far been disseminated in about twenty publications and at least one thesis. From the results it can, among other things, be concluded that advanced oxidation processes + biology may be an environmentally efficient method to remove low concentrations of ecotoxic compounds from wastewaters.

Updated: 2011-03-29