The number of people living in the coastal zone is rapidly increasing, resulting in an additional load of pharmaceuticals for WWTPs.

Part of the pollutants, especially active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), have become an emerging problem in the Baltic Sea Region.

Conventional treatment technologies employed in wastewater treatment plants (preliminary, primary, secondary, and tertiary treatments) are inadequate for degrading residues of persistent active pharmaceutical ingredients released into the aquatic environment.

The occurrence of pharmaceuticals in the environment and the water cycle at trace levels may pose risks to human health associated with long-term exposure to low concentrations of pharmaceuticals and the combined effects of their mixtures.

In this regard, the AdvIQwater project focuses on the development of solutions and hybrid technology for the degradation of metabolized and unchanged pharmaceuticals and the removal of heavy metals.

The project's main objective is to highlight the proactive approach to the sustainable use of advanced treatment technologies to prevent micropollutants and emerging contaminants from reaching the Baltic Sea and to disseminate this knowledge to the Baltic Sea Region.

Through the cooperation of research institutions and non-governmental organisation from Poland, Denmark and Estonia, we are sharing our experience among us for the significant improvement of advanced wastewater treatment processes.

In the project, advanced treatment methods based on photocatalysis, fungal treatment, and biofilms were studied to introduce practical and durable output for sustainable waters.

A combined treatment train MBBR-Photocatalysis-GAC sorption has been tested. While final data treatment is still ongoing, it seems that this is a feasible approach to controlling micropollutant emissions from sources such as WWTPs to the surface waters and marine environment.

Thanks to the Interreg BSR support, the developed solutions will ensure first outlines for wider use of advanced treatment processes for a better chemical state of released effluents from wastewater treatment plants in the Baltic Sea Region.

The results will be shared via dialogue, training, and guidance with target groups in the partner countries during project implementation and at the final seminars/workshops, which will ensure the efficient utilization of the results and further implementation of the advanced treatment technology in wastewater treatment.