International. An EU-funded project has been created to develop a system capable of removing nanoparticles effectively and cost-effectively to avoid contamination and encourage the development of safer and more innovative products based on these types of particles found in products such as paints.
From a few years to this part there has been a vertiginous increase in products equipped with artificial nanometric substances. Research in this field has captured a good part of the scientific interest due in part to the enormous range of potential applications it presents in the biomedical, electronic and coating fields.
The researchers indicated that the release of some of these particles into rivers and watercourses poses risks to the membrane that forms the gills of fish and crustaceans.
The project known as Nanofloc ('Electro-agglomeration and separation of Engineered NanoParticles from process and waste water in the coating industry to minimise health and environmental risks') provided a new electroagglomeration system that, in the opinion of the team in charge, is capable of removing suspended solids at the submicron scale. The system destabilizes nanosuspensions and agglomerations of charged particles contained in a solution using electric fields, thereby eliminating the need for chemicals.
The technology is cost-effective, compact and environmentally friendly and the team's work leading to its acquisition will include the construction of an innovative reactor in which these flocculations are agglomerated and stabilized, as well as a reaction chamber and an intelligent process control system.
The project, which has EUR 1 141 968 of European funding under the theme 'Research for the benefit of SMEs' under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), could be important in environmental and economic terms. To date, the only effective means of removing nanoparticles from an aqueous medium was the use of energy-intensive methods such as reverse osmosis, a technology that uses a semipermeable membrane to purify water.
Industries that use nanoparticles profusely, such as the paints and coatings sector, will be able to take advantage of this cost-effective technology to remove nanoparticles from the water used in their processes. In this sector, the use of nanotechnology is expected to grow exponentially. By 2016, automakers will have to use scratch-proof paints and coatings on their vehicles by law.
The results of the project are encouraging with respect to electrocoagulation technology in paints. A recent project meeting held in Stuttgart was devoted to aluminium and titanium dioxide flakes and the potential of a reaction chamber intended for the electrocoagulation process was studied.
