Graphene water treatment

ERDC and NASA to explore graphene-enhanced water treatment systems for space exploration

Researchers at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) are developing a water treatment system based on a mix of graphene oxide and a byproduct made from shrimp shells. Recently, ERDC's graphene research attracted the attention of NASA, leading to a collaboration with the agency to investigate the use of novel graphene materials as high-capacity absorbents for the removal of spacecraft water contaminants.

Graphene could significantly reduce the need for resupply and component sparing in space missions, potentially enabling crewed missions to deeper regions of space. Graphene-enhanced water treatment systems may one day be used to help extend future space missions and lead to safer intergalactic explorations.

Read the full story Posted: Nov 28,2023

Researchers develop bioinspired reinforced graphene membranes that overcome mechanical limitations

Researchers from Peking University, Beijing Normal University and KU Leuven recently reported a novel method to substantially reinforce large-area graphene membranes. Their work provides a facile method to fabricate large-area graphene membranes and paves the road to practical application in the membrane separation field. 

Nanoporous graphene membranes are attractive for molecular separations, but it remains challenging to maintain sufficient mechanical strength during scalable fabrication and module development. In this work, the team drew inspiration from the composite structure of cell membranes and cell walls, and designed a large-area atomically thin nanoporous graphene membrane supported by a fiber-reinforced structure with strong interlamellar adhesion. It was found that factors like fracture stress, fracture strength, and tensile stiffness of the composite membranes can be enhanced compared with other graphene-based membranes of large scale.

Read the full story Posted: Nov 17,2023

Researchers develop graphene oxide-doped silica aerogels for efficient removal of pollutants from wastewater

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) and Tel Aviv University in Israel, have developed a graphene oxide-doped silica aerogel adsorbent that can remove trace pollutants from wastewater.

This graphene-modified silica aerogel reportedly removes over 76% of trace pollutants (PPM level) in continuous flow conditions, offering a sustainable path for large-scale water purification. The research team is dedicated to enhancing these results for large-scale applications.

Read the full story Posted: Oct 30,2023

Evove completes pilot demonstration of graphene-enhanced filtration membranes at AB InBev brewery in South Africa

U.K.-based Evove, which develops graphene-enhanced membrane and filtering solutions, has announced it has completed a pilot demonstrating the use of its filter technology at a large AB InBev brewery in Johannesburg, South Africa. 

It was explained that making beer is a process that requires a lot of water: Just sterilizing the equipment in a brewery can mean using thousands of gallons of water every week. That’s especially problematic in a place like drought-prone Johannesburg, where a water shortages and leaky infrastructure mean that water can be in short supply. Normally, the hot, caustic water used to clean tanks and water lines at a brewery can’t be reused, and ends up in the sewer system. It’s filled with grain residues, sugars, and yeasts that can’t easily be filtered out. “With conventional filters, it just clogs up the filters right away,” says Andrew Walker, Evove’s chief marketing officer.

Read the full story Posted: Sep 30,2023

Researchers develop fullerene-pillared porous graphene material with high water adsorption capacity

A team of researchers from Japan's Chiba University, led by Associate Professor Tomonori Ohba and including master’s students, Mr. Kai Haraguchi and Mr. Sogo Iwakami, has fabricated fullerene-pillared porous graphene (FPPG)—a carbon composite comprising nanocarbons—using a bottom-up approach with highly designable and controllable pore structures. 

Separation processes are essential in the purification and concentration of a target molecule during water purification, removal of pollutants, and heat pumping. To make the separation processes more energy efficient, improvement in the design of porous materials is necessary. Porous carbon materials offer a distinct advantage as they are composed of only one type of atom and have been well-used for separation processes. They have large pore volumes and surface areas, providing high performance in gas separation, water purification, and storage. However, pore structures generally have high heterogeneity with low designability, which poses various challenges, limiting the applicability of carbon materials in separation and storage.

Read the full story Posted: Jul 30,2023

Researchers develop rGO-based approach to address oil-water separation challenges

Researchers from Qatar University (QU), Maimoona Mohamed and Nada Yahya Deyab, along with their supervisor Dr. Shabi Abbas Zaidi, have made progress in addressing the challenge of oil-water separation.

Their research focuses on developing a novel material for efficient oil recovery from oil-water mixtures. By modifying polyurethane (PU) sponges and cotton with reduced graphene oxide (rGO), they have achieved promising results in terms of hydrophobicity, oil-absorption efficacy, reusability, and cost-effectiveness, offering a promising solution to address the issue of water and soil pollution caused by oil spills.

Read the full story Posted: Jul 18,2023

Researchers show that water can interact directly with electrons in graphene

An international team of researchers from the Max Plank Institute for Polymer Research of Mainz (Germany), the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2, Spain) and the University of Manchester (England) has found that water can interact directly with the carbon’s electrons: a quantum phenomenon that is very unusual in fluid dynamics.

A liquid, such as water, is made up of small molecules that randomly move and constantly collide with each other. A solid, in contrast, is made of neatly arranged atoms that are surrounded by a cloud of electrons. The solid and the liquid worlds are assumed to interact only through collisions of the liquid molecules with the solid’s atoms: the liquid molecules do not “see” the solid’s electrons. Nevertheless, just over a year ago, a theoretical study proposed that at the water-carbon interface, the liquid’s molecules and the solid’s electrons push and pull on each other, slowing down the liquid flow: this new effect was called quantum friction. However, the theoretical proposal lacked experimental verification.

Read the full story Posted: Jun 25,2023

Directa Plus launches pilot project for treating produced water

Directa Plus has announced the start of a pilot project for a novel concept in produced water treatment. The Company said the project would use its ‘Grafysorber’ technology, and was being conducted through its subsidiary Setcar. The showcase of the pioneering endeavor reportedly took place at Setcar's Braila location in Romania

Produced water refers to the water that is extracted alongside crude oil during the oil production process. Currently, the water is disposed of without undergoing any treatment, but stricter industry regulations are driving the need for effective treatment solutions. Directa Plus said it was aiming to address the challenge with its new development, which had the potential to tap into untapped markets within the company's environmental division.

Read the full story Posted: Jun 23,2023

Evove secures over $6.7 million to advance its graphene-based for its water filtration technology

UK-based Evove, developer of a graphene-based water filtration technology designed to tackle water shortage, has announced that it has secured £5.7 million (around USD$6,750,000) in a round of funding led by One Ventures with participation from AM Ventures and existing investors.

Evove says it will use the funds to expand its manufacturing capacity, scale up its 3D-printed membrane process, and capitalize on its substantial pipeline of opportunities. 

Read the full story Posted: Mar 08,2023

Researchers create graphene hydrogels for efficient water purification

A team of researchers, led by Professor Aravind Vijayaraghavan based in the National Graphene Institute (NGI), have produced 3D particles made of graphene that come in various interesting shapes, using a variation of the vortex ring effect. These particles have also been shown to be exceptionally efficient in adsorbing contaminants from water, thereby purifying it.

Optical and SEM images of donut, spherical and jellyfish morphologies of GO-VR

The researchers have shown that the formation of these graphene particles is governed by a complex interplay between different forces such as viscosity, surface tension, inertia and electrostatics. Prof Vijayaraghavan said: “We have undertaken a systematic study to understand and explain the influence of various parameters and forces involved in the particle formation. Then, by tailoring this process, we have developed very efficient particles for adsorptive purification of contaminants from water”.

Read the full story Posted: Feb 12,2023