NANOSUPPE - Behavior of engineered nanoparticles in the pathway wastewater - sewage sludge - plant using the examples TiO2, CeO2, MWCNT and quantum dots

The Project NanoSuppe is concerned with the behavior of nanoparticles along the pathway wastewater – sewage sludge – plant as this is one of the main expected paths in the life cycle of manufactured nanomaterials (MNMs) and marks the possible preliminary end of life of a MNM when it is removed from contaminated wastewater, as well as the potential reintroduction into the human food chain by the use of contaminated sewage sludge as fertilizer. Hence, work was conducted concerning the fate of MNMs in wastewater treatment plants by means of model WWTPs in the lab. Furthermore, environmental mobility studies concerning colloidal stability of MNMs in natural waters and their interaction with soil and sewage sludge were conducted by means of batch and column experiments. As a last step the uptake of MNMs by plants was investigated from hydroponic media as well as soil/sewage sludge matrices.
As a rather unique feature the used MNMs (TiO2, CeO2, MWCNTs and quantum dots) were radiolabeled to enable their sensitive detection at environmentally relevant concentrations in the complex matrices involved.