Dear Readers,
This week we have some innovations and a whole lot of News from the world of water. As always do share your thoughts, like, share and subscribe!
PFAS - F = less toxic and easier to remove
Quick science recap - PFAS have contaminated waters everywhere and their strong carbon-fluorine bond allows them to pass through most water treatment systems completely unharmed. This newsletter and hundreds of other folks around the world have been working to solve the problem of PFAS (“forever chemicals”) being stuck in our water bodies. Some have suggested elaborate solutions like blasting with plasma, but as with all human ingenuity, over time smarter and elegant solutions come together.
Now chemists at UCLA and Northwestern University have developed a simple way to break down almost a dozen types of these nearly indestructible "forever chemicals" at relatively low temperatures with no harmful byproducts. They show that in water heated to just 176 to 248 degrees Fahrenheit, common, inexpensive solvents and reagents severed molecular bonds in PFAS that are among the strongest known and initiated a chemical reaction that "gradually nibbled away at the molecule" until it was gone.
They say that by heating the PFAS in dimethyl sulfoxide as a solvent, with sodium hydroxide, a common reagent, it triggered the molecule breaking-up and spitting out fluorine atoms from these compounds to form fluoride, which is the safest form of fluorine. The research team have successfully degraded 10 types of forever chemicals including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and its common replacement, GenX — two of the most prominent PFAS compounds. The U.S. EPA, however, has identified more than 12,000 PFAS compounds, so there are a ways to go yet! But great steps in the right direction
Eco-friendly filtration system for microplastics
A collaborative research team from Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology (DGIST) & the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology in South Korea has developed an eco-friendly microplastic removal technology. While eco-friendly, it isn’t exactly the least complex. They use a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) developed by the folks at DGIST and particle removal technology using electrophoresis developed by the KIIT people to remove these particles.
Wha-huh? - The TENG generates electrical energy through physical energy and utilizes the high voltage characteristic of triboelectric energy which means it does not require a special external power source. Therefore the filter is not restricted by location. The filtration is done by electrophoresis which is a method of separating molecules based on their size and electrical charge, wherein an electric current is used to move the molecules through a gel or other matrix. They say this technology can remove micro-sized microplastics and various micro-toxic particles such as nano-sized zinc oxides and silicon dioxides. This TENG showed a removal rate of micro-sized microplastic particles of 21.4% which is over 5 times better than the last TENG, so onwards and upwards it is!
Atmospheric Water Generators ahoy!
This week we found 3 feel good stories and innovations in the Atmospheric Water Generation (AWG) world.
First up a German Solar AWG Startup, has hit a big product development milestone. The initial test results of its pilot system using a liquid absorber and solar thermal energy to extract drinking water from air humidity near Marrakech in Morocco. With temperatures around 40°C and air humidity as low as 25% during the day, their system can produce 200 liters (50 gallons) of water per day, using 100 square meters (around 1,000 sqft) of solar collectors. Watch more in their video here.
Their end goal? - Reaching water generation costs of $40 USD Per 1,000 Gallons!
Next up is a Kenyan social enterprise company building AWGs. The company was started in 2017 by three founders and began production at the end of 2019. Their machine can produce up to 500 litres of water per day, but if the humidity is higher than 60% relative humidity - it can produce all the way to 700 litres of water. With 13 million people facing severe hunger in the wider Horn of Africa region as a result of persistent drought conditions, every drop counts!
And to wrap up this week’s AWG roundup is the clear AWG standard bearer - Source Water who have raised yet another $130 million round of funding. Why? - They currently manufacture their hydropanels at a rate of tens of thousands a year, and intend to scale up to produce millions of hydropanels a year, over the next 5 years!
In Other News
On to the news from around the world of water.
We talked in the past of the Third pole i.e. the Himalayas and the irresponsible water loss going on there. Now new research led by scientists at Penn State, Tsinghua University and the University of Texas at Austin projects that climate change, under a scenario of weak climate policy, will cause irreversible declines in freshwater storage in the region, constituting a serious the water supply for central Asia and Afghanistan and a near-total collapse for Northern India, Kashmir, and Pakistan by the middle of the century. Cheerful thought to kick off the round of news yes?!
On one side of those mountains there is an intense heatwave and drought in China’s south, around the Yangtze river basin, as a result of climate change, and heavy rainfall continues to take its toll in other parts of the country.
All of which results in news of factories shutting down and the government turning to planes flying up and firing silver iodide rods into the sky to to induce rainfall and supply its crucial Yangtze River,
Approximately 47% of the EU is experiencing drought conditions. Enough said!
On this side of the world, federal and state governments are kicking into gear as well;
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, approximately 22.7 million Texas residents currently live in areas affected by drought.
Deb Haaland announced that $310 million in funding to combat ‘megadrought and climate change’ in the United States.
Not to be outdone, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced an aggressive new $8 billion strategic plan, detailed in this document, to reinforce California's dwindling water supply.
On the East Coast, the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) announced funding via grant and loan funds, for needed drinking water and wastewater system improvements, to the tune of $18.5 million.
And in the Midwest, Wisconsin Gov. Evers announced a $10 million program to improve access to clean drinking water in the state.
Similar to the last few weeks, here is this week’s water quality report for the waterways of the 5 boroughs of NYC brought to you by the good people at the Billion Oyster project. To know what Oysters have to do with clean water, please do visit their website.
And to wrap up this week, we have news of a clean water well in Nigeria funded by a bitcoin nonprofit from the US. This effort, will help the Igbaruku community, with over 1,000 villagers drink clean water without having to walk miles to get it.
That’s it for this week,
‘Til next Friday,
Peace