Wastewater

‘New regulatory and legal framework for water reuse calls for an interdisciplinary approach’

05 January 2021 — In 2020 the European Union approved a legislative proposal on the requirements for water reuse in irrigation applications.

How to achieve a water-wise city?

07 December 2020 — Extreme rainfall can leave city streets under water. Drought can put pressure on the water supply. Two severe...

SETAC honours Pim de Voogt with Emeritus Membership

04 December 2020 — The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) has accorded Pim de Voogt its Emeritus Membership award. This...

Reuse of activated carbon for the removal of organic micropollutants

The removal or organic micropollutants (OMPs) from (waste) water is becoming a matter of more and more importance.

Water sector sets course for the circular economy

26 November 2020 — The recently published report ‘Stip op de horizon Circulair Water 2050’ (‘Point on the Circular Water 2050 horizon’)...

Concentration of SARS CoV-2 in sewage shows a descending trend

16 November 2020 — Since February 2020, we have measured the SARS -CoV-2 RNA in sewage water. By correcting the results for...

Four lessons from creating a Dutch circular face scrub

12 November 2020 — On the surface, beauty products and water treatment are worlds apart. After all, the glitz and glamour of...

B-WaterSmart

In the Horizon 2020 project B-WaterSmart funded by the European Commission, KWR collaborates with 36 partners (research institutes,...

Covid in wastewater: second wave as high as the first

06 November 2020 — As early as February, KWR demonstrated the connection between the number of SARS-CoV-2 viral particles in the sewage...

ULTIMATE & NextGen Water Circular Economy solutions

21 October 2020 — What do Trappist monks, a whisky distillery and water utilities have in common? How can water utilities and...

Symposium on Valuable Water

19 October 2020 — Friday October 16th STOWA organized a symposium on “Valuable Water”. The main topic was the “Water factory” at...

CoRe pilot underway in Roermond: the next generation of wastewater treatment

05 October 2020 — Following successful clean-water tests at the KWR Water Research Institute in Nieuwegein, on 29 September the new CoRe...

New SARS-CoV-2 graphs for wastewater samples of September

02 October 2020 — The KWR microbiologists have extensively evaluated and improved their research methods for the surveillance of the coronavirus genetic...

The SARS-Cov-2 sewage water samples of 20 August

25 August 2020 — Since the end of February, KWR has been monitoring concentrations of the genetic material of the coronavirus, so-called...

Royal Academy of Engineering award Sewers4COVID team

24 August 2020 — Researchers at KWR, in collaboration with scientists from Exeter (UK) Greece and Spain, developed a fresh approach ‘Sewers4COVID’...

KWR wastewater surveillance guidance for SARS-CoV-2

As Covid-19 infections are increasing again after the initial lockdowns, it is now critical to set up a...

TKI Innovative slaughterhouse Wastewater Treatment Technology

Slaughterhouse wastewater is a difficult to treat because it contains high concentrations of suspended solids and colloidal compounds,...

ReCirc Singapore Community of Practice

The main aim of the project is to establish a joint Singaporean-Dutch Community of Practice (CoP) to exchange...

A moral compass: using sewage water to study drugs use

03 July 2020 — More than half of the Dutch population believe that privacy concessions are an option in the fight against...

EUSEME: Drugs in sewage during Dutch lockdown

17 June 2020 — In the week after the announcement of the ‘intelligent’ lockdown in the Netherlands, KWR tested levels of illegal...

Wastewater-based epidemiology: Wastewater reflection on society

16 June 2020 — Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) uses sewage as a source of information about citizens’ health and lifestyle. Analysis of sewage...

Organic kitchen waste through sewer

There is growing interest in the recovery of energy and resources from wastewater. In order to achieve an...

Sewage monitoring as an early warning system for corona

29 May 2020 — The emerging questions of the past weeks are: How does the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in sewage water...

