The global objective of the ENDETECH (ENzymatic Decontamination TECHnology) program is to develop a technology which aims at eliminating persistent pharmaceutical pollutants in wastewaters originating from drug manufacturing sites, households, hospitals and animal farms, thanks to an innovative enzymatic treatment. The pharmaceutical pollutants targeted in priority during this project are antibiotics and hormones & endocrine disruptors.
Six partners from four different countries will work closely for this 3-year project: c-LEcta and the Goethe Frankfurt University (Germany), ChiralVision (The Netherlands), Da Volterra and the European Membrane Institute (France) and the Catalan Institute for Water Research (Spain).
Our part in the project the ecotoxicological evaluation of the enzymatic degradation of pharmaceuticals and endocrine disrupting compounds. For that, we used a battery of bioassays to characterize the degradation of toxicity (e.g., growth inhibition by antibiotics, endocrine activity) and the formation of potentially toxic metabolites. In a green chemistry approach, we also analyzed whether the process itself results in an unwanted toxicity (e.g., by chemicals leaching from the used materials).
Website: http://endetech.davolterra.com
Start: February 1st, 2012
End: January 31st, 2015
Funding agency: European Commission (FP7)
Budget: EUR 2 Mio