SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, July 4: A team of IIT Indian School of Mines (ISM) under the leadership of Dr Brijesh Kumar Mishra, associate professor of the environmental engineering department, has done major research on cleaning the contaminated water using a cow dung adsorbent.
Prof Mishra said that the water becomes contaminated due to the release of the high amount of heavy metals like lead from battery wastewater, Zinc in washings of dye manufacturing, Copper in textile effluents, Chromium from paper mill and paint manufacturing industry into water bodies.
The research team of IIT ISM has developed a cow dung-derived adsorbent that will help in removing heavy metals from the water. “Cow dung derived adsorbent has dual objectives. First, it ensures decontamination of water and second, helps in energy conservation,” said Prof Mishra.
He further added that cow dung-derived adsorbent is a cost-effective and environmentally friendly device to remove water contamination and can be used later as an energy storage device.
The research team, comprising Prof Brijesh Kumar Mishra of Environmental engineering, associate professor Ganesh Chandra Nayak of the department of chemistry and research associate Dr Sonalika of the environmental engineering department, has developed the device in three years of research and collected cow dung samples from different places for adsorbent development.
Prof Mishra said the research project fulfills the objectives of the Govardhan framework of the Swacchh Bharat Mission to support villages in managing their cattle and the Swajal Scheme of the central government to provide clean and safe drinking water to the rural population.
“Cow dung is composed of several mineral types such as phosphorus, nitrogen and carbon, which mainly come from lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose,” said Mishra. He said cow dung-derived adsorbent keeps significance for countries such as India, Bangladesh and Malaysia focus on agriculture and cattle rearing.
The researchers pointed out that cow dung is a viable option for generating energy storage devices as one cattle can generate approximately 9–15 kg of cow dung per day.
“These energy storage devices being developed from waste materials would be very cheap and can be integrated with solar panels in rural areas, which can be used to light up homes, roads, public toilets etc. “This type of device would be affordable, sustainable and cleaner with no impact on the environment,” said Prof Mishra.
