Sunflower protein amyloid-carbon hybrid membranes for water purification

Abstract

Water pollution is a crisis affecting millions of living organisms globally. A major source of pollutant comes from the presence of toxic heavy metals discharged into water bodies by industries. Existing water technologies, while effective in removing heavy metal ions, are limited by the specificity of ion removal. A recent water filtration technology utilizing protein from cow’s milk has been shown to overcome that limitation, achieving high filtration capacities of single and multiple heavy metal ions. Here, the process of turning a food waste sunflower meal into protein fibers is reported. A hybrid membrane of protein and activated carbon was fabricated and tested for its wastewater filtration capacity for removing heavy metal contaminants from water. The membrane demonstrated >99% ion removal within the first few filtrations, suggesting a prospective area of research for water filtration using food proteins.