With the addition of ozone into wastewater, problematic micropollutants such as pharmaceuticals, pesticides or cosmetics can successfully be removed from wastewater. This has been verified by a test method newly developed at the Institute of Environmental Sciences of the University of Koblenz-Landau in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment within the framework of the Swiss pilot project “Strategie MicroPoll”. Presented in the journal “Water Research”, this test method, is based on a holistic ecological approach, examines by means of the foliage feeding rate of the freshwater amphipod (Gammarus fossarum) how effectively waste waters are purified by ozonation. So far, this cleaning technology is not commonly used due to lacking legal bases in the European Union and due to the formation of potentially toxic reaction products, which are undesirable from the perspective of water protection. However, as studies show, due to the high waste water amount particularly in densely populated areas, it is necessary to remove micropollutants from wastewaters. Technologies such as ozonation or activated charcoal are therefore evaluated concerning their suitability. The result of the present study confirms the predominantly positive properties of ozonization.

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Ozonation makes wastewater cleaner – new research study shows: by means of ozonation, chemical micropollutants can successfully be removed from wastewater.