According to TASS on July 31, researchers at Gagarin Saratov State Technical University have developed a new, economically efficient method for purifying environmentally harmful industrial wastewater, the university's press office told TASS.

Project initiator Inna Sokolova stated that existing purification methods fail to fully address environmental issues and require substantial funds for treating the resulting by-products. The new method uses an inexpensive adsorbent and does not require costly waste treatment equipment, as the purified product can be reused in the future—for example, to remove organic pollutants from water.

She emphasized that removing various pollutants from water is an urgent task. Wastewater from the metallurgical, chemical, and electroplating industries contains heavy metals that cannot be decomposed, which enter water bodies and accumulate in living organisms.

According to the university, the newly developed method employs a precipitation adsorbent—potassium polytitanate—to purify nickel-containing electroplating wastewater and produces a functional product. During the research, the team investigated the effects of adsorbent dosage, contact time, and medium pH on nickel removal efficiency, and conducted kinetic and thermodynamic analyses.

The study was supervised by Maria Vekulova, Associate Professor and Candidate of Chemical Sciences at the Department of Materials Chemistry and Chemical Technology of Saratov State Technical University.