Serving Sustainability

From Carnegie Mellon University Institute for Green Science

What if there was a revolutionary inexpensive way to remove dangerous, toxic chemical pollutants from all types of water, that could be used safely by anyone, anywhere? The world’s wastewaters and water sources are contaminated with micropollutants like BPA, pesticides, and pharmaceuticals that are ineffectively removed by traditional water treatment systems. We need a completely new approach to removing toxic synthetic chemicals from municipal, agricultural, industrial and all other types of water as a foundation of a sustainable and healthy society.

Many of these pollutants are endocrine disruptors that mimic hormones and thus have toxic effects at even the low concentrations present in water. They are severely damaging the health and reproductive ability of life throughout the ecosystem, from plankton to fish and possibly to humans.

The Institute for Green Science based at Carnegie Mellon University has invented a novel suite of catalysts that mimic and outperform our body’s detoxifying enzymes. Our catalysts activate hydrogen peroxide to remove these micropollutants from water in a way that doesn’t disrupt the ecosystem and is very cost effective.

The catalyst family has passed rigorous biosafety tests for low dose toxicity, which we helped to develop through collaboration with international experts in endocrine disruption.

We are now ready to take our powerful water treatment technology from the lab and deploy it in the real-world to protect the aquatic environment and provide everyone with affordable access to cleaner and safer water.