Clean water technology

Safe drinking-water, consumer confi dence and cost-control and reduction are the primary concerns of the Dutch water companies. There was a time when simple purifi cation was enough but these days more advanced technologies are needed. Medicines, (organic) micropollutants are becoming steadily more common in our water resources. New concepts, and improvements in existing purifi cation technology, form the basis of this theme.
The emphasis within the theme is on guaranteeing good (drinking) water quality for the future, which will require innovative research. New developments in membrane technology and oxidation techniques will be necessary in the future. Fundamental research leading to new concepts will solve the limitations of existing technology and increase the chances of fi nding new applications. Nanofi ltration and reverse osmosis offer the possibility of removing almost all pathogens and micropollutants, even organic ones.
These technologies will of course have their own limitations, such as the pollution problem and the concentrate problem, which have to be solved.Possible solutions for the disinfection and removal of micropollutants are the oxidation techniques, such as ozone, UV and combinations of oxidation techniques. De development of new concepts must lead to reactor optimisation, increasing effectiveness, reducing costs and (most importantly) preventing the production of unwanted material (e.g.: bromate).

The continual development of computers and software offer more and more insight into the hydrodynamic conditions within these systems, allowing yet more new and innovative research. On the one hand, work within this theme will be carried out from the perspective of the real limitations of existing technologies, on the other hand we will be looking for solutions to specifi c problems of water quality, such as biological stability. These different approaches give us the opportunity to develop useful concepts related to drinkingwater production and to other applications.