Carbon-based organic micropollutants in water can be removed by treatment with high-intensity pulses of light

 

The photodegradation of carbon-based organic substances has been known for a long time but it’s been limited by very long treatment times. Now students at KAUST have demonstrated that this photodegradation treatment can be dramatically accelerated by the use of high intensity light pulses generated from a xenon flash lamp. Organic micro pollutants (OMP’s)which can be pharmaceutical chemicals hormones compounds in personal care products and industrial chemical additives can be harmful with as little as a few nanograms per litre and these have been continually released into waterways by wastewater treatment plants the researchers have found that high intensity pulse light allowed many of these OMPs to be decomposed at extraordinary degradation rates the team is working to improve the systems efficiency and throughput so that it can be scaled up for a full size treatment works.


Photo KAUST; Hassan Tahini


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