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.

Contact persons

• Christa McArdell
• Alfredo Alder
• Juliane Hollender
  
  

Projects

• Identification of organic micro pollutants in selected samples of the national ground water monitoring network NAQUA
• Input and Elimination of Pharmaceuticals from Hospital Wastewater
• MicroPoll
• REXPO Realistic Exposition szenarios of surface waters
• Influence of railways on the occurrence of glyphosate in surface waters
  
• Integrated River Water Quality Management (iWaQa)
• Xenobiotic Input to the Prut River (XENOPRUT)
  
  

Closed projects

• Reclaim Water: Water reclamation technologies for safe artificial groundwater recharge
  
• AQUAbase: Occurrence and fate of cytostatics in the sewage treatment
  
• Benzotriazols in the Aquatic Environment
• Phencon: Phenolic substances with estrogenic disruptor potential as contaminants in the aquatic environment
• Fate of human use antibiotics in the aquatic environment
• ERAPharm: Environmental Risk Assessment of Pharmaceuticals