Use Case 1

Agricultural chemicals like pesticides, enter water bodies through runoff, causing significant pollution together with a combination of contaminants derived from household or industrial activities. In the EU, France, Spain, and Italy are major consumers of pesticides. The Water Framework Directive sets pesticide quality standards in surface water; however, many areas exceed these limits.

A demonstration in San Esteban de Litera, Spain, introduces a wastewater treatment plant designed for 1,042 people, aiming to mitigate chemical pollution, mainly caused by agricultural contaminants, by using a Pulsed Discharge Plasma system to eliminate pollutants without additional chemicals, reduce energy consumption, and treat contaminants at the source, thus reducing pollution upstream. Additionally, water quality will be assessed using electrochemical sensor for the monitoring of organic pollutants.

• Demonstrate up to 95% efficiency in degrading the selected agricultural pollutants with the PDP system.
• Assess real-time pollutant sensor framework performance for wastewater monitoring.
• Achieve over 50% reduction in transferring the selected pollutants to water bodies.