Conventional water and wastewater treatment processes, no matter how efficient, have a large carbon footprint.
Michael Tam is breaking new ground and exploring how cellulose nanomaterials – those derived from wood, plants, algae and bacteria – can be used to make treatment facilities more sustainable. The most abundant biopolymers on the planet, these nanomaterials are widely available and offer many desirable properties over materials used in conventional water treatment systems. It is a challenge, he says, that materials scientists, chemists and chemical engineers need to work on together, and these multi-disciplinary efforts are reflected in the diversity of experts who work in his lab.
“Current research,” he says, “almost exclusively focuses on the development of the nanomaterials, and not on their scalability of water treatment processes. We are working directly with industry and strategic countries around the world to develop innovative solutions that will impact society in a positive way.”
