Corn Stover as water cleaner is an important research news from the University of California. The University of California conducted this research to put corn’s waste to productive use. Now, corn is one of the most grown crops in America and also produces a huge amount of waste. And the corn’s stalks, outer coverings, husks, and cobs become waste after the removal of its kernels. Because, all of this waste, known as corn Stover does not have much commercial use, it can be put to producing activated charcoal. Thus, the research paper published in the UC Riverside and also at the Physics.org website, explains the use of corn Stover as water cleaner.  

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Corn Stover as water cleaner – Form of activated charcoal

Activated charcoal believed to have great cleansing and purifying properties. It is due to the process that it goes through. It is charred and is treated in a way that creates millions of microscopic pores. And this helps increase any material’s absorbing capacity. This type of activated carbon or activated charcoal is used in many commercial applications mostly filtering pollutants from drinking water. Thus, turning corn Stover into its activated charcoal form can prove helpful in utilizing all the corn components.

Hydrothermal Carbonization:

Kandis Leslie Abdul-Aziz is an assistant professor of chemical engineering and environmental engineering. He along with two of the doctoral students, Mark Gale and Tu Nguyen compared a few methods of preparing charcoal from corn Stover. But the team found hydrothermal carbonization is one of the best methods to produce activated charcoal. And it holds the ability to remove nearly 98% of the water pollutants. Hydrothermal carbonization utilizes hot compressed water and thus makes it highly efficient as a process. These researchers also believe that corn Stover as a water cleaner will also help mitigate problems like climate change. And will help restore environmental balance, and also help in waste upcycling.

Quotes from researchers:

Aziz, concludes, “I believe that as engineers we should take the lead in creating approaches that convert waste into high-value materials. And fuels and chemicals, which will create new value streams and eliminate the environmental harm that comes from today’s take-make-dispose model.”