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https://news.ubc.ca/2023/03/22/new-ubc-water-treatment-zaps-forever-chemicals-for-good/>
"Engineers at the University of British Columbia have developed a new water
treatment that removes “forever chemicals” from drinking water safely,
efficiently – and for good.
“Think Brita filter, but a thousand times better,” says UBC chemical and
biological engineering professor Dr. Madjid Mohseni, who developed the
technology.
Forever chemicals, formally known as PFAS (per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances)
are a large group of substances that make certain products non-stick or
stain-resistant. There are more than 4,700 PFAS in use, mostly in raingear,
non-stick cookware, stain repellents and firefighting foam. Research links
these chemicals to a wide range of health problems including hormonal
disruption, cardiovascular disease, developmental delays and cancer.
To remove PFAS from drinking water, Dr. Mohseni and his team devised a unique
adsorbing material that is capable of trapping and holding all the PFAS present
in the water supply.
The PFAS are then destroyed using special electrochemical and photochemical
techniques, also developed at the Mohseni lab and described in part in a paper
published recently in Chemosphere.
While there are treatments currently on the market, like activated carbon and
ion-exchange systems which are widely used in homes and industry, they do not
effectively capture all the different PFAS, or they require longer treatment
time, Dr. Mohseni explained.
“Our adsorbing media captures up to 99 per cent of PFAS particles and can also
be regenerated and potentially reused. This means that when we scrub off the
PFAS from these materials, we do not end up with more highly toxic solid waste
that will be another major environmental challenge.”"
Via Esther Schindler.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
