MORPHEUS - Model Areas for Removal of Pharmaceutical Substances in the South Baltic

What changed with MORPHEUS?

Scientific data and figures about pharmaceutical substances in the Baltic Sea - this is the ground work for all further actions to come. This data has been collected in the MORPHEUS project and will be publicly available for the further use of the data.

What did MORPHEUS create?

MORPHEUS collected and combined information on the incoming and the outgoing pharmaceutical waste in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). This data allowed MORPHEUS to map the quality of the wastewater treatment in the different plants and the left-over pharmaceutical substances flushed into the Baltic Sea. With this data MORPHEUS can not only give recommendations for future investments in wastewater technology, but raises awareness among citizens.

Project Website

Find MORPHEUS Project Website here.

Project outputs

Scientific Reports
 

Scientific Report "Pharmaceutical consumption patterns in four coastal regions of the South Baltic Sea" (PDF)

Scientific Report "Determination of the Regional Pharmaceutical Burden in 15 Selected WWTPs and Associated Water Bodies using Chemical Analysis" (PDF)

Scientific Report "Determination of the Regional Pharmaceutical Burden in 15 Selected WWTPs and Associated Water Bodies using Chemical Analysis" (PDF)

Scientific Report "Inventory of existing treatment technologies in wastewater treatment plants" (PDF)

Scientific Report "Overview of advanced technologies in wastewater treatment for removal of pharmaceuticals and other micropollutants" (PDF)

Policy Briefs
 

MORPHEUS Policy Brief No. 1 (PDF)

MORPHEUS Policy Brief No. 2 (PDF)

MORPHEUS Policy Brief No. 3 (PDF)

Roadmaps
 

Roadmap for the model site Degeberga wastewater treatment plant (PDF)

Roadmap Poster Degeberga (PDF)

Roadmap for the model site Rostock wastewater treatment plant (PDF)

Roadmap Poster Rostock (PDF)

Educational Leaflets
 

MORPHEUS leaflet (PDF)

Best Practices in Chemical Analysis of Pharmaceuticals in the Environment (PDF)

Advanced treatment technologies for the removal of pharmaceutical substances in WWTPs (PDF)

Find even more material on MORPHEUS' website.

What are the next steps?

The information collected in MORPHEUS will aid wastewater treatment plants and authorities in a future implementation of the most suitable advanced treatment technology.

Success story

Find the MORPHEUS Success Story here.

Full project description

The project involves 7 partners and 9 associated partners from 4 Programme Member States (Sweden, Germany, Poland and Lithuania).
The overall idea of the project is to address challenge of the pharmaceutical pollution in the Baltic Sea area. Chemical pollution of surface water presents a threat to the aquatic environment with effects of losses of habitats and biodiversity, as well as a threat to human health. According to the directive 2008/105/EC, as a matter of priority, causes of pollution should be identified and emissions should be dealt with at source, in the most economically and environmentally effective manner.
The project’s activities are planned to create a background image in terms of regional consumption of pharmaceuticals (under WP 3), chemical burden caused by pharmaceuticals released from selected waste water treatment plants in each region (WP 4), as well as existing treatment systems in the four selected regions surrounding the southern part of Baltic Sea (WP5). The aim of WP6 is to prepare a scheme for the training course for waste water treatment plants (WWTPs) operators and professional staff at chemical laboratories and training material for participants of such courses - all connected study visits at WWTPs using advanced technologies that removes or reduces the concentration of pharmaceutical substances in treated sewage (WP 5).
The main target groups of the project are staff of waste water treatment plants, as well as decision and policy makers (regional/national authorities dealing with waste water treatment).