In a world where a clean water supply is essential, new advances in water purification, as well as desalination techniques, offer hope to billions. Chinese researchers jointly with the University of South Australia are focusing on the issue of pesticide pollutants and desalination of seawater. Their work proclaims the prospect of changing the g availability of sustainable safe drinking water in this world.
This is how scientists are purifying drinking water from pesticide residues.
Combined with human problems such as BSE and cancer, current pesticide usage has risen by 62% in the last twenty years and threatens to pollute water supplies. Current available treatments do not solve problems with pesticide residues so new techniques have to be developed. Mill and Zhang pointing to a technique developed by researchers from Australia and China showed that pesticides in water can be removed effectively and inexpensively using powdered activated carbon (PAC).
Liang et al lowered the PAC particle size from 38 μm to 6 μm and was able to cut PAC usage by 75%, which was cost-wise efficient and proved to be more effective. This method also ensures that toxic pesticides are washed out with no negative effect of PAC residues in the water to improve the safety of consumers across the global market.
Pesticides in water that have been regularly consumed for a long time have known effects such as cancer and other diseases, showing the need to reduce pesticide concentrations. The researchers seek to apply this technology to other poisonous compounds including PFAS and PFCs which are used in most products sold in the market today. Chemosphere is a peer-reviewed chemical journal that is acknowledged internationally, this new finding has the potential to transform water treatment systems across the world.
Desalination just became more efficient: Find out this environmentally sensitive system.
Water scarcity has been solved through a process known as desalination whereby seawater is turned into freshwater; however, this process is expensive on power and is unsafe for the environment. Scientists in China and South Australia have come up with a way to make it faster and more efficient and that is by using clay minerals in a process powered by the sun in a solar-driven desalination process.
CLAY MINERALS increases the evaporation rates reducing the energy hence enhancing efficiency and considerably minimizing the impacts on the environment. If implemented, this innovation might supply clean water to billions of people making desalination a practical solution to water deficiency. Unfortunately, existing desalination plants generate toxic brine detrimental to marine life and use polluting energy sources and thus can benefit from further developments only of this method.
Worldwide, every year 4 billion people have no access to water, and half the population of the world also has no hope of securing water shortly, according to UNICEF. This new desalination technology presents a clear and viable solution to one of the world’s most critical problems – water scarcity.
Towards showing how these discoveries could ensure the availability of water in the next generation
Such steps forward in the detoxification of pesticides and palate for water relate to enhancing the global water situation. They make processes more efficient and therefore bring safer access to water for millions of people. The experiences emphasized the strength of international partnerships when addressing problems to encourage further creativity.
With the increasing population, as well as the industrialized process raising pressures on water demands, constant investigation is crucial to water quality. These findings from China and South Australia are important in establishing water for the coming generations and responding to the big issues of water deficit and pollution. Also, read this article with a relative interest.