Coronavirus in sewage falls faster than recorded patient numbers

24 May 2020 — Since early February, KWR’s microbiologists have been studying levels of SARS-Coronavirus-2 RNA in sewage in collaboration with the...

First methamphetamine waste discharge measured in Eindhoven

12 March 2020 — The consumption of cocaine and MDMA (XTC) in the Netherlands has been the highest in Europe for a...

Jan Vreeburg PhD MSc

Jan Vreeburg is Principal Scientist in the Water Infrastructure team. Jan has a long history of research and...

EUSEME: Europe-wide Sewage analysis to Monitor Emerging drug problems

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is now an established approach in monitoring the consumption of a selection of illicit drugs.

Monitoring emerging drug problems in Europe

04 December 2019 — The partners of the EUSEME project came together on 19 and 20 November for the kick-off meetings. Researchers...

Conference on emerging contaminants and micropollutants

11 November 2019 — From 20 to 23 October the 11th Micropol & Ecohazard conference was held in Seoul, South-Korea. The Micropol...

Healthy drinking water and wastewater treatment for all

07 November 2019 — If you don’t measure what you want to know, you can’t manage the progress. That also applies to...

Maria Lousada Ferreira PhD

Maria is an environmental engineer, with a PhD in wastewater treatment. She has been working for more than...

Wastewater analysis reveals trends in international drug use

23 October 2019 — The results of seven years’ wastewater analysis have been compiled in an article published in the prestigious journal...

Water reuse and freshwater provision: connecting sectors

16 October 2019 — Having sufficient freshwater, for all users and uses. Always. In the Netherlands and Flanders this is becoming more...

Jan Hofman strengthens KWR’s Industry, Wastewater and Reuse team

07 October 2019 — Jan Hofman has since 2015 been associated with the University of Bath but, last 1 September, he returned...

The Challenges of Water Management and Governance in Cities

29 August 2019 — Global population growth is urban growth and, therefore, most of the water-related challenges and solutions reside in cities.

Fiware4Water

Fiware4Water is a three-year European research and innovation project, coordinated by the French Office International de l’Eau, links...

Anammox

Anammox, an abbreviation for ANaerobic AMMonium OXidation, is a microbial process of the nitrogen cycle. It takes place...

Launch of Fiware4Water: digital solutions for water

28 June 2019 — On 10 June 2019, Waternet and KWR, together with twelve European partners, launched the Fiware4Water project. This three-year...

Water reuse presents opportunities

05 June 2019 — The reuse of water is becoming an increasingly central focus of attention. This reuse presents companies with important...

Kees Roest ISPT Program Director

04 June 2019 — Since the beginning of April, Kees Roest has been program director at the Institute for Sustainable Process...

Surveillance of antimicrobial use and antimicrobial resistance

The chemical and biological constituents of wastewater are a valuable source of information on human health and behavior,...

Consortium researches impact of ‘Bubble Barrier’ on microplastics in treated wastewater

06 May 2019 — A research consortium, comprising the water utility PWN, Hollands Noorderkwartier Water Authority (HHNK), The Great Bubble Barrier and...

Preventing the flow of microplastics via effluent into surface water

Microplastics are small (< 5mm), synthetic particles that can have a big impact if they flow into large...

KWR member of Water Reuse Europe

24 April 2019 — KWR has become a member of Water Reuse Europe (WRE). This industry association for Europe’s rapidly growing water...

Water Quality Knowledge Impulse launched

05 April 2019 — The water quality in large parts of the country has clearly improved over the last few years, but...

CatchAmed binds pharmaceuticals in the toilet

01 April 2019 — Increasing attention is being paid to methods for the removal of pharmaceuticals from wastewater. In the TKI programme’s...

Enough water and dry feet in the city

21 March 2019 — With summer in view, many people are wondering whether it will be as hot and dry as last...

2018 figures on drugs in European cities’ wastewater

14 March 2019 — The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) today published the results of drug monitoring of...

