New technology to revolutionise water purification

TORONTO - Canadian researchers are on the threshold of pioneering a new technology that will revolutionise purification of drinking water and sewage, they say.

Though current technologies can clean water by removing dirt particles and killing the germs, they fail to filter out tiny toxic waste coming from drugs, pesticides and cosmetics.

Researchers Banu Ormeci and Edward Lai at Ottawa’s Carleton University are engineering tiny particles that will trace and bind to pollutants in water from factories or sewerage plants.

They plan to use polymers - synthetic chemicals like plastics - to build these invisible particles to stick to impurities in water.

They say their technology will be low-cost, requiring no major changes to the existing treatment plants.

“It is urgent that we find new, effective and affordable technologies to remove these substances as traditional treatment processes used at treatment plants are neither successful nor designed to remove these compounds,” said Ormeci, who heads the Canada Research Chair at the university’s department of civil and environmental engineering.

She said the presence of extremely low concentrations of endocrine-disrupting compounds - found in birth control pills, over-the-counter drugs, cosmetics and fragrances - in otherwise pure water can affect the human system, pose a threat to foetal development and young children.

Their adverse affects on water organisms have also been well documented and the “feminisation” of male fish has been linked to their presence in surface waters, she said.

Lai said: “The new technologies we are developing that incorporate both sound engineering practices and analytical chemistry are a promising solution to the pressing problem associated with the long-term effects of emerging compounds on humans, and aquatic and terrestrial organisms.”

He added: “Over the next few years, we not only want to expand our research to incorporate a wide range of compounds but plan on adding magnetic properties to enhance the process.”

The Canadian Water Network has granted them $159,000 for research over the next two years.