Sixth framework programme

Potential Impact

One outcome of the EUROMBRA project is the development of new advances in membrane bioreactor technologies for treating municipal wastewater. The various treatment process concepts and plant designs investigated will provide optional approaches and strategies enabling high quality of treated wastewater with potential reuse as an integrated solution to urban water management as well as management of scarce water resources. The technological development of the proposed MBR processes will also enable the implementation of wastewater reuse policies targeted for specific wastewater sources (municipal, industrial, agricultural) providing feasible and sustainable implementation of mitigation technologies.
The EUROMBRA consortium brings together some of the most competent and active research groups in Europe on membrane processes applied to wastewater treatment. The partners contribute with complementary competence and together with their experiences form a powerful resource for the development and implementation of new technologies for advanced wastewater treatment. The partners included in this proposal represent countries that are situated in south, west, central/east and north Europe and therefore represent the diversity of European conditions regarding location and climate (north/south, east/west), including areas with a high pressure on water demands, and the applicability of the processes for all conditions. This ensures that the technology resulting from this project will be valid throughout Europe. In addition, the consortium includes partners from Australia and South Africa which adds a global perspective to the project outcomes. Inclusion of these partners also ensures that the technical solutions found can be applied to other regions of the world, and developing countries in particular.
The results of the EUROMBRA activities will improve the knowledge of advanced wastewater treatment by membrane bioreactors by integrating fundamental research and implementation of the new technology as options for mitigation technologies within water resource management. The collaborative research of the partners will establish and strengthen Europe as a leading arena in the development of membrane processes in wastewater treatment. The knowledge gathered through the cooperation also represents a potential basis for initiation of small companies, or agreements with existing entities, for the commercialization of new technologies, strengthening the potential for new European industry becoming part of a rapidly increasing market. Involvement of some end-users and SMEs will secure the relevance of activities and ensure transfer of knowledge in all directions.
The EU Commission has made water protection one of the priorities of its work where an underlying goal of the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/CE (WFD) is “A new European Water Policy will have to get polluted waters clean again, and ensure clean waters are kept clean”. Article 16 of the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC) has set out a "Strategy against pollution of water" in which the establishment of a list of priority substances has been identified and defined which are of particular concern for the freshwater, coastal and marine environment. The removal of these substances is not achieved in conventional wastewater treatment plants and alternative strategies need to be employed to reach these objectives; emission control and phasing out of substances, developing advanced treatment technologies that will remove the substance. The MBR technology to be developed and tested in this project proposal has the potential to provide a way to remove and convert biologically hazardous substances to non-harmful compounds. Under given conditions, membrane bioreactors are able to deal with specific resilient pollutants; we are dealing with the advancement of technology that potentially offers degradation of hazardous substances in comparison with others essentially only able to deal with COD and N reduction. The development of these process solutions therefore represents a major contribution to mitigation technologies suitable for targeting specific wastewater constituents producing an effluent quality where reduction of these compounds to extremely low levels is essential to water reuse.
Dissemination of the results and knowledge gained in this project will be made available to the European and international community through scientific reports, publications in referred journals and presentations at national and international conferences. The consortium partners will upon the completion of the project host and arrange an international specialty workshop on the topic of advanced treatment of municipal wastewater using membrane processes to present the major findings from the project.

1.1Contributions to standards and policy developments

EUROMBRA is designed to meet the demands in European policies as stated in the European Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC. The protection of inland surface water and ground water is an overall goal of the directive and two of the major objectives are;

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  To “protect, enhance and restore all bodies of surface water" (article 4),
  
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  To "adopt specific measures against pollution of water by individual pollutants or groups of pollutants presenting a significant risk to the aquatic environment" (article 16)
  

Another objective is to promote sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources and to mitigate the effects of drought. Wastewater reuse is one tool and approach to reduce the water demand on a limited resource. This project may be used for further European standardization or technical recommendations in the areas of suitable technologies for wastewater treatment and reuse, similar to the California Administrative Code, Title 22 (1993), and approaches to solving problems related to the priority substance list.

The most specific impact of the technology with regards to meeting existing EU legislation, however, relates to the EU Bathing Water Directive. This directive, originally promulgated in 1976 and revised in 2002, stipulated that such waters should meet stringent microbiological guide values of 500/100ml total coliforms, and 100/100ml faecal coliforms and faecal streptococci. MBR is a key candidate process for meeting these challenging limits.