The Trojan Horse

Contaminated water is an ever-increasing problem. Therefore, Kemic Water Technology spends considerable resources and a lot of energy on research and developing new knowhow and technology to create novel methods to meet the increasing problems in the field of water treatment.  

We will not be able to take clean drinking water for granted in the future because more and more of our groundwater is becoming contaminated with pesticides. More than 100 boreholes are closed down each year due to contamination with pesticides. It is only a question of time before the problem escalates because pesticides are moving slowly but surely towards our aquifers.

Your sand filter might have the solution

The Trojan Horse is the solution. Kemic Water Technology is developing this solution in collaboration with Danish Technological Institute in Aarhus, DTU, Innovation Fund Denmark and University of Copenhagen.

The solution is based on Danish and international research and involves optimisation of bacteria and organisms with special properties in sand filters. There can be up to a billion bacteria in one gram of sand, and som of these bacteria are able to remove pesticides and purify the water quite naturally. So, your sand filter may hold the secret.

The aim of the project is to identify a method to use these pesticide-degrading bacteria by adding them to new or existing sand filtration plants.

Pesticide-degrading properties concealed in the cells

The name of the research project comes from the way the bacteria work. The bacteria contain hidden pesticide-degrading properties, which are concealed in the genes of their cells. When these bacteria are added to new and existing sand filters, they transfer these properties to the existing bacteria population by means of the “Trojan Horse” principle.

The advantage of the method is that it is not limited by the fact that the introduced bacteria will, at some point, die, because the properties are transferred to the existing bacteria population.

Existing boreholes can be used

The method will mean that the number of new boreholes can be reduced and already existing boreholes can again be used.

The pesticide problem is not only a problem in Denmark. It is a problem faced by most of the EU. It should therefore be possible to export the technology.

So, a future without pesticides is on the horizon. Click here to read more about pesticides.

Facts about the project

• The official name of the project is “The Trojan Horse. A new biotechnology for pesticide removal at drinking water sandfilters.”
• The project will run over four years and the total budget amounts to DKK 8,65 million. Of the total budget, Innovation Fund Denmark has invested DKK 5,75 million in the project.
• The project collaborates with MEM2BIO, which is another Danish project researching development of novel technologies for treatment of contaminated drinking water.