European water bodies such as rivers, lakes and groundwater that are used as
drinking water resources have become contaminated with a wide range of organic micro pollutants. As a result of this, drinking water production companies need to invest in remediation technologies in order to be able to keep delivering safe drinking water. Bioclear has participated in the European project Biotreat in which two novel sustainable and reliable bioremediation technologies for treating contaminated drinking water resources have been developed based on biological degradation of the contaminant:
– Bio augmentation (addition of specific pollutant degrading bacteria) and
– Bio augmentation combined with carriers (bacteria incorporated in alginate which covers clay pebbles)
Compared to traditional physicochemical technologies, biological technologies have the advantage that:
– Natural resources are used (normal expanded clay, alginate, bacteria)
– No harmful chemicals are used, use of contaminated groundwater for drinking water production is made possible which otherwise might remain unused.
– The application is low cost compared to traditional physicochemical technologies.
– The technology is plug and play. No additional infrastructure is needed at the waterworks.
– Compound specific removal is possible.
These techniques are especially financially interesting for small scale production facilities (< 1 million m3 per year) that have no option for well relocation within 3,5 km distance of the original well. Based on a production facility of 800.000 m3 per year the additional operating costs for these technologies, bio augmentation and bio augmentation combined with carriers, are € 0.20 and € 0.11 respectively.
For more information please contact Marlea Wagelmans
