Stevens and Earth Identity Project join forces to remedy Bangladesh's arsenic crisis

Stevens Institute of Technology and Earth Identity Project, a leading non-governmental organization in Bangladesh, have signed an agreement to collaborate on a plan to make technology widely available to treat well water contaminated with arsenic in Bangladesh. Naturally occurring arsenic is found at high levels in many of Bangladesh's aquifers, a situation that currently threatens the health of up to 70 million people who drink well water there.

Stevens, a top engineering, science and technology university in the United States, will work with Earth Identity Project to establish a technology center in Bangladesh that will deploy Stevens' patented technology for removing arsenic from drinking water.

In 1999, engineers at Stevens' Center for Environmental Engineering created a low-cost, small-scale system that individuals and families can use to treat arsenic-contaminated water. Stevens has been testing this treatment system in Bangladesh during the past two years. The simple system requires no electricity, costs only a few dollars a year per family, and effectively reduces arsenic in well water to acceptable levels for human consumption (i.e. to at or below World Health Organization standards). The success of Stevens' recent pilot projects with villages in Bangladesh led to the collaborative agreement with Earth Identity Project.

On Feb. 13, 2001, Earth Identity Project's Director General, Ms. Nasrine R. Karim, and Stevens President Harold J. Raveche signed a memorandum of understanding that outlines the collaborative agreement. Stevens and Earth Identity Project agree to work together to develop a technology center that will deploy Stevens Technology for Arsenic Remediation (STAR) in Bangladesh. The STAR Technology Center will be responsible for all aspects of technology development and field deployment of the Stevens technology, including manufacturing, distribution and installation of STAR systems, treatment chemicals, monitoring, analysis, research, education and training.

Background on the Stevens technology for removing arsenic

The Center for Environmental Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology has created patented technology for safely and effectively removing arsenic from drinking water. This technology has been developed on a large scale for water treatment plants and remediation sites, and on a low-cost, family-size scale for developing countries in crisis such as Bangladesh.

The Stevens Direct Coprecipitation Filtration process has been used successfully in the United States for the removal of arsenic from contaminated groundwater and surface water since 1997. The DCF units can be installed in public water treatment plants as well as in groundwater remediation projects. With the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recent mandate for lowering acceptable arsenic levels in U.S. drinking water to a standard of 10 parts per billion (from the previous standard of 50 ppb), domestic demand for this technology will expand considerably in the near future.

In Bangladesh, naturally occurring arsenic leaches into aquifers in high concentrations, threatening the health of as many as 70 million people who drink well water. Stevens is currently working to help Bangladesh provide low-cost, family-sized filtration systems to everyone in that country who needs them. To produce clean drinking water with such a system, a family would collect well water in a bucket and add a packet containing coagulant chemicals to the water. After mixing, the water is transferred to another bucket with sand-based filter material in the bottom of it. The water that comes out of that bucket's bottom spout is safe for drinking.

Taking its existing large-scale technologies to a much smaller scale, Stevens developed and patented both the bucket filtration system and the chemicals for it.

MetalFilter, a new company under development at Stevens, is bringing the Stevens water treatment technologies to commercialization. For more information on this new company, contact Dr. George Korfiatis, professor and director of Stevens' Center for Environmental Engineering, at (201) 216-5326, or gkorfiat@stevens.edu.

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value.

Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,150 undergraduate and 3,500 graduate students, with about 250 full-time faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.  

For the latest news about Stevens, please visit StevensNewsService.com.