LIGHT4CLEANWATER · A NOVEL SYSTEM TO BREAKDOWN HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES IN WASTE WATER STREAMS INTO HARMLESS BIO-FRIENDLY COMPOUNDS USING MULTI-CHROMATIC UV LIGHT

There is a need to mange Europe’s finite water resources. Water discharged from industrial processes needs to be returned into our environment in a safe and clean state. This is reflected by the Water Framework Directive (EC 2455/2001/EC) and other legislation. Over 7,000 million cubic metres of heavily polluted water are discharged by our targeted industries every year in Europe, existing technologies that are used to address this issue do not resolve this problem in a satisfactory way, they simply just remove the problem for further environmentally unfriendly treatment elsewhere. Our technological concept is to develop an industrial wastewater treatment system for the removal of complex organic pollutants by advanced oxidation without chemical additives using a polychromatic light in the UV and VUV range. Basic research work has validated the feasibility of our approach and our proposed solution. Further innovations by us will be in; enabling effective breakdown of organic pollutants in waste streams into harmless material, without the use of chemical additions (measured by total organic carbon – TOC), using a novel, reliable and cost-effective polychromatic excimer UV and VUV source for in-line operation, with associated development of an on-line (TOC) sensor and process control to ensure clean continuous discharges from waste streams. With a potential market for our system in the priority sectors we have selected of over €550 million pa (EU27) and €10 billion globally, we anticipate that within 5 years post project we can save EU industry over €14 billion pa. and generate direct sales revenue of €45 million for our SME partnership led by our SME coordinator (SICO Austria). Our proposed system will be able to safely and cheaply treat toxic organic waste streams; breaking down hazardous substances into harmless bio-friendly compounds, using an advanced oxidation process based on multi-chromatic UV, without generating any secondary toxic by-products.