Removal of pesticides in drinking water by novel use of AOPs and nanofiltration

The access to clean drinking water is by many considered a universal human right; however, today large parts of the drinking water sources around the world have become polluted with chemicals foreign to the environment, known as xenobiotics. Even a country like Denmark that prides itself of not having to clean its drinking water, is having issues with contamination of groundwater resources with especially pesticides.
The purpose of the PhD project is to develop a technique for removal of pesticdes from drinking water. This is to be achivied through a novel combination of Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) and nanofiltration. AOPs covers a wide range a techniques, which form highly reactive hydroxyl radicals that are very effective for degrading pollutants. Pesticides are usually present in very low concentrations, and to avoid having to treat very large amounts of water with energy consuming AOPs, nanofiltration could be an effective methods for upconcentrating the pesticides in a more manageable volume of water.