Team:Stockholm/Human Practices
Integrated Human Practices
Providing society with clean water is important to maintain the general health of the population, and there are many regulations and restrictions on how to do it. We want to contribute to the work by cleaning water from pharmaceuticals with our enzymatic solution. We have therefore consulted with experts within wastewater treatment, hospitals and academia. Furthermore, we have gotten valuable feedback from other creatives from the field by joining the new Open Innovation platform "HelloScience" created by Novozymes. Here we got questions about our project, allowing us to create an early user connection to adjust the feasibility and impact of our solution. The methods used today within wastewater treatment were discussed in great details with experts, but also future treatment systems and the practicability and sustainability of our product. The key in our work was defined by talking to people within the community providing transparency and open discussions. The result of our meetings and people that crossed our path became Biotic Blue - a reflection of integrated influences and the community.
Click on the different sections of the image to learn more about each influencer and stage of our project!
Kick-off Presentation
Description: Our team had a long brainstorming phase to find a problem that affects people on a local as well as global scale and has the potential for an impactful solution. Therefore, the Human Practices team prepared an extensive presentation covering a range of problems in Sweden and all over the world.
Input: Besides many other issues, we talked about the pharmaceutical pollution of water in Sweden, the Baltic Sea and in many other countries in the world like the USA, China and India. This problem attracted the attention from all of us.
Adjustment: We started exploring this problem and reached out to professionals in this field.
Berndt Björlenius
Description: Professor in Industrial Biotechnology with a focus on Environmental biology at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Berndt gave us our first important input, which caught the interest of the whole team.
Input:
- Pharmaceuticals enter the environment and can disturb the ecosystem.
- An enzymatic approach is feasible to degrade pharmaceuticals in water.
Adjustment:
- We explored pharmaceutical targets.
- We focused on enzymes to reach our goal.
Gunaratna Kuttuva Rajarao
Description: Researcher in Industrial Biotechnology with a focus on Environmental biology at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Guna gave us important insights in the use of enzymes for our purpose.
Input:
- Introduced us to fungal enzymes specifically from Trametes versicolor, since it degrades pharmaceuticals well.
- Guna also encouraged us to immobilize the enzyme on a carrier instead of genetically engineered organisms in an open or semi-open system.
- Introduced us to the HELCOM and UNESCO report on the Status of pharmaceuticals in the Baltic Sea region, which is the biggest monitoring study of pharmaceutical substances in the Baltic Sea region.
Adjustment:
- We decided to use the laccase of Trametes versicolor.
- We investigated different enzyme immobilization techniques.
- We investigated a range of possible targets for the laccase and picked the ecotoxic antibiotic Sulfamethoxazole from the report. Its concentration in surface water is high and it is not well removed from wastewater with the current techniques. This allowed us to address the problem of ecotoxicity and antibiotic resistance.
First Stage: The enzyme in a catheter
After the first input from Guna and Berndt we came up with our first vision: a catheter with a filter containing the enzyme, which degrades pharmaceuticals before the urine is discarded in the sewage system. These enzymes could be specific for degrading the antibiotics that the patient is taking.
Brainstorming with our advisors
Description: Our team discussed the 1st stage idea and its impact with our advisors.
Input:
- Urine from catheters are not the main source of pharmaceuticals entering the environment. Although many patients have catheters, people in Sweden are generally treated with antibiotics at home or in elderly homes, accounting for the majority of pollution.
- Laccase can be improved since it does not detoxify Sulfamethoxazole very fast, which could gave our project a new dimension.
Adjustment:
- Moved our focus to municipal wastewater treatment plants.
- Our drylab team explored molecular modelling to improve SMX and understand the enzymatic reaction.
Salla Maarit Koskela
Description: PhD candidate at the Division of Glycoscience at KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Input:
- Pichia pastoris is a feasible host organism to use for laccase production, since the protein can be easily secreted.
- Introduced us to the Pichia expression vector later used to express our laccase.
Adjustment:
- She encouraged us to use Pichia pastoris for the expression and gave us the strain.
Lynn Kamerlin
Description: Professor in Biochemistry at Uppsala University. She is an expert in fundamental theoretical organic chemistry for protein evolution and molecular modeling.
Input:
- Important advice for the theory behind modelling and the practical methods we used.
- Recommended us to identify the regions of interest in the enzyme, and to learn more about how the enzyme works.