How to deal with micropollutants in water

13 March 2019 — Additional treatment steps for WWTPs; Learning by doing, doing while learning As WWTPs in general haven’t been designed...

Power-to-Protein: safe protein production from wastewater

28 January 2019 — Two research pilots demonstrate that it is possible to safely use ammonium recovered at two WWTPs for the...

Membrane distillation and freeze crystallisation treat salt-streams containing organic pollutants

23 January 2019 — The Orpheus project shows that membrane distillation and freeze crystallisation offer possibilities for the concentration of high-saline streams...

CoRe Water project launched with pilot plant at Wehl WWTP

13 December 2018 — TKI Water Technology’s CoRe Water project has begun with the installation of a first pilot at the Rijn...

Reuse of industrial residual water to meet agricultural water needs

Agricultural yields depend on the amount of moisture in the root zone. But in the summer soil moisture...

Prof. Pim de Voogt: 25 years in Environmental Chemistry

03 November 2018 — Prof. Pim de Voogt, is – after a fruitful career of more than 25 years – retiring from...

WHO Meeting underscores importance of achieving SDG 6

24 October 2018 — KWR was present at the WHO High Level Meeting and Technical Workshop on Water Safety and SDG 6...

Water in the City: rain after sunshine!

25 September 2018 — Our work on ‘Water in the City’ is based on an old piece of medical wisdom: prevention is...

Frederic Béen PhD

Frederic Béen works as a researcher in the Chemical Water Quality and Health team. His research activities focus...

Julian Muñoz Sierra PhD(c) PDEng

Julian Muñoz Sierra is a scientific researcher on the Water Treatment and Resource Recovery team. He studied chemical...

Adsorptive and biological removal of plant protection products from jointly collected discharge water in greenhouse horticulture

The ‘Adsorptive and biological removal of plant protection products from jointly collected discharge water in greenhouse horticulture’ project...

Research into metals in the watercycle

05 June 2018 — The focus of water treatment is increasingly shifting to the recovery of raw materials, partly stimulated by the...

‘Contaminants of Emerging Concern’ – a partnership in water technology

More and more chemical substances are being produced and used all over the world. At the same time,...

Kees van Leeuwen appointed David Parkin Visiting Professor at Bath

23 April 2018 — Kees van Leeuwen, Principal Scientist at KWR and professor of Water Management and Urban Development at Utrecht...

TKI sewage fat solution

Local authorities regularly face threating blockages in their sewer networks caused by accumulated fat in the mains. The...

Water reuse with a nanofiltration membrane bioreactor in Singapore

13 February 2018 — At the beginning of March, a project will start at the Singapore Membrane Technology Centre (SMTC) on water...

Professor Willy Verstraete appointed KWR Honorary Fellow

25 January 2018 — On 25 January Professor Willy Verstraete was appointed KWR Honorary Fellow. KWR bestowed Verstraete the Honorary Fellowship in...

Sewer water analysis shows: amateur athletes use of ‘fat burner’ DNP

24 January 2018 — In the study entitled ‘Wastewater-based tracing of doping use by the general population and amateur athletes’, KWR researchers...

Pharmaceuticals in wastewater conference

23 January 2018 — In the Meander Medical Center Amersfoort STOWA organized a conference about the presence of pharmaceuticals in wastewater. The...

Nutrient Platform members’ meeting at KWR on 7 December 2017

18 December 2017 — The Nutrient Platform members’ meeting is held three times per year at one of the 35 members’ premises.

VibroCav tool offers prospect of more effective sludge disintegration

04 December 2017 — Sludge processing accounts for one quarter of the operational costs in a wastewater treatment plant. Waterboards have long...

Kees Roest speaks at Fosfaatspagaat Symposium

22 November 2017 — On Sunday, 19 November the Fosfaatspagaat Symposium was held in the Metaal Kathedraal in Utrecht. The event was...

