Full stream ahead: UNBC research leads to purifying contaminated water

According to World Health Organization reports, by 2025, 50 per cent of the world’s population will be living in water-stressed regions and at least two billion people will be drinking water from sources contaminated with bacteria

Lon Kerr, a graduate student at UNBC is looking at a different way to modify a form of mineral, which can then be used for killing bacteria in contaminated water.

Based out of the Northern Analytical Laboratory Services at UNBC, Kerr’s research has him modifying natural zeolites to make an antibacterial agent, which he hopes to use in some sort of water filter, whether that be a pitcher or a purifier someone can attach to a faucet or well.

Kerr told MyPGNow that Canada does a lot of relief-aid, exporting drinking water to developing countries when tragedy strikes. With this, it becomes costly to transport, which led to Kerr wanting to figure out a way to develop a form of inexpensive water filtration.

“In the event of a disaster or a system breakdown, you could transfer something one-tenth of the weight and still get the water you’re wanting out of it.”

The research team also stated that their findings could also be used for residential areas that have aging water systems, where heavy metals contaminate drinking water through its piping.

Following the modification of the zeolite minerals, bacteriological tests confirmed that zinc-modified zeolite is capable of killing 100 per cent of bacteria.

Kerr’s supervisor during the study, Dr. Hossein Kazemian, said the biggest obstacle to overcome during the research process was finding a way to purify zeolite.

“Usually they are not pure, they may have some contaminants such as lead in our case. So one thing we had to do before developing this filter to kill bacteria is to get rid of that lead,” said Kazemian. “So we purified zeolites with different chemical reactions.”

Kazemian added that by doing so, it wouldn’t lead to further contamination of the water when the zeolite was added.

The research has Kerr fine-tuning the commercialization of their findings, but the next steps for the research has the group looking into just how long the modified zeolites will be able to continue to kill bacteria, ultimately leading to the lifespan of the filter.