Every year, trillions of liters of wastewater are treated in sewage treatment plants. What flows out of households, businesses, and industry is processed in three elaborate purification stages. However, current treatment facilities are still unable to remove 100% of all pollutants. As a result, persistent chemicals, microplastics, and pharmaceuticals continue to find their way into bodies of water – and therefore into nature. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB in Straubing have been working on a solution.
Using oats as a source of protein
Oats are one of the oldest cultivated plants and are valued as a food mainly because of the carbohydrates in the grain. As an alternative milk substitute in the form of oat drinks, the plant has been attracting increasing public attention for some years now. Compared to animal milk or soy, however, oat proteins have so far played a minor role in nutrition. Researchers at Anhalt University of Applied Sciences want to change this.