The solution for the most complex problems often lies in the simplest of things. Pavani Cherukappally who grew up in Hyderabad watching the degradation of the Musi river may have come up with one such solution. Her research suggests that a simple sponge has the potential to tackle contaminants in water. She has already received a lot of support including government agencies of Canada.
She is working at University of Toronto,in the University’s Mechanical engineering department. She said ” I have developed a new sponge-based water technology to re mediate oil field wastewater using ordinary sponges. This water has highly concentrated organic contamination. As you might be aware, Indian rivers such as the Ganga, Yamuna, and Musi also have a high concentration of organic contamination. So, we could extend this technology to re-mediate Indian rivers.”
Pavani accepts that the technology of soaking up contaminants using sponge has existed since the 1800s. This forms the basis of her research but she uses newly developed techniques to adapt it to a larger problem. She says it works as a filter – “The water passes through it, oil droplets are trapped inside and clean water comes out.”
see also: India facing worst water crisis in it’s history, millions under threat: NITI Aayog Report
Pavani has a background in physical chemistry and she is aimed at the problem of wastewater tailings from Oilsands in the province of Alberta. Her concepts are undergoing refining and now uses polyurethane sponge, charged to attract the ions of the waters pollutants that have opposing charges.
She said “The measurement techniques are new, which allows us to measure the surface charge on the materials and ensure under what conditions exactly this attachment happens and when they will have opposing charges”
The system is known to have a 98 percentage removal efficiency and then releases clean water.
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