Naturally-Acting Arsenic Adsorbent Products to Debut

A new environmental cleanup material has been developed using a natural mineral that adsorbs and immobilizes toxic arsenic; commercial products will be appearing on the market soon. Arsenic-contaminated soil or water can be purified simply by mixing them with this natural material, helping simplify cleanup processes and cut costs. A research team led by Dr. Tsutomu Sato at the Institute of Nature and Environmental Technology of Kanazawa University in Ishikawa prefecture has developed this material into a product.

Dr. Sato noticed that a stream contaminated with high levels of arsenic from an abandoned mine was naturally purified, with arsenic concentrations decreasing as the water went downstream. This led to his discovery that a mineral named "schwertmannite" present in the streambed sediment adsorbs arsenic. The effectiveness of schwertmannite was demonstrated when it successfully decontaminated well water on a site in Bangladesh where people are suffering from severe arsenic contamination.

In June 2003, Dr. Sato and Sophia Co., a venture-capital company provided with technical and other assistance from the University, jointly applied for a patent on technology that overcomes one shortcoming of schwertmannite as an adsorbent, its unstable crystal structure. Since then, they have been working together to develop commercial applications.

Sophia Co. will put a large wastewater treatment system on the market in autumn 2005. In cooperation with a water purifier manufacturer, Sophia is now developing arsenic treatment filters for household water purifiers, aiming to market them within the year. The company is also working on soil cleanup systems, and has built a prototype of a transportable soil mixer in collaboration with a construction machinery maker.



Posted: 2005/07/31 05:40:29 PM
Japanese version