If Mother Earth could talk, she would probably thank us for the new HET remediation technology. This method, developed by a team of scientists from Rice University and ERDC, uses electrical pulses to knock organic pollutants and heavy metals out of soil, all without using a drop of water or generating waste.
The problem of polluted soil and the importance of reclamation
Soil pollution is one of the most serious environmental challenges of our time. The main culprits? Killers that you know well by now: heavy metals such as lead, arsenic, zinc, cobalt, copper, mercury and nickel, as well as pesticides e microplastics. These pollutants can come from human activities, but also from natural events such as earthquakes and floods: for example, toxic ash released by forest fires or industrial waste released from melting permafrost in the Arctic can contaminate large areas of soil.
A team of scientists from the Rice University and United States Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) has developed a technology that could make land reclamation of these pollutants much simpler and more widespread. The study, led by the chemist James tour, was illustrated in an article in Nature Communications (I link it here). How does it work? We see.
The electrothermal revolution
The technology HET (High-Temperature Electrothermal Process) is based on the Joule pulse heating technique, developed a few years ago from the same institute.
The heart of the process is simple but ingenious: the polluted soil is mixed with non-toxic carbonaceous compounds (such as biochar), which facilitate electrical conduction. Then, short electrical pulses are sent through the ground, heating it to temperatures between 1000 and 3000 degrees Celsius within seconds.
This extreme heat transforms organic pollutants into non-toxic graphite minerals and vaporizes heavy metals, which are then collected through extraction pipes.
Remediation 2.0: advantages and benefits
In addition to its effectiveness in removing a wide range of pollutants, HET technology has other surprising benefits. First of all, the process is incredibly fast, making it especially useful in emergency situations.
Furthermore, more importantly, the treated soil exhibits a 20-30% improvement in germination rates. In summary: this type of reclamation not only cleans the land, but it literally makes it better.
Tests and next steps
HET technology has already been tested in the laboratory and the results are promising. The researchers are now trying to bring it to the field testing phase. If all goes as planned, we could be looking at a dramatic change in land reclamation.
“Clean energy”, after all, is not only what we can obtain from renewable sources, but also how we use it to clean up the Earth. Or not?
