Additive manufacturing to treat polluted waters

As we know, nowadays 3D printing offers the possibility of creating complex objects that can be reproduced quickly, easily and without much effort. With this idea in mind, a research team from the universities of Tasmania and the Balearic Islands decided to use this technology to purify polluted water. Andreu Figuerola, Fernando Maya and Gemma Isabel Turnes, are the authors of this project, which was funded through the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI) and the European Regional Development Funds (ERDF). It is interesting to know how additive manufacturing methods are increasingly present in the fight against environmental pollution, and how many organizations are integrating this technology to launch initiatives that contribute to this movement.

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to hear news about different incidents that lead to environmental damage and pollution. For example, not so long ago, there was an environmental disaster in Spain, when the Mar Menor suffered. Mar Menor is a coastal saltwater lagoon, in which thousands of organisms were devastated due to the effects of pollution of anthropogenic origin. As a result, many natural ecosystems have been destroyed. Water, being absolutely indispensable for humans needs special attention and care. But how did the researchers manage to integrate additive manufacturing into the water purification process?

Image credits: Marcial Guillén/EFE

Additive manufacturing for water treatment

To treat the water, there exist several methods consisting of quite a few stages that depend on the origin of the water (fluvial, industrial, residual, etc). In our case, the research team used 3D printing to manufacture devices coated with adsorbent materials capable of purifying aqueous solutions with different industrial dyes. In other words, they developed a support piece consisting of a module with interconnected channels to incorporate the adsorbent materials. The complex design increases the surface area within the module and, therefore, the amount of material that can be included.