Adjustment:
- Decided to improve the enzyme using molecular modelling.
Joakim Larsson
Description: Professor in Environmental Pharmacology at University of Gothenburg. Director of Antibiotic Resistance Research. He also investigates the influence of antibiotics on organisms in sludge and wastewater.
Input:
- No organisms with the improved laccase can be released in the environment. The gene could pass through to pathogenic bacteria and serve there as a novel resistance gene.
- If you want to target antibiotics you need to focus on locations where the concentration is high enough to reach a selective level.
- For implementation you could focus on industrial effluent where effluents are high enough to reach selective levels.
- Look into proposed discharge limits based on the Predicted No Effect Concentration (PNECs) of your targeted compound.
Adjustment:
- Strengthened the direction of immobilization since no modified organism are used at site of implementation.
- We investigated the upstream hot spots where pharmaceuticals are produced or are undiluted.
- We took the PNECs from literature as the base for future regulations (see our developed Student Standard together with ISO).
Christian Baresel
Description: Expert in wastewater treatment, research coordinator and project manager at IVL (Swedish Environmental Research Institute). Christian leads innovative projects at a pilot wastewater treatment plant where new techniques are tested to be integrated in wastewater treatment plants.
Input:
- Christian gave us important advice regarding what our product needs to have to be applied in a wastewater treatment plant, such as the temperature, pH and oxygen availability.
- Filters clog and are not that effective and durable.
- A liquid or a powder would be easier to handle in wastewater treatment.
- Try to immobilize the laccase on moringa seeds, which are seeds of a tree which have shown to absorb pollutants in water.
Adjustment:
- We focused on developing a product that do not clog and is easy to handle.
- We looked into different carriers for feasible immobilization for a treatment process.
Second stage: Our enzyme immobilized on silica powder or moringa seeds in wastewater
After we met with Christian, we imagined our product as a powder consisting of biodegradable beads carrying the immobilized laccase.
Henriksdal wastewater treatment plant, Sofia Andersson
Description: Development engineer at Henriksdal wastewater treatment plant in Stockholm
Input:
- The meeting gave us a better picture of how the cleaning process works today as well as the large scale needed to clean wastewater from a whole city.
- We discussed possible implementations of our product, for example taking the beads out in the first sand filter and separating them from the sand.
- The most effective and cost-saving method is used to improve the cleaning process.
Adjustment:
- We looked more into where in the wastewater treatment plants our product could be implemented.
- Development of a system where the beads can be reused.
- To retrieve the beads we got the idea to use a magnetic material.
Åland wastewater treatment plant
Description: After visiting the Henriksdal, the biggest wastewater treatment plant in Sweden, we wanted to investigate the visibility of our approach in a smaller wastewater treatment plant with a different infrastructure.
Input:
- Since the treatment plant is smaller our enzyme might have not enough time to detoxify sulfamethoxazole.
- The infrastructure should be as minimal as possible since space is limited.
Adjustment:
- We confirmed that we have to improve our laccase to work faster.
- We investigated the implementation of our beads in pumping stations and the retrieval at the inflow of the wastewater treatment plant.
- We considered keeping the infrastructure needed for our solution as low as possible.
Third Stage: The laccase on magnetic nanospheres
Since producing enzymes immobilized on beads for one-time use would be too expensive, not sustainable, and therefore not feasible, we had the idea to use magnetic particles as a carrier for our laccase. We imagined the carrier to be recycled from the wastewater with a strong magnet.
Håkan Jönsson
Description: Senior advisor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), at the Department of Energy and Technology in Sweden. Expert in recycling technology.
Input:
- If the bead is used in very polluted wastewater it can form a biofilm very fast, which would decrease the impact of the enzyme and the magnetic properties of the bead.
- In the future there will be a more extensive monitoring of pharmaceuticals in wastewater.
Adjustment:
- We investigated the introduction of a recovery system for our beads where they can be cleaned before they are brought back in the wastewater.
- We confirmed the rising need of our solution.
“HelloScience”
Description: Many experts are evaluating projects in water treatment on the Open Innovation platform “HelloScience”. After we joined the new platform as one of the first members, we quickly got our first input.
Input:
The duration of the activity of the enzyme on the bead could be a problem.
Adjustment:
We looked further into the implementation of a recovery and recycling system, which would increase the perseverance of the enzyme in wastewater. This system should wash the beads and bring them back in the system in a continuous flow.
