Luuk de Waal MSc

Luuk de Waal is a researcher in the Water Treatment & Resource Recovery team and manages the organization-wide project-portfolio Water cycle. His research focusses on innovative water treatment technologies and valorization of residual streams that originate from water treatment processes. These fields cross various types of water; from brackish groundwater to concentrated surface water and from industrial waste streams to treated water from a sewage water treatment plant. Together with drinking water companies, government, water boards, industry and the agricultural sector, Luuk finds and explores ways to manage fluctuations in water demand and supply over time and place and to improve water quality to enable practice-implementable applications. The circularity objective of the European Union and the Netherlands as well as the Circular Water 2050 ambition of the drinking water companies play a central role in his work, as achieving those are of great importance for nature, society and economy. Solutions lie in optimalisation of the use of existing and new water sources, protecting and working with nature and developing and incorporating innovations in water technology. By bridging innovative, scientifically-proven insights towards integral social challenges, Luuk aims to co-develop a robust and circular water system. Luuk has a background in chemistry (university of Utrecht) and holds a (joint) Master’s degree in Water Technology from the universities of Wageningen, Groningen and Enschede. Luuk combines his work at KWR Water Research Institute with a PhD at the University of Ghent on harvesting the value in- and the value of residual streams that originate from drinking water production.