Coconut water is an indispensable part of the routine of many Brazilians, especially those who live in warmer regions.
Therefore, the consumption of the drink ends up producing a lot of garbage that is not reused, which generates pollution in cities and, mainly, beaches.
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According to Agência Brasil, the coconut shell waste, for example, generates an accumulation of garbage that takes up to 15 years to decompose.
Taking this information into account, a Brazilian study decided to analyze and offer solutions for coconut waste that was discarded in landfills and in inappropriate places.
Researcher Bruno Salarini Peixoto decided to study in his doctorate a material that could avoid incorrect disposal in the nature and coconut shell pollution.
Thus, he managed to create magnetic charcoal to reuse coconut waste and create a new method for cleaning up water.
Understand how coconut charcoal works
In his doctoral research, carried out at the Fluminense Federal University (UFF), Peixoto transformed the coconut green in a product called “magnetic charcoal” that manages to attract harmful substances from the water. After this first procedure, it can be removed by magnets.
The process promises to be cheaper than the filtration techniques used today. In addition, magnetic coal helps cleaning treatment plants, as it manages to remove “emerging contaminants”.
Coconut charcoal process removes drug residues in water
The teacher and project advisor, Marcela de Moraes, also stated that some substances, such as antibiotics, are not removed by the filtering process at the stations and end up returning to houses. With the use of magnetic charcoal, cleaning would be more efficient and safer, preventing people from coming into contact with drug residues.
According to the researcher, the presence of medicines has increased considerably in recent years due to the use and incorrect disposal of chemical substances.
In his interview with the portal Brazil Agency, Moraes pointed out that “the consumption of medicines [in the world] has increased. We take a lot of medicine and everything we take ends up being excreted somehow. In our urine, for example. And there is also the irregular disposal of drugs”.
Magnetic coal is still in the research and patent process. Soon, the researchers hope to apply the new material in the water treatment process in the city of Niterói, in Rio de Janeiro.
