PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
There is evidence that pharmaceuticals, viruses, antibiotic-resistant bacteria and resistance genes (ARB & ARGs), and biological and chemical contaminants of emerging concern (CEC) in general, accumulate in the aquatic environment, soil and crops, posing threats to human health and the environment.
These substances are primarily found in wastewater. However, wastewater reuse is a necessity in various Member States or regions. In line with the Circular Economy principles, wastewater reuse is further stipulated with the new EU regulation on minimum requirements for water reuse, which has been in force since June 2023.
Existing central wastewater treatment facilities (CWTF), including those using membrane-based technologies, can remove some of the CEC with varying efficacy. The potential solutions for removing CEC from final treated effluent can apply either as a) additional treatment stages in a CWTF, or b) with on-site treatment in places such as health service providing units (e.g., hospitals). Upgrading CWTF would require additional investment, increased operating costs, additional energy use, and other impacts such as an increased production of sludge.
The on-site treatment of the raw hospital wastewater is a promising answer, with several technologies having already been tested at a laboratory scale and a few having reached a demonstration scale. This option is not free of problems or limitations, and again, the overall “efficiency” (economic and environmental) is the main challenge.
The HIPPOCRATES project builds on the DIANYA project (2019-2022) funded by the General Secretary for Research and Technology of Greece, during which on-site application of a combination of four technologies was applied, achieving the overall reduction of CEC in the final hospital effluents by more than 85%. The HIPPOCRATES project will have a larger scale (moving from pilot to demonstration), and include additional features compatible with a large-scale application, aiming to improve the overall performance of the system.
OBJECTIVES
The HIPPOCRATES project aims to demonstrate that an on-site removal of Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CEC) related to medical treatments can secure the safe and efficient disposal or reuse of recovered water, economically and environmentally.
HIPPOCRATES will treat hospital wastewater with a novel combination of biological, physical and chemical processes implemented in parallel with energy recovery systems aiming to reduce the cost and carbon footprint of the system.
Specifically, the project aims to:
Determine the optimum operating conditions of the innovative, combined eco-technologies, moving from the successful pilot scale (1.0 m3 / day) to a large demonstration scale (i.e., 40 m3 / day or 85% of the hospital wastewater produced) in real-life conditions and all year-round continuous operation in two hospitals in Crete and Luxembourg.
Determine the overall effect that the HIPPOCRATES technologies have on the quality of CWTF effluents regarding the presence of pharmaceuticals and ARB & ARGs if developed at full scale.
Determine the eco-toxicity risk through a thorough field study of soils and crops in Cyprus, where wastewater reuse has been applied for more than 30 years.
Improve the environmental as well as economic footprint of the HIPPOCRATES technology, utilising the produced biogas and solar energy for its energy needs.
Explore the potential for replication and transferability of the system to other sectors releasing CEC of a similar nature, as well as to other geographical areas.
Develop a size and cost estimation web-based model for the solution, including a performance estimation model.
Conduct Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA), to compare the performance of the two project pilots with other on-site wastewater treatment technologies.
Raise awareness of the risk and need to remove pharmaceutical CEC from wastewater.
RESULTS
The project’s expected results are:
Two successful demonstration units, utilising biogas energy recovery and RES (solar energy) implemented in the two cooperating hospitals.
The demonstration units will operate for 24 months under real-life conditions. An operation manual will be produced with a detailed set of data and guidance for dealing with changing circumstances, as well as a set of final designs for replication and cost estimations.
The two demonstration plants will treat 56,000 m3 of wastewater, i.e., 40 m3 / day produced from both hospitals, removing more than 28 Kg of CEC, based on average removal ratios of different CEC studied in the previous DIANYA project.
The CEC loading in the urban wastewaters will be estimated using the MESDA system to assess the potential contamination based on medicine sales in an area. The MESDA system will be tested with field data, aiming for a stand-alone commercial product, allowing relevant authorities to estimate the CEC loads in their area.
Economic and environmental evaluation of the process and the suggested technology will be carried out, and compared with other alternative options.
Upscaling of the system will be achieved to serve the two hospitals, starting from 80% and 20% of their wastewater for Crete and Luxemburg, respectively.
The project will demonstrate the environmental need to apply on site (hospital) treatment of wastewater for CEC, prior to their discharge to CWTF.
The project will demonstrate the business opportunity to the wastewater and healthcare industry, targeting 25% and 2% of the Greek and EU market size, respectively.
