{"id":266084,"date":"2025-11-02T02:18:27","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T02:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/266084\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T02:18:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T02:18:27","slug":"toxic-chemicals-from-wastewater-removed-with-canadas-eco-friendly-method","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/266084\/","title":{"rendered":"Toxic chemicals from wastewater removed with Canada&#8217;s eco-friendly method"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists have developed a new method that removes toxic pollutants from wastewater. <\/p>\n<p>Developed by researchers from Dalhousie University, the innovative method offers a new way to reuse wastewater sustainably.<\/p>\n<p>The simple and eco-friendly method to turn agricultural and forestry waste into powerful magnetic materials can effectively remove toxic chemicals from water.<\/p>\n<p>Sustainable, low-cost, and reusable solution<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur goal was to develop a sustainable, low-cost, and reusable <a href=\"https:\/\/interestingengineering.com\/innovation\/solar-reactor-human-urine-fertilizer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"dofollow noopener\">solution<\/a> for treating wastewater contaminated with harmful chemicals,\u201d said lead author Tunnisha Dasgupta, a researcher at Dalhousie University\u2019s Faculty of Agriculture.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy using agricultural and forestry residues, we are not only cleaning water but also giving new value to waste materials.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Researchers demonstrated magnetic carbon adsorbents made from two common waste products: flax shives and eucalyptus sawdust.<\/p>\n<p>Method turns biomass into carbon-rich solids<\/p>\n<p>These materials were converted into \u201chydrochar\u201d through a process called hydrothermal carbonization, which transforms <a href=\"https:\/\/interestingengineering.com\/energy\/startup-turns-wastewater-into-carbon-neutral-fuel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"dofollow noopener\">biomass<\/a> into carbon-rich solids under heat and pressure. By adding iron during the process, the researchers created magnetic hydrochars that can be easily separated from treated water using a magnet, eliminating the need for costly filtration, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurekalert.org\/news-releases\/1103726\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Published in Sustainable Carbon Materials, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.maxapress.com\/article\/doi\/10.48130\/scm-0025-0003\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">study<\/a> involves converting biomass waste into magnetic carbon-based adsorbents through hydrothermal carbonization (HTC).<\/p>\n<p>The research team revealed that during the HTC process, iron was incorporated to impart magnetic properties to the resulting hydrochar, enabling post-treatment recovery using an external magnet. Hydrochars derived from flax shives (FS-Fe-HC), and eucalyptus (ES-Fe-HC) were tested for their efficiency in adsorbing pentachlorophenol (PCP) from wastewater.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis study demonstrates the potential of HTC as a sustainable approach for valorizing lignocellulosic waste into effective bio-adsorbents for wastewater remediation, addressing both environmental and industrial challenges,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.maxapress.com\/article\/doi\/10.48130\/scm-0025-0003\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">said<\/a> researchers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe novelty lies in utilizing dual biomass waste, magnetic recovery capability, and high reusability with minimal iron leaching, thereby contributing to circular economy practices in water treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"483\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image_666c54.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-216569\"   title=\"Wastewater turned into clean water with eco-friendly method that removes toxic chemicals\"\/>Sustainable carbon materials for magnetic adsorbent-based pentachlorophenol removal from wastewater. Credit: Tunnisha Dasgupta, Himadri Rajput, Pubudi Perera, Xiaohong Sun &amp; Quan<\/p>\n<p>Outstanding performance in removing persistent and highly toxic pollutant<\/p>\n<p>The research team also revealed that the new materials demonstrated outstanding performance in removing pentachlorophenol (PCP), a persistent and highly toxic pollutant commonly found in industrial and agricultural wastewater.<\/p>\n<p>Under optimal conditions, the flax-based hydrochar removed up to 95 percent of PCP, while the eucalyptus-based version achieved nearly 89 percent removal. Both materials maintained high efficiency through six reuse cycles, showing excellent stability and minimal loss of performance. Importantly, no iron leakage was detected, confirming that the materials are safe and environmentally friendly, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurekalert.org\/news-releases\/1103726\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">as per<\/a> the press release.<\/p>\n<p>The innovation represents a step forward for circular economy practices in water treatment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis work shows how we can turn organic waste into advanced materials that protect our environment,\u201d said senior author Dr. Quan. \u201cThe magnetic hydrochars are scalable, efficient, and align with global goals for sustainable water management.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists have developed a new method that removes toxic pollutants from wastewater. Developed by researchers from Dalhousie University,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79,29177,60802],"class_list":{"0":"post-266084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-sustainable","11":"tag-wastewater"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}