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The scope of sewage treatment is changing: Up to date municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) were seen as an end-of-pipe treatment just before discharge, having the aim to avoid eutrophication and hygienic health hazard in surface water. Due to the global demographic trends as well as new legislations (e.g. the Water Framework Directive, WFD) increased focus is put on quantity and quality of effluents: WWTP are more and more seen as interface between sanitation and environment, delivering resources to the environment or human activities (recharge of drinking water reservoirs, recycling of nutrient, efficient energy use). This focus shift has implications on the quality goals set for WWTP products: land requirement, effluent N, P load, effluent pathogen load, energy optimization. New focus: nutrient recycling, micropollutants: ecotoxicology of the effluent energy production. NEPTUNE is focusing on technology solutions allowing to meet present and future standards via upgrading of existing infrastructure (new control strategies with online sensors; effluent upgrading with oxidation, activated carbon or wetland treatment; sludge processing for safe nutrient recycle) as well as via new techniques (fuel cell applications; new oxidative agents; polymer production from sludge). By including pathogen and ecotoxicity aspects into life cycle assessment studies (LCA), the project is helping improve the comparability of various technical options and propose a suitability ranking. The new focus given by the WFD and the emerging interest on organic (eco-)toxic compounds requires characterizing treated effluent and treatment technologies concerning ecotoxicologic aspects and micropollutants. The project is contributing to this discussion by ecotoxicity assessment and micropollutant fate studies.
The proposed regulation concerning the registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals (REACH) requires demonstration of the safe manufacture of chemicals and their safe use throughout the supply chain. There is therefore a strong need to strengthen and advance human and environmental risk assessment knowledge and practices with regard to chemicals, in accord with the precautionary principle. The goal of the project OSIRIS is to develop integrated testing strategies (ITS) fit for REACH that enable to significantly increase the use of non-testing information for regulatory decision making, and thus minimise the need for animal testing. To this end, operational procedures will be developed, tested and disseminated that guide a transparent and scientifically sound evaluation of chemical substances in a risk-driven, context-specific and substance-tailored (RCS) manner. The envisaged decision theory framework includes alternative methods such as chemical and biological read-across, in vitro results, in vivo information on analogues, qualitative and quantitative structure-activity relationships, thresholds of toxicological concern and exposure-based waiving, and takes into account cost-benefit analyses as well as societal risk perception. It is based on the new REACH paradigm to move away from extensive standard testing to a more intelligent, substance-tailored approach. The work will be organised in five interlinked research pillars (chemical domain, biological domain, exposure, integration strategies and tools, case studies), with a particular focus on more complex, long-term and high-cost endpoints. Case studies will demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the new ITS methodologies, and provide guidance in concrete form. To ensure optimal uptake of the results obtained in this project, end-users in industry and regulatory authorities will be closely involved in monitoring and in providing specific technical contributions to this project.
Objective: The project highSol aims at the transformation of innovative manufacturing concepts on a laboratory scale into the full industrial scale. The result will be the demonstration of technologies which will enable the mass manufacturing of Photovoltaic products with a serious reduction of manufacturing costs. The objectives are: - Demonstrating the automated manufacturing of Photovoltaic products based on thin wafers with a thickness of 150 micro m. - Increasing and maintaining the overall yield with the implementation of in-process quality control and feedback systems. - Demonstrating the manufacturing integration with the implementation of interfaces which will serve for future standards. The objectives will be reached by the following approach: Saving feedstock, by enabling manufacturing of 150Mikro m wafer with a wafer size of 210*210mm, will enable a direct cost reduction of 25%. As the envisaged cost reduction in Photovoltaic industry is 5% per year, this action alone will provide European Photovoltaic industry.
