Search
News
January 29, 2025

CIIMAR supports nature-based solutions for treating pollutants in wastewater treatment plants around the world

Reducing the burden of ECs through the use of different nature-based solutions is the focus of the latest international project coordinated by CIIMAR.

In response to the growing pollutant threat to aquatic ecosystems, the new project led by CIIMAR, NATUREBIOPROMO, aims to work on improving wastewater treatment plants by coupling existing solutions with new nature-based technologies capable of removing emerging contaminants from wastewater in an efficient, economical and environmentally viable way.

Aquatic ecosystems are increasingly threatened by numerous factors of human origin. Pollution is one of the main factors affecting these environments, particularly from emerging contaminants (ECs) such as pharmaceuticals, personal care products, PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances)and pesticides, which have generated growing concern in recent years from the public to the scientific community. Due to their ubiquitous use, these pollutants are widely distributed in the environment and pose significant health risks to ecosystems and living organisms.

A large proportion of these contaminants are associated with human activities and are made up of persistent compounds that conventional wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have difficulty removing effectively. Reducing the load of ECs in wastewater treatment plants is the focus of the latest international project NATUREBIOPROMO, coordinated by CIIMAR.

The NATUREBIOPROMO project

The NATURBIOPROMO project – NATURE-based hybrid solutions as promoters of biodiversity and their implications for the mitigation of emerging contaminants – is led by CIIMAR researcher Patrícia Cardoso in a consortium of 40 researchers from 7 institutions spread across Europe, South America and Africa, and aims to develop and implement innovative, efficient, economical and environmentally viable Nature-based Solutions (NBS) to improve the removal of ECs from WWTP effluents.

NATUREBIOPROMO aims to take advantage of the knowledge applied locally in different NBS to work across the board on their application in WWTPs in the 6 countries of the consortium: Portugal, France, Czechia, Italy, Brazil and South Africa, and thus equip them to deal with the different chemical contaminants to which they are subjected, including ECs.

According to project leader Patrícia Cardoso, ‘the use of four case studies developed in Portugal, Brazil, Czechia and South Africa, spread over four continents, will provide a more comprehensive view of how to act in different scenarios and climate zones. This approach will contribute to greater efficiency in the treatment of WWTP effluents at a global level.’

This pioneering approach aligns with the new European Directive on urban wastewater treatment, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Water Framework Directive, contributing to a significant improvement in water quality in aquatic systems.

The international consortium

In addition to the coordination of CIIMAR and the contribution of the Benthic Ecology and Environmental Solutions research team, NATUREBIOPROMO includes researchers from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP), the University of Montpellier, the Czech University of Life Sciences, the University of Brescia, the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.

NATUREBIOPROMO is funded by the Biodiversa+ programme in its BiodivNBS strand, which aims to support projects that want to explore projects in emerging areas, their commitments and the mechanisms that influence Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) and their effective application.