Urban Settlement

The department for environmental chemistry is focusing on the input and fate of organic substances which reach the environment from diffuse or point sources in urban wastewater. The exposure of organic micropollutants in natural waters (surface and ground water) as well as in technical systems (wastewater, drinking water, sewage) is investigated and process oriented field studies are performed.

Of special interest are wastewater treatment plants and water reclamation technologies for safe artificial groundwater recharge where elimination processes are elucidate in mass flux studies. Other point sources like industry or hospitals are also investigated. The aim is to understand the input paths of anthropogenic pollutants from technical systems and to suggest in close collaboration with engineers new technologies and strategies for better elimination of the pollutants in wastewater treatment.

Target compounds are:

• Human use pharmaceuticals like antibiotics, β-Blockers and cytostatics
• substances with endocrine disrupting effects (nonylphenols, Bisphenol A)
• biocides, ingredients of personal care products
• corrosion inhibitors (benzotriazoles)
• disinfection by-products (nitrosamines)

Innovative methods in trace organic analysis are used for these studies.

Projects

• DEMEAU [...]
  
• Input and Elimination of Pharmaceuticals from Hospital Wastewater [...]
  
• MicroPoll [...]
• Integrated River Water Quality Management (iWaQa) [...]
  
• Xenobiotic Input to the Prut River (XENOPRUT) [...]

Closed projects

• Influence of railways on the occurrence of glyphosate in surface waters [...]
• Identification of organic micro pollutants in selected samples of the national ground water monitoring network NAQUA [...]
• Reclaim Water: Water reclamation technologies for safe artificial groundwater recharge [...]
• Fate of human use pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment [...]
• ERAPharm: Environmental Risk Assessment of Pharmaceuticals [...]
• REXPO Realistic Exposition szenarios of surface waters [...]

Publications

Krauss, M., P. Longree, E. Van Houtte, J. Cauwenberghs, J. Hollender. 2010. Assessing the fate of nitrosamine precursors in wastewater treatment by physico-chemical fractionation. Environ. Sci. Technol. 44:7871–7877.

Zimmermann S. G., M. Wittenwiler, J. Hollender, M. Krauss,C. Ort, H. Siegrist, U. von Gunten. 2011. Kinetic assessment and modeling of an ozonation step for full-scale municipal wastewater treatment: micropollutant oxidation, by-product formation and disinfection. Wat. Res. 45: 605-617.

Götz, C. W. C. Stamm, K. Fenner, H. Singer, M. Schärer, J. Hollender. 2010. Targeting aquatic micropollutants for monitoring: exposure categorization and application to the Swiss situation, Environ. Sci. Pol. Res. 17: 341-354.