KWR again WHO Collaborating Center Water Quality & Health

15 November 2017 — WHO has again designated KWR as a Collaborating Centre on Water Quality and Health. Over the next four...

CoRe Water: from WWTP to a sustainable water factory

31 October 2017 — On the first day of Aquatech 2017, Allied Waters, BLUE-tec, KWR and Royal HaskoningDHV signed a collaboration agreement...

Circular Water 2050

The project ‘Circular Water 2050 – impact and opportunities of the “fully circular in 2050” target for an...

Innovations at centre-stage of Waterevent

18 October 2017 — More than 150 visitors attended the annual Waterevent at Wageningen University & Research (WUR) Greenhouse Horticulture and LTO...

Sulphate-reducing bacteria also work in WWTP

17 October 2017 — KWR, Paques and Delfluent Services BV have conducted a pilot test with sulphate-reducing bacteria under winter conditions at...

HerCauWer

In the Netherlands drinking water treatment practically always generates aquafer as a residual. By treating this material with...

10th Micropol & Ecohazard Conference in Vienna

21 September 2017 — From 17 till 20 September the 10th Micropol & Ecohazard conference was held in Vienna. The conference consisted...

Korean consortium wins IWA Award for Best Practices on Resource Recovery

08 August 2017 — Partnered with Watershare, the International Water Association’s (IWA) Resource Recovery Cluster has concluded the IWA Award...

DNA fingerprinting in surface- and wastewater management

Situations arise in surface- and wastewater management in which it is often important to be able to determine...

WHO expert meeting: the role of water in spreading antimicrobial resistance

05 July 2017 — On 5 and 6 July, 30 experts from all over the world met at KWR to assist the...

Water reuse and subsurface storage: a logical combination

13 June 2017 — In Dinteloord (North Brabant) the Tuinbouwontwikkelingsmaatschappij (Horticultural Development Company) (TOM) has realised a high-quality, sustainable freshwater provision system...

Detection, removal and recovery potential of metals from the watercycle

08 May 2017 — The focus of water treatment is increasingly shifting to the recovery of raw materials. Drinking water companies, waterboards...

WATCH

Request for services for a waste water analysis report on the stimulant illicit drug markets in the EU.

‘The future of the water economy is circular’

30 March 2017 — ‘There is nothing in the urban watercycle that is negotiable. Water is a matter of quality and safety...

Shale Gas and Water

Before the Netherlands can initiate shale gas extraction, answers must be given to the question of the possible...

Nanotechnology in water applications

NanoNextNL is a consortium directed at research in the field of micro- and nanotechnology. More than one hundred...

REWATCH

Freshwater resources are increasingly under stress conditions and there exists a huge mismatch between available water resources and rising...

AquaNES

Water scarcity, excess water in cities and micro-pollutants in the water cycle are challenges for now and the...

The connecting role of water in the circular economy

24 February 2017 — As of 21 March 2017, the TKI Water Technology partners will be present at the ...

Workshop on pharmaceuticals

21 February 2017 — Load and concentrations of pharmaceuticals in water are increasing. Therefore, it will become more and more important to...

Citizen trust: key to successful introduction of water reuse

14 February 2017 — In principle, Europe’s citizens have a positive attitude towards water reuse. But whether they would personally reuse water...

Affinity adsorption

The presence of pharmaceuticals and degradation products in surface water represents a threat to ecological water quality and...

Metals in the watercycle: insight and opportunities

15 November 2016 — Is it possible to recover (scarce) metals in an economically responsible manner from the watercycle – from drinking...

Climate change and resilience

The water sector needs practice-oriented research to help it confront the wide-ranging consequences of climate change. KWR meets...

Sustainable energy

There is a worldwide drive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and shift to cleaner, more sustainable energy sources.

Sustainable resources

The circular economy is the alternative to the current – essentially linear – economy. While the linear economy...

