l.t.r.: Andras Kovacs, Julien Petit, Morgan Madec, Luc Hebrard, Nicolas Pfaff, Volker Bucher
Collaboration on Innovative Wastewater Monitoring Launched
Clean water and reliable monitoring of wastewater systems are key challenges for environmental and public health protection. This is exactly where the Franco-German research project Wa2MOS (Waste Water Monitoring System) comes in: its focus is on detecting per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in wastewater systems using a novel, portable nuclear magnetic resonance (µNMR) spectroscopy approach. The aim is to enable on-site detection of these persistent pollutants without the need for complex laboratory analysis.
On March 30, 2026, the project members from the Institute of Microsystems Technology (Internal link opens in the same window:iMST) at HFU and the University of Strasbourg met in Strasbourg for the official kick-off. Participants included Morgan Madec and Luc Hebrard from the University of Strasbourg, as well as Volker Bucher, Julien Petit, András Kovács, and Nicolas Pfaff from iMST. The meeting took place at ICube, a research institute of the University of Strasbourg.
During the kick-off meeting, the individual work packages were presented and key steps for future collaboration were defined. The goal is to develop a compact, cost-effective, and versatile sensor system based on nuclear magnetic resonance that can quickly and reliably detect high PFAS concentrations in wastewater—such as those originating from industrial sources.
The project runs from April 1, 2026, to March 31, 2029, and is carried out as a bilateral collaboration between German and French partners. Wa2MOS is funded through the cooperation of ANR and DFG.
For students, the project offers exciting insights into international research and potential opportunities for theses and internships in the fields of environmental engineering, microsystems technology, and sensor systems.