PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Urban wastewater treatment faces multiple serious challenges. The improved management and control of the increasing number of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), including emerging microbial contaminants (antimicrobial resistance-AMR), in urban wastewater treatment will be required in the near future, after the revision of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD). Moreover, climate change is intensifying droughts and water scarcity in several European countries, particularly Portugal, with more and longer periods being expected during which treated wastewater (urban and industrial) constitutes a substantial percentage of total river flow.
However, the wastewater utilities are struggling with the substantial cost increases in energy and reagents for wastewater treatment. It is therefore important to prepare cost-effective measures for enhancing CEC control in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and protect the aquatic environment, water resources and human health against these contaminants.
These challenges call for multipurpose, integrated tools able to support water utilities (and indirectly, environmental agencies, regulators and policy makers) in planning and implementing environmentally and economically feasible strategies for wastewater treatment adjustment towards water quality-based limits.
This project builds on and up-scales the results of LIFE IMPETUS (LIFE14-ENV/PT/000739).
OBJECTIVES
The main objective of the LIFE Fitting project is to demonstrate at full-scale the application of a novel solution (PLAN-DO toolbox) for smart discharge-driven operation, monitoring and strategic planning of WWTPs to better cope with climate uncertainty and treated water quality challenges.
The project outputs will support water utilities in the selection and prioritisation of strategies and investments in the short, medium and long term towards an enhanced integrated control of regulated contaminants (organic matter, nutrients), pharmaceuticals and antimicrobial resistance, and - where/when direct or indirect reuse is envisaged - pathogen indicators (E. coli as bacteria indicators, coliphages as virus indicators and Clostridium perfringens spores as protozoa indicators). LIFE Fitting will target over 50 pharmaceutical compounds and pathogens, namely E. coli, F-specific coliphages, and antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and genes (ARGs).
The PLAN-DO toolbox is based on four pillars, integrating five tools:
Monitoring WWTP & receiving water body – MonitorTool;
Performance assessment & Forecasting– PASTool and CEC ForecasTool;
WWTP impact on receiving water quality & uses – Smart Discharge Tool; (these three pillars constitute the “DO” component) and
Strategic planning (the “PLAN” component) – PlanTool.
The toolbox will support the development of strategies balancing resource-efficient wastewater treatment with a safer and fit-for-purpose treatment, adjustable to the receiving water uses and quality requirements towards regulated and emerging contaminants, namely, pharmaceutical compounds (PhCs), antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB), and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs).
The proposed solution will be developed and demonstrated in three full-scale WWTPs in the north of Portugal, with strong textile and hospital inputs and which discharge into the Selho, Ave or Vizela rivers, with long periods of weak dilution.
The toolbox is mainly adapted for water utilities but may also support the activities of environmental protection agencies, water regulators and policy makers.
RESULTS
The expected project results are:
A new tool to forecast pharmaceutical compounds control in urban activated sludge WWTPs;
A new tool for a wise monitoring based on bulk parameters, antimicrobial resistance biomarkers and key contaminants of emerging concern;
A new tool to establish water quality-based effluent discharge limits, based on the available dilution ratio and WWTP performance;
A portfolio of resource-efficient operational measures and strategies for improving the performance of activated-sludge systems and tertiary ozonation for advanced treatment/disinfection, validated at full-scale, e.g., by benchmarking full-scale treatment lines of activated sludge processes;
A new strategic plan tool;
A guide of best practices on the proposed solutions.
The environmental impacts of the project are mainly linked to reduced pollutant discharge in the effluents, increased water quality for potential reuse, and reduced energy and resource consumption. Each pilot WWTPs has a treatment capacity of >10,000 m3/d and faces different urban and industrial inputs in the wastewater stream. Some expected results (baseline/at the end) are:
Discharge fee reduction (EUR/year): from 263,040 to 248,084.
Energy consumed (GWh/year): from 13.4 to 11.0.
Chemicals consumed (tonnes/year): from 273.5 to 219.3.
GHG emissions (tonnes of CO2 eq. /year): from 16,433 to 15,722.
