Emerging contaminants

It is important that we have robust and resilient processes to remove micropollutants from drinking water to ensure that consumers are continually provided with safe and wholesome water.

However, the infrastructure used to treat drinking water is ageing, water quality regulations are getting tighter, populations are growing, and climate change may influence our water resources.

In the case of micropollutants, we have relied on ozone and adsorption processes such as granular activated carbon (GAC) to remove a range of water contaminants. However, these processes are often more than 20-years old and are reaching the end of their design lifespan. Urgent research is therefore needed to understand how these processes can be future-proofed to meet future challenges.