Can you imagine, apple and tomato peels can be used to remove different types of pollutants in water. Till date many techniques are available for purification of water, some are - boiling, granular activated carbon filtering, reverse osmosis, use of iron in removing arsenic from water, with moringa seeds, in-situ chemical oxidation etc. Now Mr Ramakrishna Mallampati, a PhD candidate at the National University of Singapore (NUS), came up with a new purification technique. He experimented with water treatment techniques using materials that are easily available, and came up with novel ways to purify water using the peels of apples and tomatoes.
One of the most crucial problems affecting the world today is the scarcity of potable water.According to a 2007 WHO report, 1.1 billion people lack access to an improved drinking water supply. The scarcity of clean water is expected to worsen in the future due to over usage, lack of conservation methods and dwindling natural supply of clean water, even in countries with significant water resources.
The challenge for scientists is to develop robust water purification methods that could carry out water treatment at low cost, with minimal energy consumption and using less chemicals in the process so as to reduce negative impact on the environment.In a bid to make clean water available at low cost, Mr Ramakrishna Mallampati, used materials that are easily available for water purification.
He studied the structure of the tomato peels to assess their efficiency as bio-materials to remove toxic metal ions and organic pollutants from water. In addition, factors such as the pH, nature and amount of adsorbent used for extraction were considered to establish the optimum conditions under which tomato peel could remove various pollutants from water.
He found that tomato is an efficient adsorbent for water purification. It can effectively remove different contaminants in water, including dissolved organic and inorganic chemicals, dyes and pesticides, and they can also be used in large scale applications. The results were published in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal RSC Advances in September 2012.
He also studied on apple peel for water purification as They are easily available as bio-waste from food processing industries and they are biodegradable.
He found that, similar to tomato peels, apple peels can also remove a range of dissolved water pollutants through the adsorption process. In order to enhance the ability of apple peels towards extraction of negatively charged pollutants, Mr Ramakrishna immobilized naturally occurring zirconium oxides onto the surface of apple peels. Zirconium loaded apple peels were found to be able to extract anions such as phosphate, arsenate, arsenite, and chromate ions from aqueous solutions. This method of water purification can also be used for large scale applications.
The findings are published in the American Chemical Society journal ASC Applied Materials & Interfaces in May 2013.
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