International Innovation Project on the Computer-aided High Throughput Development and Upscaling of Tailored Zeolites as Waste Water Filters in Ghana

Illegal gold mining operations are a growing problem in Ghana, owing to the practice of alluvial mining techniques and the heavy use of toxic chemicals, which leads to significant pollution by cyanide, mercury, other heavy metals and organic contaminants, of the water sources that serve the local population. The mining and other local communities are thus deprived of access to clean water, leading to serious health problems. In addition to any chemical treatment of the effluent water, there is an urgent need to develop physical absorbents to remove the pollutants, which, however, need to be both efficient and cost-effective. Microporous zeolite materials are very effective absorbents and ion exchangers, which can be tuned to be highly selective towards adsorbate(s) of interest, with the accompanying release of non-toxic ions into the environment. They can be synthesised from readily available materials and are compact, cheap and simple to maintain in full-scale operations.
This cross-disciplinary project will bring together an experienced team of geochemists, physicists, computational and materials scientists from academia and industry to develop efficient synthetic zeolites, made from naturally available minerals, for the cost-effective treatment of waste water from gold mines, before its discharge into the environment. The zeolites will be characterised and tested on a laboratory scale before up-scaling both synthesis and filtration process into an operational treatment plant to serve a local metropolitan population.

The research in this project will clearly have impact on:

(i) Society, by developing a proto-type filtration system, which will decontaminate water sources used for drinking water by local communities in Ghana, thus improving their health and well-being;

(ii) The Natural environment in heavily polluted gold-mining areas, which should improve through the filtration of mine effluent before discharge into the environment; and potentially

(iii) The economy in Ghana, through the design of new microporous filtration systems, which could be commercialised;

The project will also benefit the UK, as any new zeolites or other products invented and produced in the project will be co-patented by Cardiff University, who have an excellent track record in exploiting the outcomes of research and innovation.