PI: Enrico MOMBELLI
Other contributors: Post-doc to be recruited
PROMISCES is a H2020 EU-funded project which started on the 1st of November 2022 and is due to end 30 April 2025 .
PROMISCES will identify how industrial pollution prevents the deployment of the circular economy (CE) in the EU and which strategies help overcome key bottlenecks to deliver the ambitions of the European Green Deal and Circular Economy Action Plan.
PROMISCES considers specific CE routes including (i) semi-closed water cycles for drinking water supply at urban and catchment scale; (ii) wastewater reuse for irrigation in agriculture; (iii) nutrient recovery from sewage sludge; (iv) material recovery from dredged sediment and (v) land remediation for safe reuse in urban areas.
To reach its goals, PROMISCES will:
Develop new analytical methods and toxicological tools to provide data on persistent, mobile (PM) substances (i.e. PFAS and other industrial chemicals) in complex environmental matrices.
Explore sources and environmental pathways of PM substances released from (i) soil; (ii) sediment; (iii) landfills; (iv) wastewater treatment plants and via (v) urban runoff into relevant environmental compartments (soil, sediment, surface water, groundwater).
Improve the assessment and management of human health risks from drinking water and agricultural products.
Translate PROMISCES results into guidance for efficient and feasible management of PM substances and recommendations for the implementation of relevant EU policy strategies and directives.
Integrate the results into a decision support framework which considers resource recovery and water reuse and supports chemical management decisions with regards to i) stakeholders and societal demands; ii) PM chemical properties iii) technical solutions to prevent, mitigate and remediate industrial pollution and iv) the whole life cycle of current and future chemicals.
In the framework of this project the TEAM unit will develop, in silico approaches (e.g. QSAR models, grouping and read across) for PFAS and PM(T)s. This work includes: i) the assessment of existing QSAR models for suitability for PFAS and iPM(T)s; ii) the retrieval and assessment of publicly available data for the development of novel QSAR models when needed. Thes models will be used to have an insight into risks from drinking water and agricultural products and tomap a large chemical space with respect to PMT properties.