Presenting QMRA at Iranian Conference on Environmental Health and Sustainable Development

24 October 2016 — Iran is facing many challenges in the field of environmental health, including air pollution, water and food contamination...

City Blueprint at Habitat III conference: host city under the microscope

13 October 2016 — Habitat III, the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, will take place from 17 to...

Recovering metals from water, sludge and fly ash

The focus of water treatment is increasingly shifting to the recovery of raw materials, partly stimulated by the...

Sustainability pilot with struvite pellets for lush Schiphol grasslands

08 September 2016 — On 7 September 2016 struvite fertilising pellets were applied to the areas next to Schiphol airport’s runways Schiphol-Rijk...

Paul Jeffrey appointed visiting professor

23 June 2016 — With the appointment of Prof. Dr. Paul Jeffrey as visiting professor at the Knowledge Management group, KWR has...

Drugs of abuse

In 2017, for the seventh year in a row, a European study into drugs in sewer water was...

ANSWER

In response to the growing problem of water scarcity, the reuse of treated urban wastewater is considered to...

BlueSCities

Climate change and urbanisation are crucial phenomena for water supply, economic development and health worldwide. Since many cities...

Industry, wastewater & reuse

KWR conducts research into the treatment of wastewater and the reuse of the water, resources and energy it...

Microbial water quality

KWR conducts research into microbial water quality in all types of water systems and its possible impact on...

SCREENCAP

The essence of the innovative concept of Screencap is the recovery of solids from raw...

Data mining in suspect screening data; searching for relevant new chemicals in different water types

Data from suspect screening analyses collected over the past few years contain a treasure of information. The data...

Water-Use Info

Both in the design and the operational stage of a drinking water installation or drinking water distribution network...

City Blueprint

Extreme weather events that leave city streets under water in a flash. Or protracted drought that renders a...

Clean Membrane

Growth on membranes is one of the many mechanisms of membrane fouling. This fouling causes operational problems, negative...

Exploration of climate-neutrality in the watercycle at the tactical and strategic level

Practically all water companies have ambitions and objectives concerning a climate-neutral watercycle. In the first instance, these ambitions...

Sustainable watercycle and geothermal energy at Lelystad Airport

At the beginning of 2015 the Airport Decree was ratified for Lelystad Airport, providing official authorisation for the...

Multi-Source, Single-Stage, Full-Stream RO

The objective is a tested Multi-Source, Full-Stream RO concept, with minimal pre- and post-treatment (single stage), which uses...

Pharmaceuticals from effluent

Wastewater contains increasing amounts of pharmaceutical residues. Since the WWTPs are not designed to remove them from the...

Erik Emke BSc

Erik Emke is a researcher on the Chemical Water Quality and Health team. Erik has 25 years of...

Thomas ter Laak PhD

Thomas ter Laak works as a senior researcher in Chemical Water Quality on the sources, monitoring, behaviour, presence,...

Prof. Kees van Leeuwen PhD

Cornelis Johannes (Kees) van Leeuwen, PhD, is Principal Scientist at KWR, and Professor in Water Management and Urban...

Kees Roest PhD BSc

Kees Roest has worked at KWR since 2008 and was among the pioneers in KWR’s wastewater research. On...

Loop-Closure Cleantech Playground Amsterdam

The Cleantech Playground (CTP) is a testbed for clean, innovative technologies in the heart of the city of...

Design guidelines for sewer systems for domestic wastewater

In the urban context there are two key water discharge streams: the dry-weather stream and the stormwater stream.

Soil mechanics & dynamics

Information about the soil is available from a number of sources. This information is important in the estimation...

On-site sensoring & monitoring

Determining nutrient concentrations with electronic finger prints and an algorithm based on an artificial neural network. Technology Within...

Energy-efficient and sustainable Tergooi hospital

Tergooi is developing a new hospital as part of the redevelopment of the Monnikenberg country estate to the...

