In the Ecoremedi project, our research team is searching for a novel way to treat wastewater containing endocrine disruptors.
Endocrine disruptors are chemical substances that interfere with normal hormonal activity in living organisms. These substances are extremely potent, so even concentrations of nanograms per liter can affect our health. Every person and every household comes into contact with a variety of endocrine disruptors. They are present in everyday items such as food, water, plastics, household products, and cosmetics.
Endocrine disruptors are dangerous because they can mimic or interfere with the function of hormones. Diseases associated with endocrine disruptors include decreased fertility, abnormal development of sexual organs in embryos, prostate cancer, breast cancer, autism, and diabetes.
The main sources of endocrine disruptors in water are sewage effluent, industrial discharge, and landfill runoff. Despite the growing concern about endocrine disruptors, today there is no efficient technology to eliminate them from wastewater. The Ecoremedi project aims to develop and optimize an environmentally friendly and efficient technology to remove all endocrine disruptors from side streams.
Since endocrine disruptors cannot be easily reduced below their toxic level, we do not use a single technology but a combination of technologies. First, we pre-treat the water to break down the readily degradable compounds. Second, we add an agent which binds with the endocrine disruptors to form a larger molecule. Now we can easily extract them. The agent we use is natural and therefore safe for the environment. The treated water is free of endocrine disruptors and can be reused!
