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Joint Research Programme - Thematic research - Chemical safety

Projects

Sustainability
Sustainable use of freshwater resources
The Ultimate Water Plant

The Ultimate Water Plant is a collaborative project involving parties in the water sector who want to demonstrate how, and subject to which conditions, treated sewage can be made available as a supplementary source of drinking water.…

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Enabling technologies
Hydroinformatics
Improving the reliability and practicality of an AI-based tool for data validation and correction

Water companies are increasingly using sensor data for advanced process monitoring and control for key variables. They are therefore increasingly reliant on high-quality data. In this project, the…

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Health
Emerging contaminants
Implementation of screening and NTS methods in practice

Drinking water laboratories have recently expressed a need for the further integration of screening methods, including non-target screening (NTS), in the methods used to monitor water quality. Technological…

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Health
Emerging contaminants
Environmental forensics: pollution signatures

The presence of anthropogenic substances in the drinking water chain poses challenges for the water sector, and specifically for drinking water companies. That presence is undesirable, and sometimes even problematic. Although treatment…

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Enabling technologies
Hydroinformatics
Big data – analysis and integration of chemical and toxicological data

Monitoring the water quality of drinking water is challenging due to the presence of complex mixtures of mostly unknown substances that vary in concentration and composition. Over the…

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Sustainability
Climate change and resilience
Effect-based monitoring of water quality in the circular economy

Freshwater from groundwater or surface water sources is becoming scarce in dry periods, driving a rise in interest in the use/re-use of rainwater and treated domestic and industrial…

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Health
Emerging contaminants
Toxicology on Target

The domain of toxicological risk assessment is constantly evolving and it is essential to follow these developments closely. It has been noted that an adequate response to water quality issues requires the ongoing development of knowledge and…

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Health
Emerging contaminants
Microplastics in water treatment

Plastics are a ubiquitous part of everyday life and they are found in fresh water throughout the Netherlands. In this project, we describe the nature and levels of microplastics (20 - 500 µm) at different stages of…

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Health
Emerging contaminants
Are PMOCs less toxic?

Persistent mobile organic compounds (PMOC) accumulate in the water cycle and are hardly removed during water treatment. For a long time, these substances have been under-researched but recent studies show that they are present in worrying concentrations.…

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Health
Emerging contaminants
Nanoplastics in drinking water

It is becoming increasingly clear that plastic is everywhere. That has been demonstrated in numerous environmental compartments, including soil, sediment, surface water and air. Data about the presence of microplastic particles in surface water are sparse, and…

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Health
Emerging contaminants
Clearer picture of the formation of transformation products during drinking water treatment thanks to integrated strategies

During drinking water production, biotic and antibiotic processes can form transformation products (TP) from organic micropollutants (OMP). How these substances behave in water treatment and how toxic they…

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Enabling technologies
New materials and technologies
Improved prioritisation and fragmentation improve the identification of unknown substances with non-target screening

Non-target screening (NTS) is based on the combination of liquid chromatography in conjunction with high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS). In addition, tailored data analysis, with target and suspect screening,…

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Health
Emerging contaminants
Contribution to Toxicology Knowledge Impulse

We are making and using more and more substances in larger and larger quantities. Analyses by collaborating European ecologists and ecotoxicologists have shown that exposure to mixtures of chemicals is a limiting…

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Health
Emerging contaminants
Highly polar compounds I

An understanding of the presence of highly polar compounds in sources of drinking water is important because these substances can threaten drinking water supplies. This is because highly polar compounds can spread well in water and soil,…

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Health
Emerging contaminants
New chemical analysis methods

The world around us is changing rapidly and new techniques emerge regularly. The ongoing assessment of detection technologies (instrumental and otherwise) makes it possible to identify their possible value for the water sector in good time. BTO…

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Health
Biological activity
Trigger value data gaps I and II

There are a lot of advantages to testing water quality with in vitro bioassays but this technique can only be properly applied if the bioassay responses can be compared with ‘effect-based trigger values’ (EBT). This study determines…

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Health
Emerging contaminants
Exploration of sources, behaviour and risk of new substances

At present, the count for substances with a CAS number stands at over 194 million. New substances are being registered, produced and applied at a rapid pace. The…

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Enabling technologies
Innovative water treatment technologies
Effects of interventions in the distribution network on the existing microorganisms: DNA techniques offer clarity

Earlier research by Evides Waterbedrijf revealed that the number and composition of microbial populations can change during the distribution process of drinking water. This 2018 research was undertaken…

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Health
Emerging contaminants
Highly polar compounds – II

The monitoring of highly polar compounds – particularly in low concentrations (ng/L range) – presents a great challenge. Compared with known, classical environmental pollutants (e.g., PCBs, pharmaceuticals, pesticides), there is a knowledge gap for highly polar compounds…

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Health
Biological activity
PFAS: A Threat for the Dutch Drinking Water Cycle?

Poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a broad group of anthropogenic organic substances which have been extensively used since the 1940s. Due to their persistency, bioaccumulation and toxicity, PFAS are a threat…

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Health
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…

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Health
Emerging contaminants
Non-target screening: quantitative and on time

The confident identification of a compound followed by accurate quantification of its concentration in a water sample is a prerequisite for risk assessment. In recent years, chemical water quality monitoring has developed…

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Society
Citizen science and public participation
Risk perception

On the basis of insights into customers’ perceptions, needs and experiences, communications guidelines are being developed with regard to the presence of anthropogenic substances in drinking water and its sources. Challenges regarding transparent communications The number of…

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Health
Emerging contaminants
TRAMP

The nanoplastics, or microplastics, that result from plastic pollution that ends up in the sea are harmful to marine life. Nanoplastics are also probably present in freshwater, though we don’t have a clear understanding of this. In…

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Health
Emerging contaminants
SOLUTIONS

Water quality is under pressure. More and more so-called emerging contaminants are being detected in natural water systems. The presence of these compounds in water confronts water managers and water companies with big challenges. A number of…

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News

Blog

Dutch collaboration helps bring innovative solutions to arsenic removal in Argentina

12 December 2022 — Water treatment experts from the Netherlands and Argentina are uniting to help find a sustainable solution to remove…

Read more about Dutch collaboration helps bring innovative solutions to arsenic removal in Argentina

Joint Research Programme - Thematic research - Chemical safety

The Ultimate Water Plant

Improving the reliability and practicality of an AI-based tool for data validation and correction

Implementation of screening and NTS methods in practice

Environmental forensics: pollution signatures

Big data – analysis and integration of chemical and toxicological data

Effect-based monitoring of water quality in the circular economy

Toxicology on Target

Microplastics in water treatment

Are PMOCs less toxic?

Nanoplastics in drinking water

Clearer picture of the formation of transformation products during drinking water treatment thanks to integrated strategies

Improved prioritisation and fragmentation improve the identification of unknown substances with non-target screening

Contribution to Toxicology Knowledge Impulse

Highly polar compounds I

New chemical analysis methods

Trigger value data gaps I and II

Exploration of sources, behaviour and risk of new substances

Effects of interventions in the distribution network on the existing microorganisms: DNA techniques offer clarity

Highly polar compounds – II

PFAS: A Threat for the Dutch Drinking Water Cycle?

QSAR tools and bioassays for emerging contaminants and transformation products

Non-target screening: quantitative and on time

Risk perception

TRAMP

SOLUTIONS

Dutch collaboration helps bring innovative solutions to arsenic removal in Argentina