Peanut shells can purify water

Peanut shells, one of the largest food industry waste products, can be used to extract environmentally harmful copper ions into waste water, according to Turkish researchers.

In the book Inderscience of the International Journal of Environment and Pollution, the team described how this available waste product could be used to extract toxic copper ions from wastewater. . This discovery offers a choice for simple handling of the waste products everywhere in this food industry.

Copper is an essential mineral found in many living organisms, but at a high level, it can be harmful and when released into high levels into natural water sources, it can create a threat. Serious environment to aquatic ecosystems. The industries that generate waste containing copper ions (II) decompose, including those for cleaning and galvanizing industries, paper and pulp manufacturing plants, wood pulp production areas and fertilizer industry.

(Photo: Global-b2b-network) Complex processing processes including copper salt precipitation, ion exchange, electrolysis and adsorption on activated carbon filters are often used to remove copper ions. out of waste water.

Now, Duygu Özsoy and colleagues of the environmental technology department, University of Mersin, Turkey, have begun examining the ability of some materials to absorb the decays of copper from waste water. They looked at how well the peanut shell and another potential cleaning agent for pine sawdust absorbed copper ions from waste water .

The team measured the levels of copper ions that could be separated from waste water at different temperatures, acidity, flow rate and initiality of the decay.

They found that the more waste water is exposed to these materials, the more effective it will be. However, there is a complete difference between the peanut shell and the sawdust of the pine tree.Peanut shells can remove 95% of copper ions while pine pimples only remove 44%. The best effect can be achieved if the water is slightly acidic while the temperature has little effect on efficiency.

Scientists conclude that, including peanut shells, a cheap waste of the food industry and sawn timber from the timber industry, can be used to purify water to reduce toxic copper in a way. significant.

Thanh Van