Researchers develop incredible tech that aims to combat threats to drinking water supply: 'Highly reactive'

Rising industrial water pollution is a threat to public health and the environment, and improperly treated industrial wastewater can pollute rivers and groundwater with chemicals that can linger in communities for decades.

To tackle this problem, scientists in Germany have developed a light-powered technology that can break down these pollutants before they ever reach the water supply, according to Tech Xplore.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems in Dresden have built technology that uses light to break down industrial pollution in wastewater.

The team is designing compact ceramic foams with coatings that react to light and break down stubborn chemicals such as pesticides, dyes, and PFAS. The ceramic foam is full of tiny, connected holes that give it a huge, network-like surface area where cleaning materials called catalysts are added.

These coatings create functionalized surfaces that react to light and help break down pollution. Because the foam is about 90 percent open space, light can easily pass through it, which makes the cleaning process fast and more effective.

"By exposing the functionalized surfaces to UV light, highly reactive radicals are created in the treated water, which decompose organic impurities. This process does not produce any undesirable byproducts, nor does it require additional oxidizing agents such as ozone," researcher Franziska Saft stated.

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Globally, more than 4 billion people lack access to potable water, in part due to the harmful chemicals from factories, farms, and medicine that end up in the water supply. Regular treatment plants cannot remove all of these pollutants, which put both people and ecosystems at risk; this groundbreaking cleaning technique could reduce water pollution at the source.

Companies in industries such as paper, textiles, and pharmaceuticals are already piloting this technology on production sites to remove pollutants before the water leaves their facilities. By cleaning wastewater more efficiently, this innovation could prevent pollution at the source, save resources and money that would be spent on cleaning polluted water, and prevent people from drinking contaminated water.

Thanks to this light-catalyzed breakthrough, the future of clean water is looking brighter than ever.

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