A research team from the Solar Water Treatment Unit of the Almería Solar Platform (CIEMAT-PSA) and SMALLOPS S.L. have verified the effectiveness of “recyclable” nanoparticles made from iron and vegetable water, a liquid byproduct of olive oil mills, in decontaminating wastewater. Although these microstructures had previously been used to obtain biofertilizer and biogas, the experts have demonstrated that they can also remove substances such as paracetamol, caffeine, and pesticides, among others, from the aquatic environment. Furthermore, these nanomaterials do not lose their effectiveness over several application cycles, depending on the amount of pollutants they remove from the aquatic environment.
This proposal could be used as a first bioremediation treatment for urban wastewater, as it can reduce the concentration of pollutants in aquatic environments by half. “Furthermore, they are easy to use because they are visually powder-like (each unit is smaller than a grain of salt) and can be separated from the aquatic environment using traditional physical methods,” says Isabel Oller.
The nanoparticles are made from olive water, a liquid byproduct of olive oil production. This waste, which pollutes the environment if not subjected to prior purification treatment, is typically used as fuel to produce biogas or as a biofertilizer for agricultural soils. “Although their bioremediation, i.e., decontaminating, properties have been studied in recent years, in this work we have verified for the first time the effectiveness of these iron nanomaterials in cleaning aquatic environments,” Isabel Oller, a researcher at the Almería Solar Platform (CIEMAT-PSA), told the Discover Foundation.
