Waste collection, treatment and disposal activitites; materials recovery

The invention

The invention uses plastic waste and Waste Foundry Sand (WFS) to produce building and construction material with a density of between 1700 and 1750 kg/m3. The plastic is melted and WFS is used to produce a paste for the moulding of building material.

Problem solved

Plastics are...

The invention is a leakage detection system for water pipelines installed in partially saturated soils. Most soils in South Africa and the rest of Africa are partially saturated because the water table is usually deep. Given the large amount of water lost from water distribution systems worldwide...

The technology is a membrane for treating acid mine drainage that is reproducible and can handle large discharges of acid mine drainage. It is suitable for implementation in a filtration cartridge setup that allows for the reclamation of metals which can then be recycled and used for other...

Surfactants are amphipathic molecules with both hydrophilic and hydrophobic moieties that partition preferentially at the interface between fluid phases, such as oil/water or air/water interfaces. Such characteristics confer excellent detergency, emulsifying, foaming, and dispersing traits, which...

The invention relates to the design of a robust membrane for desalination using membrane distillation (MD). Although MD technology has advanced over the years, its industrial application for the treatment of brackish water and seawater is still lagging.  This invention exhibits advantages over the...

The invention relates to a membrane technology developed using polymeric material to recover crude oil found in water due to spillages.  Although several techniques have been employed for the removal of crude oil from water bodies, these techniques are either focused on dissolving the spilled oil...

A method and apparatus for treating a fluid utilising nanoscience. The impurities in the fluid are trapped by the charged nanoparticles. The fluid is contained in a reactor that includes a moving magnetic system. When the reactor is in use, the moving magnetic system excites the charged...

The invention relates to the use of maghemite nanoparticles at pH < 5 to remove sulphate, manganese, copper, nickel, cobalt and zinc metal ions from acid mine drainage (AMD). In a conventional way of AMD treatment, these pollutants are only removed at higher pH and requires costly alkaline chemicals...