Aurea technology wins prestigious Dutch Award for ingenious engineering

For 60 years, we have pioneered water treatment innovation, and with our continued investment in research and development (R&D), the Aurea technology is no exception in our approach to bringing new technologies to market.

Every year, in the Netherlands alone, at least 190 tonnes of pharmaceutical residues ends up in the environment via the sewage system. Current sewage treatment plants cannot remove them properly, and this toxic cocktail of drug residues has a negative effect on aquatic life and threatens our drinking water sources.

The challenge for safe surface and drinking water is topical and international. The revised European Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive, which will soon come into force, requires, among other things, that sewage treatment plants must largely remove micropollutants such as pharmaceutical residues. 

The Aurea technology was developed for this exact purpose by researchers from Wageningen University and Royal HaskoningDHV, and the Hoogheemraadschap Stichtse Rijnlanden Water Authority is currently building the first full-scale installation in Zeist.

The Vernufteling professional jury rated our Aurea entry as the highest due to its ingenious character and social importance: "The team has come up with an advanced solution for micro-contamination in the wastewater. Due to drug residues, among other things, this is an increasing problem for society. Changing laws and regulations force managers to take measures, but in practice it is difficult to prevent drug residues, as well as pesticides and hormones, from ending up in surface water. In an interesting partnership, Royal HaskoningDHV has taken an exciting and very fruitful combination of technological measures and thus found a real engineering solution to a growing problem with great social relevance."

Aurea lead Arnoud de Wilt of Royal HaskoningDHV commented: "The Vernufteling jury prize is the crowning glory of our joint work over the past ten years in which we have together developed a smart, effective and, above all, sustainable solution. Our Aurea technology removes a wider range of substances at a lower CO2 footprint than other technologies. It’s been a fantastic journey in which we have come from an academic basis, through lab and pilot tests to a mature practical application."