UNSW scientists have developed a world-first, graphene-based, laboratory-scale filter that can remove more than 99% of the ubiquitous natural organic matter left behind during conventional treatment of drinking water.
In a research collaboration with Sydney Water, the team has demonstrated the success of the approach in laboratory tests on filtered water from the Nepean Water Filtration Plant in western Sydney, and is working to scale up the new technology.
The results of some of the ground-breaking research are published in the journal Carbon. The project is led by Dr Rakesh Joshi of the UNSW School of Materials Science and Engineering, in collaboration with Professor Veena Sahajwalla and Professor Vicki Chen of UNSW, and Dr Heriberto Bustamante of Sydney Water.
UNSW scientists have developed a world-first, graphene-based, laboratory-scale filter that can remove more than 99% of the ubiquitous natural organic matter left behind during conventional treatment of drinking water.
In a research collaboration with Sydney Water, the team has demonstrated the success of the approach in laboratory tests on filtered water from the Nepean Water Filtration Plant in western Sydney, and is working to scale up the new technology.
The results of some of the ground-breaking research are published in the journal Carbon. The project is led by Dr Rakesh Joshi of the UNSW School of Materials Science and Engineering, in collaboration with Professor Veena Sahajwalla and Professor Vicki Chen of UNSW, and Dr Heriberto Bustamante of Sydney Water.
“Our advance is to use filters based on graphene – an extremely thin form of carbon. No other filtration method has come close to removing 99% of natural organic matter from water at low pressure,” Dr Joshi said.
“Our results indicate that graphene-based membranes could be converted into an alternative new option that could in the future be retrofitted in conventional water treatment plants.”
Read more at University of New South Wales
Image: UNSW's Dr Rakesh Joshi (far left) and team members hand over water free of natural organic matter to Sydney Water's Dr Heriberto Bustamante (far right). CREDIT: UNSW Science
