Nano Filters Clean Industrial Hazardous Contaminants

Breakthrough Reached on Prototypes of Nano-cellulose Based Filters with High Purification Capacity Towards Environmentally Hazardous Contaminants from Industrial Effluents by Researchers at Luleå University of Technology in Collaboration with Imperial College in the UK

The bio-based filter of nano-cellulose is to be used for the first time in real-life situations and tested within a process industry and in municipal wastewater treatment in Spain. Other industries have also shown interest in this technology and representatives of the mining industry have contacted me and I have even received requests from a large retail chain in the UK, says Aji Mathew Associate Professor, Division of Materials Science at Luleå University.

Researchers have combined a cheap residue from the cellulose industry, with functional nano-cellulose to prepare adsorbent sheets with high filtration capacity. The sheets have since been constructed to different prototypes, called cartridges, to be tested. They have high capacity and can filter out heavy metal ions from industrial waters, dyes residues from the printing industry and nitrates from municipal water. Next year, larger sheets with a layer of nano-cellulose can be produced and formed into cartridges, with higher capacity.

- Each such membrane can be tailored to have different removal capability depending on the kind of pollutant, viz., copper, iron, silver, dyes, nitrates and the like, she says.

Behind the research, which is funded mainly by the EU, is a consortium of research institutes, universities, small businesses and process industries. It is coordinated by Luleå University led by Aji Mathew. She thinks that the next step is to seek more money from the EU to scale up this technology to industrial level.

Source: LTU

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Taxonomy

• Filtration
• Technology
• Nano Materials