BIONIA

The monitoring of sanitary risks (physical, chemical and microbiological) in drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs) is essential in moving towards preventive control in water sanitation plans. Currently, microbiological quality control is performed by sample collection and laboratory analysis. However, this methodology has a number of limitations, mainly the time it takes to obtain results and the low percentage of detectable microbial cells in the culture medium.

The BIONIA project has assessed the operational robustness of two online techniques for measuring total microbiological activity in water and their application at the Aigües de Barcelona Sant Joan Despí DWTP, for the early detection of microbiological events. In the study, two pieces of equipment were used for each technique, tested in different plant processes.

The results provided information on the microbiological behaviour of each process and led to the definition of the normal operational baseline and alarm threshold. The test confirmed the potential of one of the sets of equipment for early event detection, thanks to the high volume of data it generates compared to specific sampling and the speed with which results are obtained, allowing for faster decision-making when events occur.