KWR at NWO NAC 2026 (Dutch Earth and Environmental Sciences Conference)

With an impressive KWR stand, Stijn Beernink and Jeroen Pelle represented KWR at this annual congress on Thursday, with Teun van Dooren and Lennart Brokx taking over on Friday. In previous years, we did not attend the NWO NAC, and so this was a journey of discovery for us to see whether there is a match between our institute and the conference.

And so it was particularly pleasing to see that there was a lot of interest in our stand, with many interesting discussions as a result. Sometimes with enthusiastic young professionals, who were keen to find out how working at a research institute in general, and at KWR specifically, works. Sometimes with experts from completely different fields, whose expertise means they look at certain problems very differently from us and who therefore gave us new ideas.

In between, there was also plenty of time to attend interesting presentations. In some cases, the topic was a perfect fit for the topics we work on at KWR. For example, a study by Stijn Beernink was extensively covered in former colleague Martin Bloemendal’s keynote on subsurface planning in urban areas. Many presentations highlighted issues that are also studied at KWR, but from a very different angle, such as using birds – great tits – to monitor the spread of pesticides.

Image 1: Keynote by former colleague Martin Bloemendal with research by Stijn Beernink on subsurface planning in urban areas.

Sorption of PFAS in contaminated groundwater (Alex Hockin)

“Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are increasingly detected in groundwater co-contaminated with conventional pollutants, such as hydrocarbons, heavy metals and chlorinated solvents. Such mixtures are challenging for groundwater treatment because co-contaminants can strongly compete with PFAS for sorption sites, thereby reducing sorbent performance,” says Alex. In this study we investigate the performance of 17 sorbents (see Image 3) for PFAS removal in co-contaminated groundwater. Sorption capacities (Langmuir qmax) ranged from 1.2 to 10.5 µg/g, with ion-exchange resins highest. All sorbents were sensitive to interfering co-contaminants. Follow-up research will focus on quantifying which co-contaminants are responsible for the interference to better understand how groundwater treatments can be optimized for the complex chemical conditions typical of co-contaminated groundwater.

Image 2. Alex Hocking presents her research on (the limitations of) various materials for the sorption of PFAS.

Image 3.

A valuable exploration

Looking back, our presence was a valuable exercise and we were able to explore how issues that also affect KWR are approached in other disciplines. That broader view generated new insights and interesting conversations.