Bengaluru: In an important development in the field of cleaning up water, the IIT-BHU has developed a system to extract toxic substances from water by using ash made from teak and neem wood.

It is to be noted that this method is not only eco-friendly, but also inexpensive and can also be adopted to purify Ganga water besides reducing the cost of ROs while retaining the available minerals in the water.

New agencies say that Vishal Mishra, an assistant professor of biochemical engineering, and his team have prepared two different types of adsorbent from the ashes of teak wood sawdust and neem stalk, thereby, separating the harmful metals, ions from the water that can be made potable.

It added Mishra as saying that the wood powder of teak (scientific name: Tectona grandis) is mixed with sodium thiosulfate and heated in an atmosphere of nitrogen to make activated charcoal. Adsorbent is also made from neem (scientific name: Azadirachta Indica) and stalk ash (neem twig ash).

On one hand, the teak can extract harmful gases, ions, sulphur, selenium in water from coal made of wood, and, on the other, the study of neem ash is intended for the treatment of polluted water containing copper, nickel and zinc.