COLUMNS of tiny, bright-blue beads may banish harmful organic pollutants from
sewage farms and industrial effluent more effectively, say chemists at the
University of Bradford in Yorkshire. Made of silica gel, the beads make the job
of cleaning up effluent much easier.
A widely used technique for cleaning up contaminated water is to pump ozone
through it, turning pollutants into harmless substances such as carbon dioxide,
oxygen and water.
“Ozone will destroy any organic pollutants,” says Chedly Tizaoui, leader of
the Bradford team. But because ozone dissolves sparingly in water, as little as
10 per cent of the gas is…
