Grundfos solves wastewater issues for Herlev Hospital

With the help of a Grundfos BioBooster purification plant, Herlev Hospital proves, as the first in Denmark, that it is possible to clean wastewater efficiently,
before it leaves the grounds of the hospital. After almost two years of
testing, a report from DHI shows that all dangerous substances can be removed
from the wastewater, preventing it from harming water, plants, animals and
humans in its surrounding environment – to top it all, at a lower price than
what the hospital had to pay otherwise.
“The hospital’s purification plant is capable of cleaning the wastewater to a
degree where bacteria, medical substances and endocrine disruptors that make
the risk of damaging water environment, animals and humans disappear,” says
chief planner Ulf Nielsen, DHI, who has been project manager on preparing the
report.

Stops harmful substances
The issue which Herlev Hospital and Grundfos now have solved is that drug residues and resistant bacteria from the patients’ faeces and urine end up in the water environment via the wastewater, because it cannot be removed in the municipal sewage cleaning plant or because the sewers overflows due to floods or heavy rainfalls.
“The Danish Ministry of the Environment and the municipalities want to remove
the dangerous substances at the source – in this case the hospital – since the
municipal sewage cleaning plants can only to a limited extent remove
antibiotics, cancer medicine, pain drugs and a number of other pharmaceuticals
from the wastewater. The consequences for the water environment, plants and
animals could amongst others be hormone disturbances which can result in
growth-related problems and deformities in fish and water fleas,” explains Ulf
Nielsen.
According to him, there is also a real risk of resistant bacteria infecting
humans who are exposed to the wastewater that have not been treated efficiently
enough.
“If for instance people, swimming in the sea or fishermen are infected with
resistant bacteria, it can be difficult to fight the infections they will get
with antibiotics,” says Ulf Nielsen.

The Herlev-solution leads the way
The report from DHI does not just conclude that Herlev Hospital and Grundfos can turn a problem into a resource by cleaning the wastewater thoroughly enough for it to be used in the hospital’s cooling system. It also shows that the hospital can save
money at the same time since the decentralized treatment costs less than the
one carried out in the municipal sewage cleaning plant.

Sales Manager Jakob Søholm from Grundfos BioBooster considers the results from Herlev to be a regular breakthrough for decentralized cleaning of wastewater from
hospitals.

“All over the country, municipalities have been waiting for a solution that shows how and how well the hospitals’ wastewater could be cleansed in order for them to
precisely express emission requirements to the hospitals. Now it has been
documented that the solution exists and the municipalities can thereby make
demands that are feasible to meet,” says Jakob Søholm.