In July 2006, the Peres Center launched the "Advanced Waste Water Technologies" project within the framework of the "Advanced Water Treatments & Nanotechnology for Peacebuilding" initiative, in cooperation with JNF (Keren Kayemet L' Yisrael), with research being pursued by the Technion and Ben Gurion University.

The project focuses on two areas of research. The first area is waste-water treatment through ultra-filtration membranes and reverse-osmosis (RO) membranes, and subsequent use of the water for crop irrigation with an emphasis on micro-organism and virus removal. This project is carried out on the basis that waste-water must be carefully treated in order to comply with food, agricultural, and environmental regulations. As such, a potential advanced water treatment method for low-quality water can be found through the implementation of membrane technology, thereby minimizing environmental biohazard risks and preventing contamination of natural water resources and other water bodies. The research uses a hybrid membrane system which examines the validity of the assumption that high-quality effluent for unrestricted reuse can be obtained in the field, and not just in the laboratory.

The second area of research is the monitoring and tracking of antibiotics in the sewage system, from waste water treatment plants to crop irrigation, through the soil into the water aquifers, and subsequently into drinking water. This process has become extremely critical as the last few years have witnessed an increase in the use of medical materials, including antibiotics, painkillers, cholesterol reducers, anti-epileptic medicines, hormones, and over-the-counter medications. The danger in this medicinal use is that part of these materials does not transform or dissolve in the waste-water treatment process, thereby contaminating the water. Hence, the main objectives of this project are to test the resistance of several groups of medical materials in the different processes of municipal waste-water treatment, and to test the division of the materials between the water and the sludge, with the aim of finding the proper waste-water treatment technology.

Application of the research will take place in Israeli R&D centers.