INNOQUA is a Horizon 2020 EU-funded project that seeks to demonstrate in real conditions a modular system for water treatment based on the purifying capacity of biological organisms (earthworms, zooplankton and microalgae). The final objective of the project is to provide an ecological water sanitation system for rural areas and communities, for industries with specific characteristics (such as agriculture and aquaculture), for sustainable home-builders or collective housing owners and for developing countries worldwide.

Some of the partners of the INNOQUA project are situated at the University of Girona (Spain). The Girona team is made up of the university research groups Analytical and Environmental Chemistry, Environmental Physics and LEQUIA, working together with INBROOLL, a technology process development company.

A key objective of the University of Girona is to contribute to the task “Technology check towards integration”. This task includes technology optimization. It aims at complementing the existing knowledge on the individual technologies in the light of already defined specifications of the integrated system. Outputs from this task will be particularly useful for technology integration, eco-design and pre-industrial scale up.

To reach the technological objectives, the members of the Environmental Physics Group at the University of Girona have underwent a series of complex experiments dealing with the fate of populations of the zooplanktonic Daphnia magna, under a set of abiotic stressors, including temperature, light, turbulence and hydrodynamics, and with the analysis of the effects of chemicals and microplastics on Daphnia magna. The results of the research have been published in Q1 world recognized scientific journals: Scientific Reports, Science of the Total Environment, Water Research, PLoS ONE and Environmental Pollution. Effect of other factors such as chemical oxygen demand and the presence of copper are being studied and results are expected to be published in the near future. Results from this WP task have been also presented in the framework of international conferences in Spain, France, Greece and Canada.