Zwitterionic spirocyclic Meisenheimer complex 1

Quite a mouthful🙂 It is an easily manufactured complex that removes lead, mercury, flourides, cadmium and such from water when made to a filter.

https://phys.org/news/2017-11-easily-compound-fluoride-metal-ions.html

Yes, it's great to get clean water out of polluted water, but we still have dispose of the heavy metals somewhere safe.

it's OK to pollute ..as long as there is money to be made, To hell with the EPA..

Originally posted by @moonbus
Yes, it's great to get clean water out of polluted water, but we still have dispose of the heavy metals somewhere safe.

Well, it's a lot better for those poisons to be out of the water. The levels are seldom past the part per million in the water but some metals that is enough to cause damage so there wouldn't be all that much left, besides it would be in higher contaminated water after the filtration I assume. Heck, maybe they could make a secondary business selling the byproduct to industry. Mercury is still used in some places, high pressure lights and the like. We use a 2000 watt UV lamp based on mercury and we have to find a way to safely dispose of the mercury inside the lamps when they die. About one drop is all they use but that could contaminate a lot of water, one drop of mercury.

The article did not say how easy it is to get the heavy metals out of the gel, once the contaminated water has been filtered through it, or whether the gel can be re-used (assuming the heavy metals can be extracted from it). Filtering contaminated water is a nice idea, but we don't need a lot of contaminated gel left over any more than we needed the contaminated water.

Originally posted by @moonbus
The article did not say how easy it is to get the heavy metals out of the gel, once the contaminated water has been filtered through it, or whether the gel can be re-used (assuming the heavy metals can be extracted from it). Filtering contaminated water is a nice idea, but we don't need a lot of contaminated gel left over any more than we needed the contaminated water.

Dump the gel in a river. Soon be washed away.

Originally posted by @moonbus
The article did not say how easy it is to get the heavy metals out of the gel, once the contaminated water has been filtered through it, or whether the gel can be re-used (assuming the heavy metals can be extracted from it). Filtering contaminated water is a nice idea, but we don't need a lot of contaminated gel left over any more than we needed the contaminated water.

The filter material can certainly be burned off leaving only the metals which can then be sold to industry if nothing else. Just remember when you are dealing with PPB or PPM contamination you are not talking about large amounts of metals. Grams at most. Milligrams most likely.

Originally posted by @sonhouse
The filter material can certainly be burned off leaving only the metals which can then be sold to industry if nothing else. Just remember when you are dealing with PPB or PPM contamination you are not talking about large amounts of metals. Grams at most. Milligrams most likely.

Yes, but milligrams can still be lethal, if ingested. Extracting them from contaminated water is not a bad start but still only half a solution.

Originally posted by @moonbus
Yes, but milligrams can still be lethal, if ingested. Extracting them from contaminated water is not a bad start but still only half a solution.

Do you seriously think anyone will injest contaminated filters? They will be processed like any other hazardous waste.