Campus start-up solves IIT Guwahati's drinking water woes

NEW DELHI, AUGUST 28: RD Grow Green India, a start-up incubated in IIT Guwahati will now provide a chemical-free method of purifying drinking water in the campus. The company works for the treatment of contaminated drinking water and industrial effluents.

As per the agreement signed by IIT Guwahati with RD Grow Green India, the company will now take over the purification technology in the campus. The technology is based on a patented process by Prof. Mihir Kumar Purkait, Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Guwahati, in which harmful pollutants such as fluoride and arsenic are removed from the water.

Rajeev Saikia, Managing Director, RD Grow Green India said that the Company is capable of handling arsenic, iron and fluoride contamination of Assam and is looking to collaborate with the state government to do so.

IIT Guwahati's new water purification apparatus

Unlike traditional filtration systems like RO, the process uses a method called electrocoagulation which has no wastage of water. Electrocoagulation is the passing of electric current through water to remove soluble and insoluble harmful pollutants.

Prof. T. G. Sitharam, Director, IIT Guwahati, said, “Drinking water contamination is a major problem in most of the states including Assam. This ‘chemical-free’ treatment technique might be useful to the citizens in rural and urban areas as well.