Household wastewater reuse for resource-efficient hydroponic crop production (HypoWave)

In HypoWave a hydroponic system is tailored for the operation with specially treated urban wastewater to support crop production and investigated in regard to hygienic safety and recourse efficiency. The hydroponic system will require no substrate to anchor the plant and is therefore expected to minimize water and nutrient use. The risk of polluting the produce with irrigation water borne heavy metals, organic trace compounds and pathogens is controlled by a hermetic separation of the above surface and root environments. Beyond these aspects the research at the pilot and demonstration site in Hattorf, Wolfsburg will also take the technical demands up- and downstream as well as governance and acceptance into account.

In the joint research project UHOH is responsible for the crop production and performs the hydroponic experiments at the pilot site with the objective to adapt present systems to the specific water quality and for the characterization of threshold values for selected pollutants. Laboratory tests will be carried out to investigate uptake of viruses and chemical and organic pollutants through the plant roots.

Furthermore, UHOH supports the work in three case studies and impact assessments, and is responsible for one case study in Evora, Portugal, aimed to determine the transferability and site specific requirements. A focus will be laid on the application of the specific emerging technologies in related market segments.