IWA Micropol 2026 in Toronto

The conference was held at the Chestnut Conference Center of the University of Toronto. The conference brought together mostly researchers working on various topics related to environmental pollution. Over four days, participants discussed some of the most pressing challenges in the sector, including PFAS contamination, micropollutants, non-target screening, wastewater reuse and treatment, drinking water safety, microplastics, and climate-related impacts on aquatic systems.

Het wetenschappelijke programma omvatte plenaire lezingen van vooraanstaande experts, technische sessies, posterpresentaties en netwerkactiviteiten. PFAS en geavanceerde analysemethoden vormden terugkerende thema’s tijdens de conferentie, wat de groeiende aandacht onderstreept voor het monitoren en verwijderen van persistente verontreinigingen uit watersystemen.

A strong scientific program featured keynote lectures from leading experts, technical sessions, poster presentations, networking events as well as a tour to a vineyard that works as sustainable as possible.  PFAS, advanced analytical methods and removal of contaminants emerged as key themes throughout the conference, reflecting the growing importance of monitoring and removing persistent contaminants from the environment.

KWR contributions to Micropol 2026

KWR researchers contributed several presentations focused on advanced water quality monitoring and emerging contaminant analysis.

Patrick Bäuerlein gave a presentation on how established analytical methods such as HPLC-DAD can still provide highly effective and practical solutions for routine water quality monitoring when applied strategically

Sevda Eryilmaz Soydan presented in two presentations her work on microplastic analysis and the challenges one does face. Her presentations showed that the matrix does have an impact on the data and as such, results need to be checked carefully before publishing.

Other topics were the implementation of sensors in combination with machine learning to monitor the water quality and using machine learning to analyse microplastics in water samples.

Insights