Perena Gouma, an associate professor at SUNY Stonybrook, has developed a technology which is designed to remove hydrocarbons (like oil) from water by using nanogrids that float and efficiently decompose the hydrocarbons using solar irradiation. Originally intended for cleaning up oil spills, the technology was deemed too expensive for such purposes and has instead been re-engineered towards cleaning up fracking water well enough to be drinkable.
Traditional wastewater treatment is ineffective at removing hydrocarbons like benzene and toluene from fracking water, but the new nanogrid technology is able to reduce benzene contamination alone by a factor of a thousand.
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