Objective: The objective of the project is the research on of low-cost components for fuel cell (FC-) systems and electric drive systems which can be used in future hybridised FC-vehicles (medium term objective) and ICE vehicles. The components will be analysed and tested in two FC-vehicle platforms with different concepts. The project consortium consists of 6 major European car manufacturers, 10 major and smaller suppliers, 6 institutes and 4 universities. The focus of the project is on components which have a high potential of significant cost reduction by decreasing complexity and/or choosing innovative approaches to support a future mass production. In the field of FC-system components the key components which are investigated are innovative air supply based on electrical turbochargers, novel humidification subsystems, new hydrogen sensors and innovative hydrogen injection system components. For the electric drive system we focus on highly integrated drive trains (converters, inverters and electrical motors) and high-energy-density battery systems based on innovative Li-Ion technology which has been developed in EU funded projects (EV-lift, Lionheart). All the component work is accompanied by a sub project which will work on requirements of the vehicles, subsystems and components, standardisation of the components, identification of synergies between components for FC- and ICE Hybrids, safety aspects and a comparative investigation of different electrical storage systems (battery / supercap) and the respective e-storage management. In the system level subproject not only will the components be integrated in the two validator vehicles and tested, but it will also be worked on optimised vehicle control strategies, energy-management and development of modular system control software. The improved system components and subsystems could be used as a basis for future FC- and ICE-vehicles which are planned to be deployed in the HyCOM initiative and the Lighthouse projects.
Objective: Observational records show that the global climate is changing and ongoing changes are also visible in Central Eastern Europe. About 64Prozent of all catastrophic events in Europe since 1980 can directly be attributed to weather and climate extremes. Climate change projections show even an increasing likelihood of extremes. Certainly negative impacts of climate change will involve significant economic looses in several regions of Europe, while others may bring health or welfare problems somewhere else. Within CLAVIER three representative Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) will be studied in detail: Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. Researches from 6 countries and different disciplines will identify linkages between climate change and its impact on weather patterns with consequences on air pollution, extremes events, and on water resources. Furthermore, an evaluation of the economic impact on agriculture, tourism, energy supply and the public sector will be conducted. This is of increasing importance for CEEC, which are currently facing a rapid economic development, but also for the European Union as e.g. Romania's and Bulgaria's high vulnerability from extreme events such as floods will impact not only the respective economic goals for joining the EU but also the EU solidarity fund. CLAVIER will focus on ongoing and future climate changes in Central and Eastern European Countries using measurements and existing regional scenarios to determine possible developments of the climate and to address related uncertainty. In addition, climate projections with very high detail will be carried out for CEEC to fulfil the need for a large amount of detail in time and space, which is inherent in local and regional impact assessment.
CARBOOCEAN IP aims at an accurate assessment of the marine carbon sources and sinks. Target is to reduce the present uncertainties in the quantification of net annual air-sea CO2 fluxes by a factor of 2 for the world ocean and by a factor of 4 for the Atlantic Ocean. The IP will deliver description, process-oriented understanding and prediction of the marine carbon sources and sinks with special emphasis on the Atlantic and Southern Oceans on a time scale -200 to +200 years from now. Expected breakthroughs by CARBOOCEAN IP will be firm answers to the following as yet unresolved questions: How large are the Atlantic and Southern Ocean CO2 sinks precisely, i.e. how efficient is the downward transport of carbon in the deep-water production areas of the world ocean? What do European rivers and shelf seas contribute to the large scale CO2 sources and sinks pattern of the North Atlantic Ocean in relation to uptake within Western Europe ? What are the key biogeochemical feedbacks that can affect ocean carbon uptake and how do they operate? What is the quantitative global and regional impact of such feedbacks when forced by climatic change in the next 200 years? CARBOOCEAN IP will answer these questions through basic research in a strategic combination of extensive large-scale observations, process studies and advanced computer models focusing on all quantitatively important aspects to the problem. The project is based on three elements - observations, process studies, and integrative modelling - equivalent to description, understanding and prediction: A marine carbon balance for the last 200 years based on high quality observations. A process-based understanding of the marine carbon cycle response to a change in forcing as derived from process studies in the field, in the laboratory, and through modelling. Integrated carbon budgets for the interval -200 to +200 years from now by synthesis of a modelling framework with observations and new feedback. Prime Contractor: University of Bergen, Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research; Bergen; Norway.
