SDG 6: Clean water

Enabling access to clean water for all people worldwide is an important goal of the UN. Furthermore, clean water also plays a significant role in the germ-free production of, for example, food or medical products. To ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation, the Fraunhofer IST focuses on:

Clean (drinking) water for rural areas

In developing countries - in particular in rural areas - many people are today still without access to clean water. Numerous projects are currently addressing the development of new procedures for supplying these areas with clean water. One possibility for this is to purify and treat water from seas, lakes, rivers or wells. At the Fraunhofer IST, a system has been developed in which diamond-coated electrodes are used to disinfect the water. Electrochemical oxidation is thereby utilized to kill fungi, algae, bacteria and viruses and to decompose organic pollutants.

Aseptic (food) production

In the production of food and in the fields of medical technology and pharmaceuticals, ultrapure water is an indispensable starting material. The plants for the production of ultrapure water are, however, often colonized by germs after a certain period of time. The Fraunhofer IST is researching possibilities for cleaning these plants without the utilization of chemicals. One environmentally friendly and cost-efficient solution is presented by optimized cold sanitization using boron-doped diamond layers. This is based on an electrochemical process and requires neither additional chemicals nor increased temperatures. In order to prevent the formation of deposits on technical surfaces, known as fouling, the Fraunhofer IST is furthermore additionally developing special halogen-free non-stick coatings.