Bioremediation Solutions for Wastewater Treatment

The revised Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive, entered into force on 1 January 2025, protects human health and the environment from the effects of untreated urban wastewater. Its aim is, among others, to improve water quality through stricter wastewater treatment rules and the inclusion of new pollutants among those already monitored. Also, the directive wants to strengthen the EU’s “polluter-pays” principle by ensuring that those responsible for pollution bear the costs of remediating it.

Bioremediation - innovative nature-based solution

To support these goals we need for innovative nature-based, low-energy and low-chemical solutions to revitalize land and waters affected by deep environmental contamination, such as those based on BIOREMEDIATION. The EU-funded environmental biotechnology Nymphe project (New system-driven bioremediation of polluted habitats and environment) aims to do just that.

The revised Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive protects Europe’s water quality and drives innovation in the water sector by requiring EU countries to:

• Collect and treat wastewater in all urban areas of more than 1,000 inhabitants;

• Remove more nutrients that otherwise cause harmful eutrophication with tertiary treatment;

• Remove micropollutants with quaternary treatment, financed through extended producer responsibility by the sectors responsible for the pollution;

• Monitor wastewater for health threats, such as SARS-Covid content and anti-microbial resistance genes diffusion.

Bioremediation is a solution that uses living organisms like bacteria, fungi, animals, green plants or their enzymes to either eliminate toxic contaminants from water or other matrices by their complete conversion to inorganic products or by their transformation into nontoxic compounds. Pre-cultivated, multiple biologics consortia, which are designed and engineered in a laboratory setting, can target specific contaminants and efficiently remove them from the contaminated area.

Bioremediation methods can be far more effective in tackling environmental pollution than other, more traditional methods of site cleaning where pollutants are not destroyed and the problem is merely postponed. They are less intrusive and can facilitate the remediation of environmental impacts without damaging delicate ecosystems. Bioremediation does not increase the health risk for workers. It can be a much cheaper method compared to standard options such as incineration or landfill.

Bioremediation can be applied in many different places, including soil, water and even air, acting on many different types of pollutants, including petroleum substances, heavy metals, pesticides, making it a very flexible method. Furthermore, it is a permanent method of removing contaminants. Organisms are able to continue the process of removing contaminants for a long time and even after the end of the bioremediation application.