PEARL System Helps Clean Storm Water
“StormTrap will bring the industrial experience to the project and expertise about how to adapt the innovation to the local context and implement it in a realistic environment” ”
Prof. Vinayak Dravid
NUANCE Director
NUANCE Director Vinayak Dravid, and his research group have developed the PEARL membrane, which stands for Phosphate Elimination and Recovery Lightweight membrane; a porous nanocomposite material that selectively sequesters up to 99% of phosphate ions from polluted water. Using mild process conditions, the nutrients can be released, so the PEARL membrane and the anions can be reused. This exciting technology has successfully pulled lead from water as well as microplastics and oil from lakes and oceans. PEARL is the next iteration of the “Swiss Army knife” or “platform” technology whose base structure remains consistent while unique coatings are applied to the surface to adsorb context-specific pollutants.
The Paula M. Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy recently published an article detailing how the Institute have granted NUANCE and StormTrap, LLC , a stormwater treatment company, $250,000 in in seed grant funding to test PEARL’s performance in real-world conditions!
Check out the full article and read about the exciting environmental remediation impact PEARL could have in the Chicago land area!
