SIDWater is devoted to ensuring the sustainability of municipal drinking water supplies and reuse by developing new innovative treatment processes for removing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), dissolved organic matter (DOM) and other emerging contaminants.
To ensure healthy drinking water, the Swedish Food Agency (SLV) decided on a new limit of PFAS allowed in the released municipal drinking water (4 ng/L four PFAS). Based on a 2021 SLV survey, over 2 million Swedish consumers receive water exceeding the proposed limits.
Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop sustainable innovative drinking water treatment solutions for large-scale water supply and reuse. SIDWater aims to ensure the sustainability of municipal drinking water supplies by developing new innovative treatment processes and removing PFAS to stop the perpetual cycle of “treat and release” of contaminants back into the aquatic environment.
The societal benefits of the SIDWater project are grounded in the project’s sustainable solution for the removal of hazardous chemicals in the drinking water and environment. The proposed research is essential for Swedish drinking water safety as currently applied water treatment technologies are inefficient for the removal of PFAS from drinking water. Thus, this project will build on long-term research collaborations and strategic partnerships between the research partners and stakeholders to secure safe drinking water.
The SIDWater project will investigate four case studies with different water sources in close collaboration with drinking water suppliers including:
SIDWater will evaluate alternative pilot pre-treatment techniques, including ozonation, biofiltration, and granular activated carbon (GAC) filtration to remove PFAS, other contaminants and DOM using existing artificial infiltration systems in Uppsala and Lake Bolmen, Vomb Lake and filtrated water from Lake Mälaren.
SIDWater will assess a sustainable treatment train for drinking water supply and reuse including nanofiltration (NF), reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, foam fractionation (FF), electrochemical destruction, upflow fluidized pellet reactors, anion exchange (AIX) and biofilters.
SIDWater will assess the sustainability of the developed solutions using environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC).
Conceptual overview of the SIDWater project.
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Overview of Work Package (WP) structure of the SIDWater project.
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Determining the effect of pre-treatment on PFAS, dissolved organic matter (DOM) and other contaminants from surface water before artificial infiltration into groundwater and/or drinking water production in the SIDWater project.
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Assessing an innovative treatment train for reaching ultra-low levels of PFAS and other contaminants for safe drinking water in the SIDWater project.
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Extraction of water samples using solid phase extraction for PFAS analysis.
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Our specific objectives are to:
Stop the amount of PFAS in circulation
The official name of the project: Sustainable innovative drinking water treatment solutions for large-scale water supply and reuse (SIDWater)
Budget: 16 million SEK.
Funder: Formas, grant number 2022-02108.
Planned project period: 2022-12-01 to 2026-11-30.