Overview
- Graduate researchers at IPN’s ENCB converted dehydrated sargassum into biochar-based electrodes that degrade complex pollutants from textile discharges.
- The team validated the approach at a semipilot plant using wastewater from a textile company that contains indigo dyes known to resist conventional treatment.
- The fabrication uses pyrolysis and student-developed catalysts to tune nanometric carbon structures, then incorporates semiconductors to enhance electrochemical performance.
- Solar panels supply the energy for the electrochemical process as the group pursues a sustainability-focused, integrated treatment system.
- The students won first place in the InnoDrop water-innovation incubator and plan to use the seed capital to advance toward industrial adoption, as Mexico tracks 147 sargassum-use projects nationwide.