A researcher from the University of Bath has received support to help with developing a new, more efficient way for the water industry to safely remove micropollutants from water without increasing its carbon footprint.
Professor Davide Mattia from the University of Bath’s Department of Chemical Engineering has been awarded a five-year EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) Established Career Fellowship in Water Engineering, to develop novel photocatalytic nanoporous anodic metal foams – a sponge-like substance – which will use sunlight to safely remove micropollutants from water.
Micropollutants – found in toxic chemicals such as drugs, hormones and pesticides – are one of the biggest public health and environmental challenges in the UK and other countries. Present in wastewater at very low concentrations, micropollutants slowly accumulate in the soil and in groundwater, upsetting the ecological balance and eventually finding their way into the human food supply chain, with a potential to cause severe long-term health effects.
Existing technology used in the majority of water treatment plants is not capable of removing micropollutants, requiring large capital investment by the water industry to meet impending legislation requiring their removal. As such, there is an urgent need for efficient, effective and low-carbon technologies capable of safely removing them from the water.
A promising technology to address this problem is photocatalysis, where light is used to speed up a reaction which breaks down organic pollutants to non-harmful constituents.
Given the very large volumes of water that need to be treated and the low concentration of micropollutants, very large amounts of nano-sized photocatalyst particles are required, creating a risk of these nanoparticles leaking from the water treatment plant and accumulating in the environment, also with potentially adverse effects.
Mattia’s team is developing technology that entirely foregoes the use of nanoparticles in favour of a highly porous photocatalytic foam, thereby creating an efficient method of capturing all the micropollutants whilst preventing nanoparticulate material leaching into the environment.
Professor of Chemical Engineering in the University’s Department of Chemical Engineering, Centre for Advanced Separations Engineering (CASE) and Water Innovation & Research Centre (WIRC @ Bath), Davide Mattia, said: “I will be working with academic and industrial partners to retrofit existing water treatment plants to accommodate this new technology. We hope this will result in a more effective way of removing micropollutants in water without increasing carbon emissions or producing toxic by-products.
He added: “I am very excited at having the opportunity to address the grand challenge of micropollutant removal and am grateful to the EPSRC for their support.
“I believe our anodic metal foams represent an innovative and practical solution that water companies will be able to integrate in their existing infrastructure without radical changes, thereby low the barriers to their adoption.”
Director of the Water Innovation & Research Centre (WIRC @ Bath) at the University of Bath, Professor Jan Hofman, added: “It is fantastic that Professor Mattia gets this opportunity for this exciting research for developing fundamentally new technology for organic micropollutant removal.
