Department Environmental Chemistry

Contaminants in wastewater treatment

Micropollutants from urban sources (e.g. pharmaceuticals, personal care products, industrial chemicals) enter the aquatic environment via municipal wastewater. We are investigating their mass fluxes from the usage, their behavior during wastewater treatment and their environmental fate in the water cycle. We are mainly interested in the wastewater treatment processes and in strategies, how to remove these organic micropollutants in conventional and advanced treatment with ozone and activated carbon.

Contact

Dr. Christa McArdell Senior scientist / group leader Tel. +41 58 765 5483 Send Mail

Publications

Team members

Eva-Maria Braxmaier Tel. +41 58 765 6695 Send Mail
Fionn Carl Research collaborator Tel. Send Mail
Dr. Steven Chow Postdoctoral Scientist Tel. +41 58 765 5665 Send Mail
Andreas Maccagnan Technician Tel. +41 58 765 5978 Send Mail

Current projects

Separate collection and treatment of urine has been developed as an approach for preventing eutrophication, producing a valuable fertilizer and promoting sanitation in areas where no sewer-based sanitation is available...

Pharmaceuticals in human excreta derived fertilizers and mitigation options
PFAS during wastewater treatment

Occurrence of PFASs in Swiss Wastewater Treatment Plants
Treatment with powdered activated carbon (PAC) and ozonation are established methods for advanced wastewater treatment plants...

Granular activated carbon (GAC)
Ozonation is one of the treatments used in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to remove MPs, reducing their discharge to the aquatic environment...

SWO3T: Bioanalytical Strategies for Evaluating Wastewater Ozonation Treatment

Terminated projects

Formation and fate of transformation products in water treatment with ozone and biological post-treatment

TRANSFO3RM
Characterization of wastewater treatment with suspect und non-target screening for the evaluation of ozonation and activated carbon treatment

SCREEN-O3TP
Pilot scale advanced treatment of wastewater with granular activated carbon (GAC) and combined with ozonation (O3/GAC) at WWTP Glarnerland

Glarnerland project

More older terminated projects

  • Ozonation and different biological post-treatments at WWTP Neugut (DEMEAU, ReTREAT)
  • Ozonation and GAK treatment at WWTP Bülach - Literature
  • Decentralized wastewater treatment at hospitals - hospital wastewater project
  • Fate of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance in wastewater treatment - ResistFlow and Resistome
  • Treatment of urine for the production of fertilizer -  VUNA project

  • Infiltration of treated wastewater into groundwater - RECLAIM Water