Carting clean water to the world

A University of Manchester researcher has won an Award for Innovation for an invention that could help deliver pollution-free water to people around the world.

Dr Nigel W Brown has been given the award by the Royal Society of Chemistry Process Technology Group, in recognition of five years of research into a system called Aquacart that removes toxic organic contaminants from waste water.

Harmful compounds can be removed from sewage and waste water by a process called ‘activated carbon adsorption’, a technique used in kitchen water filters.

Brown’s Aquacart system makes use of a new material called Nyex. This has a high electrical conductivity allowing fast, effective and cheap electrochemical regeneration, which allows the material to be used again.

Using this technology, it appears that pollutants are completely destroyed, leaving no residue.

The cleaning process is housed in a unit which allows simultaneous and continuous adsorption and regeneration to take place. Its low-cost, patent pending design has no moving parts.