Removal of Toxic Chromium from Wastewater

• 06 Sep 2024

Source: PIB

Recently, researchers at the Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST) Mohali, an autonomous institute of Department of Science and Technology have developed an innovative, method for removing toxic chromium from industrial wastewater by utilising sunlight as a catalyst in combination with microfluidic technology(manipulation and control of fluids at a very small scale).

• Hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) is highly toxic, with World Health Organization (WHO) recommended limits of 0.05 mg/L and 5 mg/L for hexavalent and trivalent forms in drinking water, necessitating the reduction of hexavalent to trivalent chromium.
  • Trivalent chrome is believed to be less readily absorbed by the human body compared to hexavalent chrome making its removal critical.
• Traditional methods like ion exchange, adsorption, and bacterial reduction are costly and often inefficient.
  • INST researchers have used sunlight as a catalyst in combination with microfluidic technology and TiO₂ nanoparticles to convert Cr(VI) into a less harmful trivalent form. The process has shown a 95% efficiency in degradation. 
• Nanotechnology is the science of manipulating matter at the atomic or molecular scale, typically between 1 and 100 nanometers. 
  • It has a wide range of applications across various fields, including: Biomedicine, Electronics, Removal of pollutants and toxins from water and soil, cosmetics and Food Science.

Read More: Removal of Heavy Metals from Water