Emerging contaminants

Getting to grips with indirect discharges

Water authorities, environmental services and municipal authorities are increasingly seeing discharges of large quantities of chemical waste and other undesirable substances into the drains and therefore indirectly to surface water. That results…

Stakeholder involvement and governance

Transformative Area-oriented Management

The drinking water sector is facing major challenges. Climate change, developments in society and institutional changes are forcing water utilities to seek more collaboration and coordination with other stakeholders so that they…

Innovative water treatment technologies

Waterrotonde Eerbeek

A pilot project has been organised with a circular water management system at the Industriewater Eerbeek (IWE) site. Existing plants treat process water from paper and cardboard mills and recover residual products for use in agriculture. The…

Biological activity

Roadmap for Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) to monitor microbial drinking water quality

The Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) analysis method is suitable for investigating the composition of complex microbial populations. NGS is very valuable for identifying changes in the composition of microbial…

Biological activity

Effect of temperature on the growth of opportunistic pathogens

This project is investigating how the heating up of drinking water affects the growth of opportunistic pathogens in the mains system. We are using a pilot array that…

Biological activity

Effect of temperature on the growth of opportunistic pathogens

In this study we investigate how the increase in the temperature of drinking water influences the growth of particular pathogens, known as opportunistic pathogens, in the drinking water…

Emerging contaminants

Survey of drug waste emission pathways and relevance for the drinking water sector

The Netherlands has a thriving illegal industry for the production of synthetic drugs such as amphetamine (speed), MDMA (XTC) and “designer drugs”. It releases all kinds of waste…

Hydroinformatics

Digital twins for the water sector

'Digital twins' is the buzzword of recent years in many industries, including the water industry. The term is used to indicate digital representations (copies in some way) of physical systems. In some…

Emerging contaminants

Computer models for water quality assessment

Around the world, the number of different contaminants that are found in water is increasing. With new, emerging substances and substances that may be produced in the environment or during water treatment…

Sustainable energy

Q&A, Aquathermal and Thermal Energy from Drinking water (TED)

Aquathermal energy is a relatively new subject. This Q&A has been drawn up as a guide to the most frequently asked questions about Aquathermal Energy, and specifically Thermal…

Emerging contaminants

Biological treatment processes: optimising biodegradation of OMPs in rapid filters

Organic micropollutants (OMPs) in drinking water sources are frequently in the news. To be able to continue supplying safe and reliable drinking water, the drinking water sector wishes,…

Innovative water treatment technologies

Prediction models for the removal of organic micropollutants

Organic micropollutants (OMPs) in drinking water sources are frequently in the news. The numbers of OMPs are typically very low and are not harmful to health, but, as…

Innovative water treatment technologies

Application of membrane fractionation for better understanding of biological stability of water

The selection of the water source and the subsequent water treatment processes have different impacts on the biological stability of the water. In the Netherlands and Flanders, the…

Hydroinformatics

Deep Explorations: a explorative study for deep learning applications in the water sector

This project concerns an explorative study to assess the value of deep learning (DL) for KWR and the water sector in general. The different types of deep learning,…

Climate change and resilience

Digital Twin II

In this project a so-called ‘digital twin’ of a drinking water distribution network of a Dutch city is being made, with the aim of determining the impact of corona measures – lockdown and increased working-from-home – and…

Emerging contaminants

Non-target screening

Around the world, the number of substances found in water is increasing. Target screening is no longer adequate to monitor all of them. Suspect and non-target screening offer a solution. Suspect screening and non-target screening explained A…

Emerging contaminants

Instruments – Laboratory for Materials Research and Chemical Analysis

The Laboratory for Materials Research and Chemical Analysis is equipped with specialised instruments, the most important of which are described in this page. Mass Spectrometry Mass spectrometry is…

Emerging contaminants

Effect-based monitoring of water quality with bioassays

The number of chemicals encountered in water is increasing worldwide. Chemical measurements provide information about the presence of chemical mixtures in water, when it is not yet clear…

Sustainable use of freshwater resources

Monitoring the effects on nature of the redevelopment of the Middel- en Oostduinen water extraction area

The water extraction activities of the Evides water company in the Middel- and Oostduinen area have been substantially modified since 1999. The aim is to make the open,…

Biological activity

QSAR tools and bioassays for emerging contaminants and transformation products

For new, emerging contaminants in drinking water sources and for transformation products, there are sometimes very little or no data available on their possible adverse effects on human…

Hydroinformatics

Condition forecast for individual mains

The risk of pipe failure is one of the factors taken into account by drinking water utilities when they decide whether or not to replace water mains. They assess this risk on…

Emerging contaminants

Toxicological risk assessment

The number of substances found in water is increasing all over the world. This is the result of a rise in the use of substances, but also of the increasing quality and precision of the measurement methods.…

Emerging contaminants

Microplastics in water

To acquire more understanding of microplastics and even smaller particles, KWR is currently conducting research involving the measurement of the smallest possible particles present in surface water and drinking water, among others. WHO recently published a report…

Microbial safety

Proficiency testing

Proficiency tests are an important instrument for the harmonisation of (environmental) measurements; they allow laboratories to compare their results with those of other laboratories. For more than 30 years, KWR has conducted proficiency tests for a variety…