GUWAHATI: A team of researchers led by National Institute of Technology (NIT), Silchar faculty member M Ahmaruzzaman has come up with a unique solution to purify toxic water containing arsenic and fluoride concentration. The process of purification includes using renewable bio-precursors (naturally available feedstock) for dearsenification and defluoridation — processes to remove arsenic and fluoride — which will get rid of the contamination and generate pure, drinking water in rural areas.
Water pollution in general, and arsenic pollution in particular, is a major concern, especially in the northeastern states and some parts of West Bengal, where groundwater has a high risk of getting contaminated.
The research group has designed and developed a biogenic (environment-friendly feedstock), cost-effective and highly efficient Carbon-SnO2 nanocomposite adsorbent material using renewable and low-cost bio-precursors such as saw dust, sunflower oil and inflorescence of imperata cylindrica, a species of perennial rhizomatous grass.
Their results showed that the developed material could reduce the arsenic and fluoride concentration in both synthetic and spiked groundwater to below 10 ppb and 1.5 ppm respectively, which are the maximum permissible limits according to the World Health Organization’s drinking water guidelines.
“These will help tackle the problems of arsenic, fluoride and iron contamination present in various parts of Assam and provide safe drinking water to rural people who live in various parts of the country. Thus, development of low cost and biogenic material for enhanced water decontamination and arsenic removal holds great social and industrial significance,” said Ahmaruzzaman, an associate professor of NIT, Silchar, who has been ranked among the top 2 percent scientists in the world by Stanford University in the US. Ahmaruzzaman has been ranked seventh among Indian scientists and 113th in the chemical engineering category on that list.
Currently, Ahmaruzzaman is focused on developing new nanomaterials for abatement of water pollution. “Our ongoing research activities focused on the construction of highly efficient adsorbents and destructive photocatalysts for tackling water contaminants. These provide the groundwork for the designing of nanomaterials to be employed for combating water pollution, thereby also fulfilling the dual objective of mitigating health risks engendered by the emerging water contaminants and restoring the much perturbed ecological balance,” he added.
His group also developed several tin-oxide based nanostructured materials for room temperature sensing of environmentally toxic gases like CO and NO2 and detection of p-nitrophenol and production of hydrogen gas. These developed materials will be used in sensor technologies and clean energy generation processes.
Also, the research group has developed chemically impregnated coconut coir waste (CICCW) as a low-cost adsorbent for the desulfurization of feed diesel. These results clearly proved the feasibility of the developed low-cost adsorbent (CICCW) as a good candidate for the desulfurization of feed diesel for a more environment-friendly technique in petroleum refining.