Huddinge Hospital
- Staffan Rosenborg, MD, PhD, Head of Clinical Trials, Clinical Pharmacology
- Karin Sonesson - environmental and chemical administrator
- Ewa Frank- environmental and waste administrator
Description: We investigated the role hospitals play in pharmaceutical pollution and wanted to know if our idea would be feasible more upstream at hospitals.
Input:
- Hospitals and elderly homes are not the biggest source of pharmaceuticals. The sum of domestic use of pharmaceuticals come together in municipal wastewater treatment plants.
- Hospitals in Sweden are beginning to investigate how to treat their wastewater and search for future solutions.
Adjustment:
- We were supported in the idea to find a sustainable solution for the rising problem of pharmaceutical pollution.
- We investigated the implementation of our solution upstream of the sewage system but continued to focus on municipal wastewater treatment plants since it is a more centralized approach.
AstraZeneca
Description: Astrazeneca was one of the first pharmaceutical companies who installed a private wastewater treatment plant. They gave us important insights regarding the properties needed to treat water with a high amount of pharmaceuticals.
Input:
- Astrazeneca uses a separated tank for the inflow of activated carbon.
- Our concept is very interesting but needs an inflow system for our beads and an element for their recovery.
Adjustment:
- We worked on the implementation of a separated tank, where the beads can be kept, washed and brought back into the system over an inflow system.
“HelloScience”
Description: In September we received new input and constructive feedback in the Open Innovation platform “HelloScience”.
Input:
A fast formation of a biofilm can decrease the activity of the enzyme.
Adjustment:
We focused strongly on the implementation of a washing solution after we received this feedback from different sources to decrease biofilm formation.
Pharem Biotech
Description: Pharem Biotech is a company developing an enzymatic treatment method for wastewater treatment. With their unique approach using enzymes to target different pharmaceuticals in the wastewater, Pharem was the perfect partner to receive important feedback about our enzyme and where they think it could work best.
Input:
- A treatment of pharmaceuticals in wastewater before biological treatment is unique, because everyone else is targeting the final effluent. With that approach we would avoid the contact between antibiotics and bacteria in the treatment plant.
Adjustment:
- Worked on a final implementation of our solution before the biological treatment to avoid the contact between antibiotics and bacteria in the wastewater treatment plant.
Mohammad Abuasbeh
Description: PhD candidate at the Department of Energy Technology, School of Industrial Engineering & Management, KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
Input:
For an industrial application you need to separate the beads from the wastewater so you can treat them isolated and make them reachable.
Adjustment:
We added a separation system to the construction of our product. With that conception we completed the recycling system and were able to fuse it with the important recovery system.
Final Stage
The beads carrying the laccase in a wastewater treatment plant are mixed with the wastewater in a tank one step before the biological treatment. They receive aeration from the bottom of the tank, which prevents the beads from sedimenting. The connection pipe between this tank and the biological treatment contains a magnetic separation system shown as a turning wheel with magnets (red). This brings the beads to a separated tank where they are recovered in a washing solution and pumped back into the tank containing the wastewater. With this concept, we enable recycling of our enzyme with a magnetic separation system and are able to fuse this construction with a recovery system that washes the beads and keeps the enzyme active. We keep the needed infrastructure low and make our enzyme on magnetic carriers reusable to detoxify wastewater from pharmaceuticals.
Following the path of water
Access to clean water reduces infectious diseases and keeps the marine homeostasis at bay. The process of keeping the water clean plays a central role in our communities, but the process can differ depending on geographical location. This is due to different regulations and laws that are implemented, and it is also affected by economical factors. We, therefore, met with several experts and wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) professionals to pitch Biotic Blue.
"It is important to have a tailor-made treatment" - Christian Baresel
We met professionals within wastewater treatment from both municipal as well as private wastewater treatment plants. The first meeting we had was with Christian Baresel, an expert and research coordinator and project manager at IVL (Swedish Environmental Research Institute). Christian has worked within the area for many years, and he thought that our idea is important since it tackles antibiotic resistance. The most important feedback we got is that no treatment plant is the same, and therefore we need to develop methods to provide each plant with their own need. One idea would be to use immobilization on degradable carriers. He made us look further into immobilization, and urged us to contact hospitals for information about how they take care of their waste.
