Benchmarking and integration of nature-based solutions and engineered technologies for enhanced pesticide removal

Pesticides are widely used in agriculture to increase crop quantity and quality; however, their application imposes a significant threat to both aquatic and terrestrial life due to non-targeted contamination of atmosphere, soils, and water bodies. Agricultural practices and effluents of agro-food industries (such as the vegetable and potato processing facilities) are considered as important sources of pesticide release into the environment. Current treatment technologies are either unable to effectively remove pesticides or have considerable disadvantages. Moreover, case-specific constraints can limit the application of certain treatment technologies. Therefore, the general objective of this PhD project is to develop a decision tool, enabling the identification of the most suitable treatment technology for a case-specific pesticide contamination in (waste)water of vegetable and potato processing companies. As various classes and types of pesticides exist, the first specific objective of this PhD is to select relevant pesticides that need to be tackled in the project. For this, multiple aspects will be considered, such as the presence of pesticides in relevant water types (being surface water, groundwater, tap water, and process water) and chemical properties (e.g. octanol-water partitioning coefficient, toxicity to aquatic organisms, half-life time in water). Input from industry will also be used to identify bottlenecks in a specific context such as water-reuse or bio-label certification. The second specific objective is to test, improve and compare constructed wetlands and membrane technologies as single treatment technologies. In addition, the optimization of the overall removal efficiency may require a smart coupling of unit processes (integrated solutions) or hybrid treatment solutions (e.g. adsorbers in wetlands). This work is the central part of this project and will be carried out via lab scale and on pilot scale tests related to demo cases in Flanders. Finally, benchmarking of treatment technologies will be carried out with a value chain view, using criteria such as spatial requirements, energy use, OPEX, CAPEX.