Thanks to a collaboration with the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), the Vicente Ferrer Foundation (FVF) and the Canarian company Tagua SL, the technology to remove fluoride from contaminated water of geological origin is to be brought to India. Ground water. The aim of this project is to use this system based on the volcanic mineral zeolites as a filter to filter contaminated water and eradicate the bone disease known as fluorosis in the Asian country.
The collaboration was made official today in Valencia with the signing of an agreement between researchers from the Institute of Catalysis and Petroleum Chemistry (ICP-CSIC) and representatives of FVF and Tagua. The agreement includes carrying out a pilot test with family-sized devices of this patented technology integrated by CSIC. It has been successfully used in rural areas of Ethiopia since 2019.
Safe consumption facility
“Through this agreement, CSIC is bringing to India the technology that has already enabled access to drinking water in Ethiopia. The aim is to establish scientific and technical collaboration to eradicate fluorosis, a disease caused by excessive exposure to fluoride. High fluoridation of water affects many parts of the world, most notably India,” he said. . Rosa M. BlancoOne of the ICP-CSIC researchers leading the project.
to Luz Maria Chance, General Director of FVF, said the project seeks to guarantee clean and safe water consumption to the rural communities of Anantapur district and avoid the use of chemical products or systems that require expensive maintenance that may incur costs to the communities. “And a risk to the environment.” “We will conduct the test at the facility located in Kuderu and its surrounding areas as it is an area with high fluoride pollution,” he said.
“For the first time, this technology has been introduced in India and from now on, high fluorides in drinking water, the cause of serious disabling diseases, tooth decay and bone defects will be avoided. This is the first experience that we are happy to approach for the results it delivers to people,” he noted. Luis GonzalezCEO of the company Tagua SL, responsible for the commercial scale production of small filters based on zeolites.
Family device with integrated zeolite based filter. / Dagua S.L
A sustainable resource
Natural zeolites are volcanic in origin and have a microporous structure that can hold a wide variety of elements such as sodium, potassium and magnesium. “Zeolites are a natural resource that is underexploited due to the lack of scientific knowledge regarding their applicability that encourages their systematic exploitation,” he points out. Isabel DiazVice President of Internationalization and Cooperation of CSIC and co-inventor of this technology.
This capability allows zeolites to be used in wastewater treatment, ammonia extraction, odor control, extraction of heavy metals from nuclear, mining and industrial wastes, and even as animal feed. In Ethiopia, the technology patented by CSIC goes further, as the material resulting from fluoride distillation is used as agricultural fertilizer.
