Demo Case 1
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Background
Waternet, the public water utility of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, serves 1.2 million people. Drinking water is produced from surface water by two production plants: Leiduin (capacity 70 mln m3/year) and Weesperkarspel (capacity 31 mln m3/year), using two primary sources: Rhine water from the Lek Canal and seepage water from the Bethune Polder. Water from the Lek Canal undergoes pre-treatment and natural purification in the Amsterdam Water Supply Dunes before final treatment at the Leiduin drinking water treatment plant. Seepage water from the Bethune Polder is pre-treated, including natural purification in an artificial lake, and then treated at the Weesperkarspel drinking water treatment plant. The combination of natural and technical treatment processes ensures the delivery of clean and safe drinking water
Key facts
Multiple barriers for micropollutants and microorganisms: coagulation, rapid sand filtration, ozonation, active carbon filtration and slow sand filtration.
Both oxidation by ozone and adsorption with conventional adsorbents are not cost and environmental efficient in removing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to very low concentrations.
Expected impacts
Test an innovative adsorbent for PFAS on a pilot scale and evaluate on the criteria removal efficiency, environmental impact, and costs.
Test new hard sensors that are further developed in ToDrinQ to measure amongst others the variability of microbiological parameters.
Develop soft sensors and process control models for specific treatments steps such as coagulation and ozonation.
We expect to increase our perspectives for actions on PFAS removal and on monitoring and process control to improve our operations and reducing our environmental impact.
Challenges
Waternet uses surface water for the production of drinking water. This brings challenges in process operations in terms of variability in raw water, micro-pollutants, specifically PFAS removal, micro-biology and effects of chemical dosages on our climate footprint. Although the finished drinking water complies with the PFAS standards of the new European Drinking Water Directive, the concentration of four specific per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) compounds, the so-called European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) PFAS compounds, exceed the provisional guide level of 4.4 ng/L for these compounds.
Activities
In ToDrinQ we work closely together with our industry and research project partners. We facilitate them in developing, testing and integrating new technologies in practice at our drinking water treatment plants. In a pilot plant we aim to test innovative synthetic zeolites or biobased cyclodextrins which are identified as promising adsorbents for PFAS removal. Further we will test and validate newly in the project developed hard and soft sensors.
Partners involved
