A product for the removing of micro-pollutants from wastewater is the General Winner of the Aquatech Innovation Award 2025.
Aurea from consulting engineers Royal HaskoningDHV was developed within the Netherlands, and its choice for this award adopted an unbiased evaluate led by jury chairman Professor Cees Buisman, Scientific Director of Wetsus, a European centre of excellence for sustainable water expertise.
Because the organizers clarify: “The Aquatech Innovation Award recognises world-class improvements and applied sciences which have the potential to disrupt the worldwide water market. Acknowledging these improvements and the newest technological developments, this yr’s awards acquired a excessive degree of entries.”
Aurea was developed in collaboration with Wageningen College to sustainably take away micro-pollutants from water in wastewater therapy crops, consuming water manufacturing websites, and industrial wastewater therapy crops. It’s stated to mix the very best properties of organic activated carbon filtration and oxidative therapy, assembly the targets of the European City Wastewater Remedy Directive (UWWTD).
This enables it to take away a variety of natural micro-pollutants, utilizing decrease power and useful resource consumption when in comparison with reference applied sciences, leading to low CO2 footprint and operational bills, in keeping with Aquatech. Aurea achieves excessive chemical and organic water high quality.
Chemical and medicinal residues remaining in wastewater and returned to nature can have a big detrimental influence on biodiversity. The UWWTD has put wastewater therapy crops on the forefront of eradicating these chemical compounds and so the problem is to discover a means to do that in probably the most environment friendly and pure means attainable.
Jury chairman Professor Cees Buisman stated: “What you need with organic sewer therapy is that the method is as near being pure as attainable, as a result of the water can be returned to nature. What impressed the jury was that Aurea goals to satisfy these objectives.”
He added: “The pilot makes use of activated carbon, which is continually regenerated by the biomass. Then just a little little bit of ozone is added to keep away from the formation of bromates. That is as near a pure course of as attainable and utilizing activated carbon and ozone in a accountable and sensible means.”
He concluded: “It has the potential to be a billion-dollar market and Aurea suits into this crucial problem for European society.”
Judging for this yr’s awards was primarily based on originality, practicality and sustainability. A typical theme amongst entries was a concentrate on energy-efficiency and sustainability, significantly round PFAS focus and destruction.
Buisman added: “Being a part of Innovation Awards has all the time been pleasure. Our water expertise neighborhood by no means stops shocking me with its capability to give you new improvements, whether or not they’re small enhancements and even typically huge steps.”
“It’s a optimistic signal that innovation and invention proceed within the water business, with most of the entries positively shocking the skilled jury.”
One of many growing tendencies witnessed by the jury this yr was Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and particularly new improvements to cut back the power wanted to destroy them.