Niagara Project

NIAGARA is a European project funded by the European Research Executive Agency (REA). The project aims to develop a solution for the assessment and mitigation of chemical and microbiological contamination of drinking water and to integrate all of them into a complete pilot demonstrator that will enable drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs) to: control and remove chemical and biological contamination present in European drinking water, as well as (4) manage and minimise the risks associated with its presence.

NIAGARA approaches and their solutions are:

(1) Real-time monitoring. NIAGARA will develop multi-analyte biosensors capable of simultaneously quantifying up to 4 contaminants of high concern of very different chemical nature: BPA, imazalil, H. pylori and paracetamol/ibuprofen.

(2) Remediation. A removal and disinfection system based on a tandem of two Immobilised Enzyme Degradation Systems (IEDS) bio filters and a UV/TiO2 photo reactor will be designed. The Disinfection By-Products (DBPs) formed will be identified and their mechanisms of occurrence and toxicity will be predicted.

(4) A fast and cost-effective method for real-time monitoring of the spread of these 4 pollutants using a hydraulic model that exceeds the performance of current methods.

These solutions will be validated up to a pilot scale in a case study in the city of Valencia, in a DWTP, and using the drinking water supply system of district #9 (Jesus).