New process for clean drinking water reaches innovation final

A new chemical process that removes chlorine in drinking water has reached the final of a £4m innovation competition. Researchers from Cardiff University have teamed up with the water filtration systems specialists, Origin Aqua , to develop a product that disinfects water, kills viruses and bacteria and removes chlorine by-products. A team led by Professor Graham Hutchings , Cardiff Catalysis Institute (CCI), previously found that a catalyst made from gold and palladium takes in hydrogen and oxygen to form hydrogen peroxide - a commonly used disinfectant currently produced on an industrial scale. The innovation project, led by CCI, is a finalist in the Water Discovery Challenge , run by Challenge Works and the Water Services Regulation Authority, Ofwat , with Arup and Isle Utilities. Professor Graham Hutchings, Regius Professor of Chemistry, said: "Being selected as a Finalist gives us funding to develop a proven one-step process with Origin Aqua where, besides the catalyst, inputs of contaminated water and electricity are the only requirements to attain disinfection. "The significantly enhanced bactericidal and virucidal activities achieved when reacting hydrogen and oxygen using our catalyst, rather than using commercial hydrogen peroxide or chlorination shows the potential for revolutionising water disinfection technologies around the world." The catalyst-based method was shown to be 10,000,000 times more potent at killing the bacteria than an equivalent amount of industrial hydrogen peroxide, and over 100,000,000 times more effective than chlorination, under equivalent conditions.