Tomorrow’s technology for cleaning contaminated groundwater could be found in decidedly common and abundant Louisiana staples such as cane sugar and crawfish tails.
That’s the gist behind research being conducted by NanoFex, a new biotech startup at the New Orleans BioInnovation Center. NanoFex is a spinoff company from Tulane University, using nanotechnology derived from Louisiana cane sugar, crab and crawfish shells to sequester and break down groundwater contaminants such as chlorinated solvents, arsenic and heavy metals, said its founders.
“We’re committed to moving the remediation technology developed at Tulane to commercial practice,” NanoFex scientific adviser Dr. Vijay John said in a statement. “Thanks to the abundant resources provided by our state, NanoFex has tremendous potential to develop and implement new environmental technologies in Louisiana.”
The technology relies on heating sugar to a caramelized state, infusing it with iron sulfide, and holding it all together with a polymer made from the shellfish shells.
“And then what you have is a real, fine black powder,” NanoFex CEO David Culpepper explained.
These particles can be injected into the ground and will travel to the site of soil and groundwater contamination, where they stick to the contamination and reduce it to nontoxic by-products, he added.
With support from the New Orleans BioInnovation Center, The New Orleans Idea Village, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation, NanoFex has received grants and awards allowing the company to continue investing in further research and development.
After winning the Greater New Orleans Foundation-Idea Village’s Water Challenge in 2011, NanoFex was awarded $50,000, which is now being used to further expand the company’s development in New Orleans.
“NanoFex has the opportunity to establish cost-effective and practical remediation treatment options in situations where none currently exist,” said Culpepper.
“Our next step is to take contaminated soil from a site, bring it to our laboratory, put it in these columns and run our material through it so that we can calculate exactly how much material it takes to break down the contaminate,” Culpepper said.
“And then once we do that, the next step is to do an actual build demonstration project, which we hope to do this summer.”
If those results are successful, Culpepper says the company should be ready to go live at the end of the year.
Fonte: TheAdvocate
