Nanotechnology To Remediate Waste Water
| Prof Ajay Kumar Mishra, Expert, Nanotechnology, South Africa - 11 Aug 2020

Nanocomposite materials can remediate heavy metals and organics from waste water

By using nanotechnology, researchers at University of South Africa are working on the synthesis and application of nanocomposite materials to remediate heavy metals and organics from waste water.

By PROF. AJAY KUMAR MISHRA, Johannesburg, South Africa

Water is one of the most essential natural resources for the living universe. Man cannot survive for more than about a week without replenishing his internal supply of water which comprises approximately 66 percent of the weight of an adult human. No plants, no animals no organic matter would exist without water.

Nature has made sufficient amount of water available for earth. However, out of over 326 million trillion gallons of water available on Earth, more than two-thirds is locked up in ice caps and glaciers, and less than 3 percent only of all this is fresh water available for human consumption.

Out of this only 8% of worldwide water use is for domestic purposes, while 22% of worldwide water is used in industry. Rest 70% of worldwide water is used for irrigation.

You will be amazed to know that it takes around 2,000 to 3,000 litres of water to produce enough food to satisfy one person's daily dietary need.

While daily human requirement of water for drinking is between two and five litres only, to produce food for over 7 billion people who inhabit the planet today requires the water that would fill a canal ten metres deep, 100 metres wide and 2100 kilometres long.

And still over 1.1 billion people lack supply of adequate drinking water (WHO, 2015), due to the rising cost of potable water, growing populations, and variety of climatic and environmental concerns.

The major challenge is not scarcity of water, but the continuous contamination of freshwater resources. It can be reduced through the treatment of wastewater.

However, since the traditional methods of water treatment is not efficient enough to completely remove the emerging contaminants and meet the strict water quality standards, the researchers at University of South Africa are working on the synthesis and application of nano composite materials to remediate heavy metals and organics from waste water using nanotechnology.

Everybody knows that water is invaluable resource on earth, and very essential to the life of every living organism. Many people on earth do not have access to clean water, due to high levels of pollution.

High amounts of metals such as cadmium, lead, mercury, chromium, arsenic often end up in water resources, creating numerous health hazards.

Since the removal of such contaminants from the wastewater, has become a severe problem in the world, nanotechnology is gaining increasing interest amongst the researchers in the world who have already tried numerous technologies.

Many nanomaterials have been developed to remove heavy metals from polluted water, due to their excellent features resulting from the nanometer effect. 

Even the researchers at University of South Africa are also working on the methods to easily purify the waste water for making it consumable for human beings by using nanotechnology. They are working to on the methods to easily purify the waste water for making it consumable for human beings.

Nanocomposite materials are basically mixing of two materials in order to achieve tailor made properties, which are low in cost, most abundant and durable together, which can then be used to remediate heavy metals and organics from the waste water.

The phenomenon behind the remediation of waste water using nanocomposites can be one of the basic mechanisms of adsorption, ion exchange, photocatalysis and membrane separation.

Nanotechnology plays a huge role in our work. By working on nanoscales – which is a hundred thousand times smaller than a human hair – we can dramatically improve the material’s properties such as surface area.

Remediation of polluted water is only one step in solving the problem. Effective public awareness campaigns are also needed to educate the public on water conservation.

The research has been done so far on laboratory-scale and will be implemented in a pilot study with the support of industry in the near future.

(Ajay Kumar Mishra (MSc, MPhil, PhD, CSci, FRSC) is Professor in Institute of Nanotechnology and Water Sustainability the University of South Africa, Florida Science Campus, Johannesburg, South Africa)

Image Courtesy – FB Page of Brahmaputra River Cruises. River Brahmaputra Image credit - Factins


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