BERKELEY, CA – A University of California-Berkeley scientist has created a cheap, quick and scalable method to cleanse arsenic from drinking water.
Ashok Gadgil, a campus civil and environmental engineering professor, developed the technology, which leverages the natural binding properties of arsenic to cleanse drinking water.
More than 10 years ago, Gadgil and his research group invented the underlying process, which they have improved upon with this new design. The team worked on developing air cathode assisted iron electrocoagulation, or ACAIE, and Fe(iron)-electro-coagulation with an external oxidizer, or FOX, which use other rapid ways to oxidize iron rather than relying on atmospheric oxygen dissolved in water. This sped up both the oxidation step and purification process.
He said his invention would be able to deliver water to about 50,000 people from a plant that fits in a small garage. According to Gadgil, his team recently secured funding to demonstrate a tabletop ACAIE device in California’s Central Valley. Researchers are now estimating the cost of building a larger-scale demonstration plant in California, following successful trials.
The team plans to develop similar techniques for chromium and uranium, contaminants that are likewise prevalent in groundwater.