"We always had, and still have, a belief that nature is a good cleaning system itself. Therefore wastewater is not cleaned more than necessary." - Håkan Jönsson
Håkan Jönsson is a senior advisor at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU. Håkan believes that Biotic Blue could be implemented in their research; making multifunctional toilets using the generated by-products as fertilizers - free from antibiotics. These kinds of toilets could be implemented in hospitals and elderly homes, where the concentrations of pharmaceuticals are higher.
Process engineer Stefan Berg at the municipal treatment SYVAB, Himmelfjärdsverket was interested in Biotic Blue, but advised us to look more into the sensitivity, retention time and how many cycles Biotic Blue could be used for. Sofia Andersson, Development engineer at the municipal Henriksdal wastewater treatment plant thought that there might be difficulties implementing Biotic Blue in their wastewater plant based on the retention time, cycle time and the pH difference. However, Sofia thought that the implementation of Biotic Blue in the sand filters could be feasible, where the enzyme could be retrieved and reused. The meeting left us thinking about possible places and steps in the plants where our product could be adapted to. Since space is an issue for many wastewater treatment plants, this also needs to be considered when implementing Biotic Blue.
Thomas Mörn, process engineer at the municipal plant Lotsbroverket (Åland) thought that Biotic Blue has great potential, but that on Åland it would be most suitable in a pump station before the plant. He gave us valuable information: not all houses are connected to a treatment plant, which is important when thinking about the implementation.
Meeting with Elin Kusoffsky and Jesper Olsson, Investigation engineers at the municipal plant Kungsängsverket, Uppsala, we got the insight that most plants are not developed for cleaning complex pollutants. This is the case for Kungsängsverket, but they are planning for the implementation of a fourth cleaning step to eliminate pharmaceutical residues in 2024. The methods they are investigating are ozonation together with sand treatment, active carbon or a combination of the methods. However, these methods increased the energy consumption which causes a negative impact on the environment due to increased coal production. Elin and Jesper gave us feedback on how we should think when implementing a product that is going to be used in the environment.
The community in health and disease
Another important part of society that is heavily intertwined with water and pharmaceuticals are hospitals. Although not accounting for the majority of pharmaceuticals in water, they are accounting for a more concentrated release of certain pharmaceuticals.
We met with Project leader and Environmental coordinator Sofia Svebrant at the Academic Hospital in Uppsala to talk about laws and regulations for hospitals regarding pharmaceutical release at point sources. Since hospitals are a point source of wastewater containing pharmaceutical residues, they are currently working on investigating options to clean antibiotics and resistant microorganisms from the wastewater, together with Uppsala University. Important to note is that hospitals are point sources of directly harmful pharmaceuticals, such as cytotoxic compounds. Sofia gave us valuable information about how hospitals are involved in the situation, and how we could potentially target their problems. Since they are currently investigating enzymatic treatments, Biotic Blue was thought of as a positive addition to the emerging field.
When pitching Biotic Blue to Staffan Rosenborg (Head of Clinical Trials), Karin Sonesson (Environmental and chemical administrator) and Ewa Frank (Environmental waste administrator) at Huddinge Hospital, we got confirmation that we are on the right track with the Biotic Blue design and implementation process. They explained that there is a rising demand for removal of pharmaceuticals in wastewater and that hospitals are adopting a new way of thinking by connecting pharmaceutical treatment of a patient with environmental risk information. Our Biotic Blue has a bright future, but it will also need to meet more complex requirements to make an impact in the future.
Influences from the market
There are different types of wastewater treatment plants, and we had the opportunity to both meet municipal as well as private plants. Process engineer Peter Gruvstedt from the private plant at AstraZeneca thought that Biotic Blue could be implemented in their fungal process step of purification, if an additional system was built on the side of the compartment, and if the enzyme was optimized for their pharmaceuticals. AstraZeneca’s treatment plant was especially interesting for Biotic Blue since the pH of the fungal treatment is optimal for the enzyme as well as a controlled temperature.
"This could reduce the amount of sulfamethoxazole in both WWTP effluents, the wastewater and the sludge." - Pharem Biotech
Meeting with the CEO Martin Ryen and Domenico Palumberi from Pharem, we had the opportunity to pitch our idea - Biotic Blue. Pharem produces enzymes for treating Swedish wastewater, and they both gave us useful advice and insights in the lab procedure. Martin, the founder and CEO of Pharem thought that it would be feasible to incorporate Biotic Blue before the biological treatment of wastewater since it would reduce the risk of triggering antibiotic resistance. After our meeting, we got back to revise our product implementation and discuss in which location our vision makes the biggest impact.
