Environmental water remediation is currently a $6 billion per year industry with 5,000 to 12,000 newly discovered remediation sites per year. Over the next several decades, private industry and federal, state and local governments will commit billions of dollars annually to clean up sites contaminated with risky waste products.

 

Chlorinated solvents are common additives in paint thinners, dry cleaning solutions, degreasers, and were formally associated with gas stations and chemical manufacturers. These pollutants were historically dumped into the groundwater and, despite more recent regulations, are still commonly found pollutants in our groundwater today.  Unfortunately, people who are exposed to such compounds can experience a number of serious health effects including organ damage, impaired fetal development, cancer, and death.

 

NanoFex’s technology is based on the in-situ chemical reduction (ISCR) of chlorinated compounds and certain heavy metals in soil and groundwater using a multifunctional particulate system (MPS) containing zero-valent iron nanoparticles embedded on carbon microspheres. The technology uses an aerosol based process to rapidly prepare the iron-carbon composite. Source materials can be made from inexpensive and innocuous precursors (sugar, waste crustacean shells, iron salts) and are intrinsically environmentally benign.