Wastewater

Optimise and overcome new challenges

The wastewater infrastructure in Switzerland is worth 125 billion Swiss francs. Nine hundred treatment plants clean the country’s wastewater around the clock. Part of the work of Eawag is to examine how this success story can be continuously optimised and tailored to suit the particular conditions in other countries, as well as to look at how to overcome new challenges

News

September 14, 2023

September 14, 2023At today's Eawag Info Day, the Aquatic Research Institute outlined the steps that need to be taken to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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September 7, 2023

September 7, 2023Timely analyses of the bacterial community in wastewater treatment plants enables changes to be detected and remedied before cleaning performance suffers.

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Scientific publications

Reynaert, E.; Steiner, P.; Yu, Q.; D'Olif, L.; Joller, N.; Schneider, M. Y.; Morgenroth, E. (2023) Predicting microbial water quality in on-site water reuse systems with online sensors, Water Research, 240, 120075 (13 pp.), doi:10.1016/j.watres.2023.120075, Institutional Repository
Markale, I.; Carrel, M.; Kurz, D. L.; Morales, V. L.; Holzner, M.; Jiménez-Martínez, J. (2023) Internal biofilm heterogeneities enhance solute mixing and chemical reactions in porous media, Environmental Science and Technology, 57(21), 8065-8074, doi:10.1021/acs.est.2c09082, Institutional Repository
Larivé, O.; Torii, S.; Derlon, N.; Kohn, T. (2023) Selective elimination of enterovirus genotypes by activated sludge and chlorination, Environmental Science: Water Research and Technology, 9(6), 1620-1633, doi:10.1039/d3ew00050h, Institutional Repository
To the library

Selected research projects and focus areas

The aim of CWIS research is to develop a method that synthesizes existing information about the sanitation landscapes of cities in India and that presents comprehensive sanitation solutions.
Smart monitoring, data sharing and offering transnational access to lab and field facilities to the European Urban Drainage community.
Analysis of human excretion products in wastewater as additional, independent indicators for the assessment of epidemiological information
Communities across the world face water supply challenges due to increasing demand, drought, groundwater depletion and contamination, dependence on single sources of supply, and ageing infrastructure
Eawag has a long history of developing innovative processes for separating wastewater at source. These technologies include one whereby urine is separated out using the NoMix Toilet.
Greenhouse gas emissions from wastewater treatment
Application of Wastewater-based Epidemiology to SARS-CoV-2 Detection
The Urban Water Observatory (UWO) is a long-term (5-year) initiative of ETH and Eawag to establish a sensor network in Fehraltorf...
Solid-Liquid Separation of Faecal Sludge: Understanding Governing Mechanisms for Improved Global Sanitation
NEST building
Sustainable urban water and wastewater management applied and implemented in the modular NEST building.
An inter- and transdisciplinary strategic research program that strives to develop novel non-gridconnected water and sani- tation systems that can function as comparable alternatives to network-based systems.

Experts

Dr. Christian Binz
  • decentralized systems
  • innovation
  • global change
  • sustainable transitions
  • urban water management
Marc Böhler
  • wastewater treatment
  • activated carbon
  • micropollutants
  • ozonation
  • trace substance elimination
Dr. Helmut Bürgmann
  • antibiotic resistance
  • bacterioplankton
  • Microbiology
  • nutrients
  • surface water
Dr. Nicolas Derlon
  • wastewater
  • wastewater treatment
  • wastewater treatment plant
Prof. Dr. Juliane Hollender
  • Computational methods
  • biological degradation
  • bioaccumulation
  • groundwater
  • mass spectrometry
Dr. Adriano Joss
  • wastewater
  • micropollutants
  • ozonation
Prof. Dr. Tove Larsen
  • NoMix
  • urine separation
Dr. Joao Paulo Leitao
  • GIS
  • urban planning
  • modeling
  • Risk assessment
  • urban water management
PD Dr. Judit Lienert
  • decision analysis
  • public acceptability
  • sustainable water management
  • stakeholder participation
  • transdisciplinary research
Prof. Dr. Max Maurer
  • wastewater
  • decentralized technologies
  • sustainable water management
  • urban sanitation
  • urban water management
  • urine separation
Dr. Christa McArdell
  • activated carbon
  • wastewater treatment
  • mass fluxes
  • micropollutants
  • ozonation
Prof. Dr. Eberhard Morgenroth
  • wastewater
  • decentralized technologies
  • nutrients
  • urban water management
  • urban planning
  • urine separation
Dr. Lena Mutzner
  • modeling
  • water quality
  • micropollutants
  • monitoring
  • sustainable water management
Dr. Christoph Ort
  • wastewater
  • wastewater-based epidemiology
  • micropollutants
  • modeling
  • monitoring
Dr. Jörg Rieckermann
  • wastewater
  • modeling
  • urban water management
  • transdisciplinary research
Prof. Dr. Kai Udert
  • wastewater separation
  • decentralized technologies
  • nutrients
  • urine separation
  • resource recovery

Cover picture: At the Zurich Werdhölzli plant, Eawag researchers Christoph Ort, Pravin Ganesanandamoorthy und Anina Kull collect samples  which will be tested in the laboratory for SARS-CoV-2. (Photo: Esther Michel)