[Music] this is dirty Wastewater it goes into treatment plants where it undergos a number of purification steps before it's released back into the environment so it can later become drinking water a major challenge for scientists like Patrick bigam is that sewage often carries substances that treatment plants can't remove the chemist is working on a method of breaking down those contam in the [Music] waterly these are Pharmaceuticals that people have taken and that are only partially broken down in the body part of them are excreted intact and today's treatment plants are often unable to break them
down that means that traces of medications May later show up as undesired components of drinking water bigam and his colleagues stress that the concentrations of such substances are extremely low but they can't say exactly how great A Hazard they could pose to human health in the future we're finding more and more because we have more sensitive detection methods but it's also a problem of increased consumption of medications in part because the population is aging more people take medications long term and even greater amounts are showing up in the treatment plans at Yana University Brum has
constructed an apparatus that can remove medications from Wastewater with tiny bubbles created by pulses of extremely high-pitched sound [Music] ultrasound at the same time he lowers the water pressure to create even more bubbles [Music] in a process known as cavitation the bubbles abruptly collapse releasing energy with destructive potential you can imagine it this way first it's the size of a melon and then within a millisecond it collapses to the size of a cherry pit that produces very high temperatures which in turn splits the water molecules and generates o radicals these highly reactive fragments of water
molecules attack the medications in the water and break them down in the best case you end up with CO2 and water or you get smaller products of the reaction and of course we want them to be as non-toxic as possible and biodegradable many of the substances can be broken down completely within minutes minutes now the success in the lab has to be tested in reality bigam is especially interested in offering his technology to hospitals he collaborates with the Y University Hospital the Clinic's Wastewater has high concentrations of contaminants especially cleaning fluids or medications that patients
have taken and partially excreted our special problems are cytostatic drugs and radio contrast agents that make this very different from normal domestic Wastewater cytostatic agents are used in cancer treatment and the contrast agents are used for x-rays these are the kinds of substances Patrick Bram is targeting with his bubble technology he wants to eliminate all traces of the medications from drinking water his work could be a breakthrough in water management but as yet the treatment plants are under no obligation to improve their purification methods our technology may use more energy and make the water more
expensive but we don't add any chemicals or anything like that we don't need to separate anything all we need to use this system is a power outlet pressure and sound and it can go on purifying continuously This research is still in the initial phase the scientists are hoping to develop the technology in collaboration with industry and universities and the first prospective clients have already been in touch
