Female scientist specializing in 'domesticated' waste

Making benign raw waste harmful to the environment has long been a familiar work of Associate Professor Dong Kim Loan.

Raw, untreated waste from human production and living processes is like an aggressive "wild beast" that harms the environment and humans. Over the past 20 years, Associate Professor Dong Kim Loan , lecturer of the Department of Environmental Technology, Faculty of Environment, University of Natural Sciences, Hanoi National University has spent most of his time researching solutions for sensitization. those "wild beasts".

PGS Dong Kim Loan.(Photo: NVCC).

Working in the Department of Environmental Technology, PGS Loan is well known in the country when she studies and offers a test kit and a method for quick determination of ammonium in sources of water for daily life and eating. points in 2002.

Then read the information and listen to the people in Hanoi complaining about the situation in which the water is cloudy such as rice water, bad smell, boiled food, etc. due to water sources in some places that contain large amounts of ammonium. From human waste, PGS Loan is anxious to find solutions. Treatment of ammonium in water is not difficult, the difficulty is to determine the location and extent of ammonium contamination in many different locations. This requires sample analysis to be fast, efficient and easy so that people can do it themselves.

Referring to international experience, she found the Berthelot method (recognizing the ammonium content through the color of the compound formed between the phenol and ammonium by reagent) to meet the requirements. But the difficulty of this method for long-term preservation, multi-part ammonium reagents in the world in the form of powder, want to use must be crushed, dissolved . causing difficulty to use and time consuming.

PGS Dong Kim Loan and the faculty and students of the Department of Environmental Technology are determined to find ways to extend the retention time of the reagent, shorten the determination time, simplify the use and ensure the main level corpses of results. It took more than 4 years in the context of lack of equipment, machinery and chemicals, but thousands of samples were taken, and she and the team succeeded and completed the product.

"For every sample, we have to add this substance, reduce the substance, the job repeats many times but I don't get discouraged but it makes me more enthusiastic about this research project ", said Associate Professor Dong Kim Loan. . Her reagent was born in liquid form, a 6-month storage period, costing 1,500 VND / test kit (equal to 1/20 of the imported reagent). Users only need to put the reagent into the water sample, after 5 minutes, based on the color of the compound that appears in accordance with the color palette, it is possible to identify the degree of ammonium contamination of that water sample. Ministry of Intellectual Property Department, Ministry of Science and Technology patented the exclusive number VN 1-0014798 in 2015.

Pass the passion for the young

Recalling the first days of graduating from the Faculty of Chemistry and University of 1977, the female student named Loan in that year chose to be a researcher at the Vietnam Petroleum Institute. It was not until 1995, when studying a Master's degree in Environmental Technology, that the love for environmental science was also connected.

From there her passion for environmental science is transmitted under the guidance of Professor Lam Ngoc Thu - an expert in organic reagents. It is the research work that makes her gradually realize her passion and cultivate the will to deepen the environment but towards the technology of treating and utilizing waste. The first project she carried out was the research project on waste water treatment of paper and pulp manufacturing industries.

Her research has shown the level of pollution of wastewater from pulp production. This is also the first scientific research topic in her field of environment but an important contribution to help authorities make decisions to deal with establishments producing pulp causing environmental pollution.

PGS Dong Kim Loan in the laboratory.(Photo: Phan Minh).

After that, Assoc. Prof. Dong Kim Loan spent time researching solutions to treat hospital wastewater, weaving and solid waste . "I always learn about the issues associated with the set objectives. In order to gradually resolve from the root to the end of the pollution, " Ms. Loan said and said that besides research topics with the aim of dealing with environmental pollution, she and her colleagues did not stop looking. seek solutions to take advantage of waste resources - " resources are not properly placed" - into useful products, serving both science and the community towards cleaner production.

According to her, all waste if properly domesticated not only protects the environment but also an invaluable resource, bringing many benefits to humans.

In the early days of March 2019, the Department of Environmental Technology, Faculty of Environment, University of Natural Sciences was honored to receive the Kovalevskaia Prize 2018 because there are 16 members who achieved many achievements in the field of processing technology, taking advantage of waste and analyzing and assessing environmental quality, Associate Professor Dong Kim Loan is happy to contribute to this success.

As an officer involved in building the subject since the early days, she retired in 2017. Over 20 years of working "assets" of PGS Dong Kim Loan has not only been the scientific research projects or projects. High applicability, she also guides and inspires many students to follow the career of environmental protection.

With these contributions, she was honored to receive the Certificate of Merit from the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Science and Technology for her outstanding achievements in science and technology activities and many certificates of merit at the school level, the Association of intellectuals. .

PGS Loan confided, the scientific research is more and more favorable because Vietnam is on the path of strong development, science and technology are focused, the technology is more fully equipped so she hopes to have more friends. Children continue to study useful solutions to protect the environment.

For her part, she "only hopes to be able to participate in environmental issues. In the future, the environment will always arise new issues that need to be addressed. In my heart, I still want to be involved " , PGS Loan said about the desire to continue to be devoted.