The scale of influence of global change and the added value of co-ordinating the scientific activities of the EU and North American countries to assess, predict and mitigate the effects on marine ecosystems of the North Atlantic and their services is the justification for the development of the BASIN SSA. An important step towards such a co-ordinated approach is the development of an implementation plan where by jointly funded international projects can be supported. The development of such a plan is the first key goal of BASIN. The second goal of BASIN is to develop an integrated basin-scale North Atlantic research program, for submission to the EU 7th framework program, US NSF and Canadian NSERC for joint funding. Programmatic goals will be achieved in working groups including experts from both the EU and North America as well as delegates from funding organisations. As a prerequisite for the development of the research proposal, this SSA will (1) assess the status of climate related ecosystem research in the North Atlantic basin and associated shelf seas, (2) identify gaps in systematic observations and process understanding of atmospheric and oceanic parameters, (3) identify the potential for consolidation of long-term observations from EU and international databases for modelling and prediction. The BASIN research program will focus on: Resolving the natural variability, potential impacts and feedbacks of global change on the structure, function and dynamics of ecosystems; Improving the understanding of marine ecosystem functioning; Developing ecosystem based management strategies. Hence, BASIN will contribute significantly to the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) 10-Year Implementation Plan via the development of comprehensive, coordinated, and sustained observations of the Earth System, improved monitoring of the state of the Earth, increased understanding of Earth processes, and enhanced prediction.
Objective: During the past six years two RTD-projects have been performed by a consortium of seven European partners to investigate ice forces on marine structures. The aim of this work has been to establish new methods for ice load predictions. The work has been supported by the EC under the projects LOLEIF and STRICE. The data compiled by these projects are of great importance for the future development of offshore wind energy converters, OWECS, in the ice-covered seas of Europe. Because the ice forces on marine structures are internationally heavily disputed the present design codes for OWECS as well as for all marine structures in ice-infested waters are not been considered reliable. Therefore, the main objective of this project is to contribute to the development of an international standard for the design of marine structures such as OWECS against ice loads with special emphasis on European sub-arctic ice conditions.
The overall objective of ERAP harm is to improve and complement existing knowledge and procedures for the environmental risk assessment (ERA) of human and veterinary pharmaceuticals. Based on EU regulatory frameworks on the ERA of pharmaceuticals and on the outcome of previous projects ERAP harm will address the following aspects: It will investigate previously unstudied major routes leading to exposure of the terrestrial and aquatic environment and subsequent fate of pharmaceuticals in surface water and sediment. Factors and processes affecting the behavior of pharmaceuticals in the environment will be studied on the laboratory, semi-field and fieldscale. A scenario-based exposure assessment system will be developed for predicting concentrations of pharmaceuticals in soils, surface waters and sediments and leaching to groundwater. It will be investigated if environmentally relevant concentrations of pharmaceuticals pose a risk to aquatic and terrestrial organisms. Pharmaceuticals and selected transformation products will be screened using in vitro and low complexity bioanalytical tests in order to provide a first hazard characterization and to target higher tier testing. Higher tier test methods will be improved and applied for detecting the effects of long-term, low-level exposure to pharmaceuticals on aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates and fish. It will be evaluated if information on pharmaco- and toxicodynamics in mammalian species can be used to predict effects of pharmaceuticals on environmental organisms. Moreover, the effects of antibiotics on microbial communities will be studied with a main focus on the spread of genetically encoded resistance. Based on the developed approaches recommendations will be provided on how to improve the ERA procedures for pharmaceuticals. A guidance document will be compiled that will be made available to regulators, industry and the scientific community.
The objective is to train in the use of sustainablility impact and policy assessment in EU and Russia, especially in issues concerning forests, agricultural landscapes, water environments and built-up areas through the development of an innovative and interactive e-tool for multiple end users. This freeware product will be based on simulations of advanced dynamic models, incorporated into a multimedia presentation in parallel English/Russian. The e-tool will be developed base on case studies on Eurasian sites from Holland to Siberia, and within an infrastructure of Universities, research organisations, administrations, student groups within this large area. The project has four distinct phases (i) case studies on ecosystem biogeochemistry, pollution effects, biodiversity, eco-technosystems, multifunctional agriculture, sustainable building etc., (ii) feeding dynamic models and incorporating them into an interactive visualization software, (iii) combining simulations, text, videos and graphics into a e-textbook written by 30-40 experts, (iv) testing of the e-tool/e-textbook by policy makers (including EC staff) and stakeholders. Prime Contractor: Helsingin Yliopisto; Helsinki; Finland.
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