Hi, my name is Alessandro, I’m from Italy, I’m 17 years old. I study chemistry at Enrico Fermi High School in Mantua.
I’m a member of the ECO FILTER project.
During the last two years, we have developed a project with the purpose of utilizing coffee grounds as a substrate for the adsorption of heavy metals in wastewater.
One of the most widespread environmental problems in the increasingly industrialized world, is heavy metal pollution. These metals cause serious problems in aquatic ecosystems and organisms, with impacts on human health due to bioaccumulation and biomagnification.
ECO-FILTER: The use of coffee grounds to remove heavy metals from water
One of the most widespread environmental problems in an industrializing world, is heavy metal pollution. The exposure of the body to high concentrations of these elements constitutes a great health hazard. Today’s methods of water purification have great costs and high environmental risk.While investigating the issue Emma, Alessandro, and Silvia have found out a cheaper alternative with also a lower ecological imprint. The idea here is to use spent coffee grounds as a substrate for adsorption of heavy metals from aqueous solution. Their studies have shown high percentages of adsorption in mono and multicomponent solutions.
