Stevens and Earth Identity Project join forces to remedy Bangladesh's arsenic crisis
Stevens Institute of Technology and Earth Identity Project, a leading non-governmental organization in Bangladesh, have signed an agreement to collaborate on a plan to make technology widely available to treat well water contaminated with arsenic in Bangladesh. Naturally occurring arsenic is found at high levels in many of Bangladesh's aquifers, a situation that currently threatens the health of up to 70 million people who drink well water there.
Stevens, a top engineering, science and technology university in the United States, will work with Earth Identity Project to establish a technology center in Bangladesh that will deploy Stevens' patented technology for removing arsenic from drinking water.
In 1999, engineers at Stevens' Center for Environmental Engineering created a low-cost, small-scale system that individuals and families can use to treat arsenic-contaminated water. Stevens has been testing this treatment system in Bangladesh during the past two years. The simple system requires no electricity, costs only a few dollars a year per family, and effectively reduces arsenic in well water to acceptable levels for human consumption (i.e. to at or below World Health Organization standards). The success of Stevens' recent pilot projects with villages in Bangladesh led to the collaborative agreement with Earth Identity Project.
On Feb. 13, 2001, Earth Identity Project's Director General, Ms. Nasrine R. Karim, and Stevens President Harold J. Raveche signed a memorandum of understanding that outlines the collaborative agreement. Stevens and Earth Identity Project agree to work together to develop a technology center that will deploy Stevens Technology for Arsenic Remediation (STAR) in Bangladesh. The STAR Technology Center will be responsible for all aspects of technology development and field deployment of the Stevens technology, including manufacturing, distribution and installation of STAR systems, treatment chemicals, monitoring, analysis, research, education and training.
Background on the Stevens technology for removing arsenic
The Center for Environmental Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology has created patented technology for safely and effectively removing arsenic from drinking water. This technology has been developed on a large scale for water treatment plants and remediation sites, and on a low-cost, family-size scale for developing countries in crisis such as Bangladesh.
The Stevens Direct Coprecipitation Filtration process has been used successfully in the United States for the removal of arsenic from contaminated groundwater and surface water since 1997. The DCF units can be installed in public water treatment plants as well as in groundwater remediation projects. With the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recent mandate for lowering acceptable arsenic levels in U.S. drinking water to a standard of 10 parts per billion (from the previous standard of 50 ppb), domestic demand for this technology will expand considerably in the near future.
In Bangladesh, naturally occurring arsenic leaches into aquifers in high concentrations, threatening the health of as many as 70 million people who drink well water. Stevens is currently working to help Bangladesh provide low-cost, family-sized filtration systems to everyone in that country who needs them. To produce clean drinking water with such a system, a family would collect well water in a bucket and add a packet containing coagulant chemicals to the water. After mixing, the water is transferred to another bucket with sand-based filter material in the bottom of it. The water that comes out of that bucket's bottom spout is safe for drinking.
Taking its existing large-scale technologies to a much smaller scale, Stevens developed and patented both the bucket filtration system and the chemicals for it.
MetalFilter, a new company under development at Stevens, is bringing the Stevens water treatment technologies to commercialization. For more information on this new company, contact Dr. George Korfiatis, professor and director of Stevens' Center for Environmental Engineering, at (201) 216-5326, or gkorfiat@stevens.edu.
About Stevens Institute of Technology
Founded in 1870 and celebrating 140 Years of Innovation, Stevens Institute of Technology, The Innovation University TM , lives at the intersection of industry, academics and research. The University's students, faculty and partners leverage their collective real-world experience and culture of innovation, research and entrepreneurship to confront global challenges in engineering, science, systems and technology management.
Based in Hoboken, N.J. and with a location in Washington, D.C., Stevens offers baccalaureate, master’s, certificates and doctoral degrees in engineering, the sciences and management, in addition to baccalaureate degrees in business and liberal arts. Stevens has been recognized by both the US Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security as a National Center of Excellence in the areas of systems engineering and port security research. The University has a total enrollment of more than 2,200 undergraduate and 3,700 graduate students with almost 450 faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America as well as strategic partnerships with industry leaders, governments and other universities around the world. Additional information may be obtained at www.stevens.edu and www.stevens.edu/press.
