South Korean researchers develop eco-friendly method to remove pollutants in water

A team of South Korean researchers have developed a wastewater treatment process that makes use of an agricultural byproduct to eliminate pollutants and environmental hormones, known as endocrine disruptors.

As these endocrine disruptors do not break down easily, they leave a negative impact, both on the environment and human body.

As per the study, which was published in the Ultrasonics Sonochemistry, the performance of the catalyst used to process wastewater significantly reduces over a period of time. Another major drawback of the existing catalyst is the high cost involved.

The researchers,  led by Dr. Jae-woo Choi and Dr. Kyung-won Jung of Korea Institute of Science and Technology’s Water Cycle Research Center, made use of biochar, which was made from agricultural byproducts, to develop a wastewater treatment process to remove environmental hormones.

They used rice hulls, which are generally discarded during rice harvesting process, to create an eco-friendly as well as cost-effective biochar.

This biochar’s surface was coated with nano-sized manganese dioxide to create a nanocomposite.

The team used hydrothermal method, a kind of mineral synthesis that uses high heat and pressure while synthesising the nanocomposite, to produce a catalyst that can be stable and active.

The catalyst was given a three-dimensional stratified structure, which led to the high effectiveness of the advanced oxidation process (AOP) due to creation of large surface area.

Under the same conditions, an existing catalyst could eliminate 80% of Bisphenol A (BPA), while the catalyst developed by the researchers team removed over 95% within one hour.

When used along with ultrasound (20kHz), the eco-friendly catalyst removed all traces of BPA in just less than 20 minutes.