Regulating the field
Britta Hedlund from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, Swedish: Naturvårdsverket) helped us to understand how the knowledge behind law and regulation is compiled, where the EPA provides the parliament with knowledge within the field. Britta got us to understand that there is no standardized way of measuring pharmaceuticals in the ocean or the wastewater. We, therefore, contacted lawyers specialized on environmental problems and the Water and Ocean department in Gothenburg. One of our most vital works in the good fight for the removal of pharmaceuticals in wastewater was through the International Standardization Organization (ISO), standardizing the limits of pharmaceuticals in water. You can read more about our Standard Student Society within ISO at our Public engagement page.
Water is a necessity for our existence, and without it society would not sustain. After our meeting with Britta, our interest in law, morals and regulations was sparked. We therefore contacted Per Sandin, Associate Professor in Philosophy and lecturer in Bioethics and Environmental Ethics at SLU (Uppsala). He got us to grasp the importance of understanding how a product could be used for detrimental purposes (dual-use). He emphasized how important water is for all individuals, and how vulnerable we would be if our water sources would become contaminated. Learn more about our insights in our booklet “How safe is your project?”.
Photo: (C) Fredrik Sandberg
Dive deeper into treatment plants
Cleaning wastewater is done in numerous and different ways, which we noticed when visiting different plants. However, they all have the common goal of reducing organic material (BOD/COD), nitrogen and phosphorus. You will find a summary of the different steps of cleaning water in this section, as well as a comparison with the different plants we talked and met with.
Every wastewater treatment plant has a grid that takes away big objects that could cause damage to the machinery. Influent matter that is separated from the water is cleaned, compressed and put in containers to be used as landfill or to be burned. Sand capture will collect incoming sand from old, eroding concrete pipes. Some plants utilize a finer grid to separate the water from bigger matter further, while some plants utilize aeration, keeping the sludge floating while separating the sand which sinks to the bottom - a step called pre-sedimentation.
Phosphorus will then be removed using ferrous sulphate, which precipitates the phosphorus. The iron extracts the diluted phosphorous compounds which are present in the sludge. Iron makes the sludge heavier, and the sludge will sink to the bottom and pumped away. Ferrous sulphate can pose difficulties to the treatment step since it has to be mixed with oxygen to work. The production of air is expensive, and sometimes unoxidized iron will continue further in the treatment and get oxidized in the biological treatment. This leads to the uptake of unnecessary space in the treatment process.
Biological treatment with bacteria and other microorganisms will in the next step transform nitrogen to nitrogen gas. Nitrogen present in the aquatic environment works as a fertilizer leading to increased algae growth in seas. This poses a threat when the temperature is low, but during summer at a water temperature of 20 °C the biological treatment works properly. Anaerobic and aerobic bacteria will work together to transform ammonium nitrate to nitrate, and nitrate to nitrogen gas, which is removed by ventilation. During winter, methanol is added to increase the efficacy of the bacteria. Excess sludge is removed and pumped back to the pre-sedimentation.
The steps used after biological treatment depend on the plant. For example, flotation by using polyaluminium chloride can be used. Another example is sand filters or lamella sedimentation. Flotation is achieved by mixing compressed water with air. The bubbles inside the tank will collect the flocks floating to the surface, separating them from the water. If the flocks are not big enough, polymers can be added. In the case of sand filters, the water is filtered through sand to remove fine impurities from the water. Lamella sedimentation uses iron chloride to make the sludge sediment from the water, further cleaning the water from impurities.
The sludge is collected in a mixed sludge tank. Water is removed using polymers, and the sludge is continuing to a digester heated up to 37 degrees Celsius for about a month, before being used as compost.
Table describing the different purification steps in the wastewater plants visited.
References
- UNESCO and HELCOM. 2017. Pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment of the Baltic Sea region – A status report. UNESCO Emerging Pollutants in Water Series – No. 1, UNESCO Publishing, Paris.
- Kungsängsverket, Uppsala vatten, Available at: uppsalavatten.se/Global/Uppsala_vatten/Dokument/ Trycksaker/kungsangsverket_avloppsreningsverk.pdf
- SYVAB, Available at: syvab.se/himmerfjardsverket/reningsprocessen