Chemistry graduate on a mission to make safe drinking water a reality

Having grown up in a rural area often consuming untreated water, a chemistry student made it her mission to find a cost-effective, safe solution for water purification.

Lungile Hadebe, who graduated last week with a master’s in chemistry cum laude at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, has through her research discovered potentially cheaper material to use in water purification for safe drinking water.

“My biggest accomplishment was to show that it is possible for a rural child from a disadvantaged background to excel at an international level, and receiving my master’s cum laude is validation,” she said.

Hadebe’s research focuses on reclaiming potable water from salt water using an innovative technology, together with discarded coffee grounds, to develop material for use in water purification technology.

Hadebe used capacitive deionisation technology (CDI) for water purification, which removes salt ions from aqueous solutions using two oppositely charged electrodes.

In her project, Hadebe used biowaste in the form of easily accessible and abundant waste coffee grounds to serve as the electrode material, which demonstrated its potential to replace expensive, non-renewable electrode materials. “This project promotes circular economy, which is a concept that takes waste as a resource to manufacture new materials and products,” Hadebe told TimesLIVE Premium. “I decided to explore the process of making safe drinking water because I had an interest in water scarcity as I grew up in a rural area where we depended mainly on groundwater, uncovered wells and springs for drinking water. Untreated water is detrimental for human health.” Hadebe’s interest in chemistry was piqued when she realised that the discipline is not limited to the laboratory, but can be seen in soil’s interaction with water, fertiliser and seed to yield a crop.