SIDWater - Sustainable innovative drinking water treatment solutions
Short description
SIDWater is devoted to ensuring the sustainability of municipal drinking water supplies and reuse by developing new innovative treatment processes for removing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), dissolved organic matter (DOM) and other emerging contaminants. To ensure healthy drinking water, the Swedish Food Agency (SLV) decided on a new limit of PFAS allowed in the released municipal drinking water. Over 2 million Swedish consumers receive water exceeding the proposed limits. There is an urgent need to develop sustainable innovative drinking water treatment solutions for large-scale water supply and reuse.
More about the project
SIDWater aims to ensure the sustainability of municipal drinking water supplies by developing new innovative treatment processes and removing PFAS to stop the perpetual cycle of “treat and release” of contaminants back into the aquatic environment.
The research is essential for Swedish drinking water safety as currently applied water treatment technologies are inefficient for the removal of PFAS from drinking water. Thus, this project will build on long-term research collaborations and strategic partnerships between the research partners and stakeholders to secure safe drinking water.
Objectives
- Evaluate and develop alternative innovative pretreatment processes including toxic drivers to remove PFAS, DOM and other emerging contaminants from surface water prior to artificial infiltration into groundwater and/or drinking water production
- Optimise innovative treatment trains based on membrane processes to remove PFAS and other contaminants to meet new drinking water regulations
- Develop alternative treatment methods to treat contaminated process water to remove toxic drivers for safe water release or reuse
- Evaluate the sustainability of the developed solutions using environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC)
- Disseminate results to the water industry, government regulator and drinking water supplier stakeholders
