RECETOX’s visit at the INP Greifswald

by ESR12 Marcel Schneider

My Ph.D. project focuses on the removal of cyanobacterial toxins from drinking water employing different, mostly emerging and novel treatment techniques. Recently, Non-Thermal Plasmas (NTPs) have received much attention for their potential application in wastewater and air purification as well as food and medical sciences as one of the so called Advanced Oxidation Processes. In contrast, the utilization of NTPs for the removal of natural toxins, e.g. cyanotoxins from drinking water, has only scarcely been of interest and not much information is available. Hence, as part of my project, I will tackle this task to assess the suitability and potential of NTPs for the treatment of cyanotoxin-laden drinking water.

Prof. Jürgen Kolb is the head of the program Decontamination in the department Environment and Health at the INP Greifswald and is an expert in using NTPs for the treatment of biological and chemical contaminations. He kindly offered his expertise and agreed to host me at his facilities. On April 4, 2018, my supervisor Prof. Luděk Bláha and I went to Greifswald to meet Prof. Kolb. After a brief introduction to my project and a summary of the currently available scientific literature on NTP-based removal of cyanotoxins from drinking water we started discussing and planning my secondment at the INP. Prof. Kolb also took me on a short tour through his laboratories showing me different NTP devices and explaining which projects he and his team are working on.

Next steps will be the preparation of a plan for experiments for a first, two-week stay at the INP, which, based on the outcomes of this short-term visit, should lead to a detailed experimental design for a follow-up long-term secondment.

I am looking forward to the secondment at the INP and am excited to work with this interesting technology.