Hydroptics project aims to clean up wastewater

With the need to be purified to international standards, scientists are seeking to make wastewater free from hazardous substances like particles of oil.

Australian team uses electricity to clean up industrial wastewater

Now, researchers from St-Blaise, Switzerland-based Alpes Lasers have teamed up with a group of oil industry partners and academic institutes to create an ultrafast sensor that will make toxic wastewater harmless by detecting the tiniest concentrations of oil and suspended solids in water.

Improving its detection rate using AI and machine learning, this new laser system will continuously monitor water in a live setting without the need for sampling or preparation.

The team said the sensor will use hyperspectral imaging to detect microscopic pathogens that are indistinguishable to the human eye or conventional imaging methods.

Harmful 'wastewater' by-products are created when crude oil is processed, distilled and refined to make fuels including diesel, kerosene, and liquefied petroleum.

Producing cooling water, process water, storm water, and sanitary sewage waters, oil refineries have sought to reduce the number of dangerous by-products by monitoring the wastewaters at critical stages in their refining processes.