GALADRIEL

Artificial intelligence will strengthen the cleaning of environmentally harmful substances in wastewater

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March 25. 2026

With new EU requirements for wastewater treatment, Denmark is facing a significant challenge: Thousands of environmentally harmful substances must be mapped, assessed and removed more efficiently than today. A new Danish research and innovation project, GALADRIEL, will develop chemical fingerprints of wastewater and make it possible to target treatment. Innovation Fund Denmark is investing 23.6 million DKK in the project, which has a total budget of 37.5 million DKK.

Today, only a limited portion of the chemicals found in wastewater are measured. There is also a lack of knowledge about how well treatment plants with advanced purification technologies, such as ozonation or activated carbon, can remove complex mixtures of thousands of environmentally harmful substances. This includes residues of pharmaceuticals, substances from tires and traffic, industrial chemicals and pesticides.

At the same time, the new EU Wastewater Directive places significantly stricter requirements on both documentation and the effect of the treatment, which requires investments of around DKK 500 million per year until 2045.

New opportunities with AI

GALADRIEL will give the wastewater sector a completely new overview of the content of environmentally harmful substances. The project develops chemical fingerprints of wastewater, where artificial intelligence is used to find, recognize and determine the concentration of thousands of chemical substances throughout the treatment plant – even those that you don't know in advance that you should be looking for. This makes it possible to clean a wide range of substances at once, but at the same time use resources wisely by understanding which substances are actually present and in what quantities.

With the investment from Innovation Fund Denmark, GALADRIEL can develop and test methods on a scale that would otherwise not be possible. The project combines chemical fingerprinting with knowledge of the toxicity of substances and their behavior in treatment plants. At the same time, artificial intelligence and models are used to predict and optimize how advanced treatment technologies, such as ozonation and activated carbon, work in full-scale treatment plants before investments are made in practice.

From complex knowledge to practical solutions

The project is also central to the EU's strengthening of the " Polluter Pays Principle ", where producers and industries must increasingly finance the cleaning of the substances they contribute. This requires solid knowledge and documentation of which substances are found in the wastewater, how much they contribute to the overall toxicity, and which sources they originate from.

– The new EU directive requires us to understand far more than we do today. With GALADRIEL, we can for the first time create a comprehensive chemical fingerprint of wastewater and link it directly to how we best clean it, says Jan H. Christensen, professor at the University of Copenhagen and project manager.

GALADRIEL is being implemented in collaboration between universities, utilities, analytical companies, technology suppliers and authorities and is being tested at Danish wastewater treatment plants. The goal is to translate complex chemical knowledge into practical decision-making that can be used directly in planning, operation and investments – in Denmark and later in the rest of the EU.

Facts

  • Innovation Fund Denmark's investment: DKK 23.6 million.
  • Total budget: DKK 37.5 million.
  • Duration: 4 years (2026–2030)
  • Official title: GALADRIEL Redefining Wastewater Treatment: AI-assisted Solution to Optimize Micropollutant Removal in Wastewater Treatment Plants

About the partners

The project brings together leading Danish research environments (University of Copenhagen), wastewater utilities (BIOFOS, VandCenter Syd, Novafos), analysis and technology companies (Eurofins, DHI, and ITG) and authorities (Municipality of Copenhagen and the Danish Environmental Protection Agency) with the common goal of strengthening Denmark's position within advanced wastewater treatment and environmental protection.