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UW researcher invents way to remove arsenic from water
Wyoming
A University of Wyoming researcher has invented a method for removing arsenic from water that may someday save lives and benefit the environment.
Associate Professor K. J. Reddy of the Department of Renewable Resources has discovered that laboratory-produced cupric oxide particles can purge highly poisonous arsenic species from contaminated water to a level far below that mandated by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards that go into effect Jan. 23, 2006.
Reddy's work has resulted in a licensing agreement between the university and Arsenic Removal Technologies, Inc. (ARTI) to commercialize and market the process, which is already being pursued by several other water companies. ARTI is a subsidiary of a technology transfer company based in Plant City, Fla.
The UW faculty member says his coup came after three years of research. While other techniques have only been able to remove the less toxic arsenate species of arsenic, Reddy's technique also eliminates the more lethal arsenite from water.
"There have been processes proposed that work, but they have been very cumbersome and time consuming," Reddy reports. "Our procedure is very simple, rapid and effective. What surprised me the most is that it reduces arsenic to a nondetectable level."
Reddy says he developed the filtering procedure in his water quality laboratory about 15 months ago while actually investigating ways to remove selenium from water. "To be positive, we confirmed and reconfirmed the findings by doing continual testing to make sure we had enough information," he notes.
UW graduate student Viswatej Attili of Hyderebad, India, has been assisting the College of Agriculture associate professor as part of his master's program. The two experimented with water spiked with arsenic and also with water samples collected from natural sites in Wyoming and Montana and from coal-bed methane production areas.
"Finally we realized what we had," Reddy says. "Given the magnitude of the arsenic problem, several water industries are quite interested in what we are doing."
Recent studies suggest that high concentrations of arsenic in drinking water are found in the United States and throughout the world in countries such as Argentina, Bangladesh, Chile, China, Hungary, India, Mexico, Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam, according to Reddy.
Long-time exposure to the toxin by humans has been linked to skin, lung, bladder and kidney cancer and can also lead to fatal cardiovascular and nervous system breakdowns.
The National Research Council reports that most arsenic enters water supplies either from natural deposits in the earth's crust or from industrial pollution. It is also a byproduct of copper smelting, mining and coal burning. Plants absorb arsenic fairly easily, so high-ranking concentrations may be present in some foods. Contaminated organisms consumed by fish can lead to the deaths of birds feeding on freshwater animals.
Arsenic has been on Reddy's personal hit list for a long time. A native of India, he points to the 35 million people in India and Bangladesh who were inadvertently mass poisoned in the 1970s and 1980s by lethal doses of the toxin in drinking water ironically contaminated during the digging of 4 million tube wells meant to supply clean water. A continued reliance on well drilling coupled with population increases in his homeland has exacerbated the problem in the past 25 years.
He hopes the technological simplicity of his invention will make it affordable to underdeveloped countries.
Professor Tom Thurow, head of the renewable resources department, says Reddy's research "is an example of creativity and hard work that has resulted in the development of an elegant, practical procedure that can be used to address a very serious environmental problem. This scientific advance has great potential to significantly improve the health of many people by improving the quality of water upon which they rely."
In the United States, the new EPA standards designed to protect consumers against the effects of long-term, chronic exposure to arsenic in drinking water call for the reduction of the element in public water systems from 50 to 10 micrograms per liter and for the increased monitoring of water sources.
ARTI, which was recently acquired by HydroFlo, Inc., of Raleigh, N.C., holds a worldwide exclusive license to Reddy's process. "The technology produces no harmful byproducts, and removal does not require altering the pH of inflow water," according to an ARTI spokesman. "In addition, this method is not affected by the presence of most other compounds found in water such as sulfates."
Reddy, who earned a doctoral degree in environmental quality from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, is now preparing a report on his findings that he hopes to publish in a well-known journal. Because his discovery is being marketed, he will receive funding to continue his arsenic research.
What excites him as much as the benefits he hopes his invention will produce from both a human and environmental health perspective is the fact that he can share his work with his students.
"When you can take research into the classroom, it makes your teaching so much more relevant and effective," he explains. "Students realize that what they learn can be used to help solve a real world problem."
Date: 8/25/04
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