A team of researchers has found a new way to use enzymes to remove multiple pollutants from water at once and minimise risks to public health and the environment.

Nanoscientists from the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA say their findings could be an important new step in the effort to satisfy the world’s need for clean water for drinking, irrigation and recreational use.

According to previous studies, polluted water could be cleaned using enzymatic activities of naturally occurring bacteria and fungi, which breaks down pollutants into their harmless chemical components. However, this method carries the risk of releasing dangerous organisms into the water.

With the new UCLA technique, the researchers put enzymes into nanoscale particles called “vaults”, before depositing the tiny particles into polluted water. Nanoscale vaults are tiny particles that are shaped like beer kegs.

Microbial processes in water that are part of the natural system of biodegradation would eventually break down pollution in our water, but only over a very long period, according to study’s leader Shaily Mahendra, a UCLA associate professor of civil and environmental engineering.

“Natural microbes are why the world isn’t still covered with dinosaur droppings," Mahendra said. The UCLA associate professor noted, "But we don’t have the time or room on our planet to ignore contaminated lakes and rivers for a couple of million years while nature does the work."

She added that the new method they discovered is effective because the vaults protect the enzymes, keeping them intact and potent when placed in the contaminated water.

The scientists tested the method using an enzyme called manganese peroxidase. They found that over a 24-hour period, the vaults removed three times as much phenol from the water as the enzyme did when it was dropped into the water without using vaults.

They also discovered that because the manganese peroxidase remained stable inside the vaults, it was still able to remove phenol from the water after 48 hours. Free manganese peroxide was completely inactive after seven and a half hours.

Mahendra said the new technique could be scaled for commercial use in polluted lakes and rivers, and vaults could be added to membrane filtration units and easily incorporated into existing water treatment systems. Vaults containing several different biodegrading enzymes could potentially remove several contaminants at once from the same water source.

They also would be unlikely to pose risks to humans or the environment, according to the team, because vaults grow in the cells of so many species.

The research contributes to the goals of UCLA’s Sustainable L.A. Grand Challenge, a campus-wide initiative to transition the Los Angeles region to 100 percent renewable energy, local water and enhanced ecosystem health by 2050.

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