Researchers at DIAT develop polymers to treat industrial effluent

Speaking to Newsline,Balasubramanian said,“Effluent treatment is a tedious process in many industries and preference is given to discharge the effluents immediately after the primary stage. These targeted polymers can be active at the primary as well as tertiary stage of effluent treatment. Lab analyses have proved that these adsorbents can effectively remove toxic metal ions such as mercury,arsenic,copper,nickel,cobalt and dyes such as direct red,direct blue,direct green,industrial dyes,basic dyes from waste water.”

According to the information sheet created by the group,the polymer material consists of readily available material such as activated charcoal,saw dust,sugarcane molasses besides chemical elements treated in a manner to create a porous membrane.

Balasubramanian said the porosity of the membrane can be adjusted as per the size of the ions to be filtered. The polymeric material has been patented and is currently undergoing validation,he added.

“If everything goes well,the material should enter production stage within a year,” said Balasubramanian. The material has been developed by a team of researchers from Materials Engineering Department of DIAT,comprising Renuka Gonte,Tushar Sahetya,Fuhar Dixit,Premika G,Deepesh Punetha,Parth Bhalara and Prashant Rule.

While the polymer has been primarily developed for industrial use,Balasubramanian said the polymer may be used for defence applications,especially for providing drinking water to soldiers posted in areas with contaminated water.