C&EN Highlights PURE Lab Research Turning Toxic Arsenic Sludge into Valuable Material

Our research on turning arsenic-laden drinking water treatment sludge into a valuable raw material was recently featured in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN). The article highlights the new chemical approach developed in our lab to recover metallic As(0) from iron-rich wastewater residuals, which are materials that are typically classified as hazardous waste and costly to dispose of.

Arsenic contamination is a widespread global challenge, and while treatment plants successfully remove arsenic from drinking water, the resulting sludge has long been treated as a disposal problem. As described in the C&EN article, our work shows that this waste stream can instead be converted into metallic As(0), a form that is more useful for advanced materials and technology applications than traditional oxidized arsenic compounds.

The piece also discusses how recovering arsenic (and potentially phosphate) from water treatment residuals could reduce reliance on mining and help rethink how essential services like drinking water treatment fit into future resource recovery strategies. While the process is still at the laboratory scale, the coverage highlights the broader idea that waste streams from water treatment may hold untapped value.

Read the full article in C&EN:
https://cen.acs.org/environment/water/Recovering-arsenic-wastewater-sludge/103/web/2025/10