Use Case 3

Human activities and industrial processes often release effluents containing heavy metals such as cadmium, lead, and mercury. Many of the heavy metals are hazardous even in low concentrations and the accumulation of these pollutants poses a significant threat to the environment and water ecosystems. Once the metals have entered the environment, detecting, and eliminating the pollutants from water proves challenging. Thus, preventing any release into the environment is crucial, and recognizing this, the EU has established discharge limits for many of the heavy metals.

The use case 3 focuses on water quality monitoring and heavy metal removal from wastewater. Water quality monitoring is essential to assess changes and improvements within the EU. The metals to be included in monitoring are Cd, Pb, Cu and Zn. To remove heavy metals (in particular Zn, Cu and Al) the innovative 4D Scavenger® technology will be integrated into a wastewater treatment plant managed by SMAT. The technology 4D Scavenger® can selectively extract heavy metals from water and reduce pollution.

• Removal of at least 95% of heavy metals from wastewater.
• Implementation of a real-time pollutant sensor framework for monitoring heavy metals up to their Predicted No Effect Concentration (PNEC).