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Hi! My name is Femke and I am 17 years old. I live in the Netherlands and I finished highschool this year. In september I’m going to study medicine at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. I’m thrilled to go to Stockholm this year with Elle and Diona. I’m very interested in research and water, so I’m excited to see all projects this summer. Our project is about the pharmaceutical residues in surface water, which we removed with lignin, an organic molecule.
Tell us what the water concern in your country is!The water concern in the Netherlands is mainly in the filtering of water. Even though our filter systems are very good, the surface water still contains many harmful residues including pharmaceutical residues.
Reducing pharmaceuticals in surface water
Many pharmaceuticals used daily by millions of people end up in the sewer. Because these molecules are small, they are difficult to filter out of sewage. The drug residues thus enter surface water, posing a threat to the water chain. To address this problem, research was conducted to see if it is possible to develop toilet paper that will bond with the drug residues, so that they are better removed from sewage. Lignin, a common network polymer in plants, was found to bond well with the micropollutants. Our research showed that it is possible to significantly reduce the pollutant pharmaceuticals in surface water using toilet paper containing lignin.
