Center for the Environment

Technologies for Cleaner Air, Soil, and Water

Innovative strategies to reduce air, water and soil pollution from municipal, manufacturing, agricultural, and energy-related operations are being developed and implemented. Pollution abatement technologies discovered and developed at the Center for Environment could potentially become viable commercial products, adding to the economic base of the state and the nation, as well as improving the quality and availability of natural resources. Important targets of opportunity for new technology development include the agricultural, coal combustion, general manufacturing, and wastewater treatment sectors.

C4E participants are currently involved in projects designed to evaluate existing manufacturing processes, to identify key elements that use/generate environmentally harmful species, and to develop cleaner systems. Other areas of interest include identifying processes that inefficiently use raw materials and result in the production of significant hazardous waste, systems that use excessive amounts of energy, and processes that require feedstocks that are environmentally detrimental to manufacture. Purdue has strong research programs in the area of coating technology and materials engineering, which will continue to be areas of focus.

New cost-efficient technologies are also needed to remove contaminants from both air and water; to insure the safety and security of the public. Development of new separation technologies will have important applications in manufacturing and water treatment technologies. In addition, new disinfection process for water will have applications in both the environmental protection and the homeland security areas.

Contacts- Inez Hua, Civil Engineering and Linda Lee, Agronomy and C4E