Exploring the potential of the qPCR technique in biological wastewater treatment

Technology Within today’s wastewater treatment practice most attention is focused on achieving extensive and stable biological nutrient removal...

Biological sulphate reduction in wastewater treatment

The sludge line accounts for about one-quarter of total wastewater treatment costs. Minimising the volume of excess sludge...

Sustainable airport cities

This TKI project is meant to showcase how different sectors can strengthen each other in the process of...

Effective removal of pharmaceuticals from wastewater

03 May 2016 — Wastewater contains more and more pharmaceuticals that are difficult to remove in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). This issue...

Tessa van den Brand PhD MSc

Tessa van den Brand has worked as a scientific researcher at KWR since 2010 and is now one...

World Health Organization (WHO)

KWR is a Collaborating Centre (CC) of the World Health Organization (WHO). We are an interesting partner for...

Global Water Research Coalition (GWRC)

The GWRC is an international research and knowledge sharing network. KWR is one of the 13 leading research...

Watershare

Watershare is an international network that brings together knowledge and expertise in various thematic areas. in Watershare, knowledge...

European research

KWR’s participation in Horizon 2020 and other European research projects underlines the importance that we, as an applied...

GWRC impressed by water sector research in the Netherlands

18 April 2016 — The Netherlands is a leader when it comes to research and innovation in the water sector. That was...

2015 Willem Koerselman Award to Cornelissen and Roest

12 April 2016 — Emile Cornelissen and Kees Roest won the 2015 Willem Koerselman Award for their article ‘Forward osmosis for application in...

KWR places ‘water in the circular city’ centre-stage at the Aqua Trade Fair Netherlands

31 March 2016 — The circular city was the theme this year of KWR’s stand at the Aqua Trade Fair Netherlands. The...

KWR places the Circular City centre-stage at the Aqua Trade Fair Netherlands

09 March 2016 — On 15, 16 and 17 March 2016 be sure to visit the main source of inspiration for all...

New DNA analysis method helps optimise biological phosphate removal

01 March 2016 — Royal HaskoningDHV and KWR have developed, within the Smart Water Systems theme of TKI Water Technology, a...

New Power-to-Protein website: all about producing protein from wastewater

02 February 2016 — The Power-to-Protein concept is attracting a great deal of attention. The process involves the highly efficient production of...

KWR, WUR and TUDelft join forces to combat diarrhoea

17 December 2015 — In 2015, KWR, Wageningen University (WUR) and Delft University of Technology (TUDelft) pooled their knowledge to develop a...

‘Boer Bier Water’ wins 2015 ZLTO Initiative Award

11 December 2015 — The farmers and growers in the municipality of Laarbeek, together with brewers Bavaria, have uniquely combined their strengths...

‘Resource Recovery in the Watercycle’: what does the future look like?

10 November 2015 — On 3 November, the ‘Accelerating Resource Recovery from Wastewater’ workshop was held during the Amsterdam International Water Week...

Challenging governance research for Vitens

03 August 2015 — Customer excellence is of paramount importance for Vitens. To this end, KWR explored how Vitens can best attune...

KWR and water companies in the grip of pyrazole discharges for long spell

09 July 2015 — In the summer of 2015, Limburg Water Distribution Company (WML) detected a pollutant in the river Meuse, which...

Best H2O article 2014: pharmaceutical spreading via WWTPs

23 April 2015 — On 23 April 2015, at the Royal Dutch Water Network (KNW) spring conference in Utrecht, Lieke Coppens (KWR;...

Updated, online database on waterborne pathogens

15 April 2015 — From 12 to 15 April 2015, an international group of 35 scientists working on the Global Water Pathogen...

Aa and Maas Water Board, BWA and KWR sign partnership agreement on finescreen technology

03 March 2015 — On 3 March 2015, the Aa and Maas Water Board, technology company BWA and KWR signed an agreement...