The spill of 1L of oil might contaminate up to 0.5 million gallons of water. Although most consumers do not have the information, producing 1 metallic can for the beverage industry contaminates 50mL of water on average during the washing process for every produced can. The problem is that 370+ billion cans were produced worldwide last year, resulting in more than 4 billion gallons of contaminated water. This market generated a revenue of R$ 18 billion only for the last year and has a growth forecast of 25% each year for the next 3 years. However, they still use non-sustainable methods to treat the contaminated water, which gives opportunities for our solution.

The product consists of the use of a plant fiber (Luffa cylindrica) abundant in the native vegetation of the Brazilian Northeast. For application, it was chemically functionalized with titanium dioxide (TiO2) through the use of a binding compound. The guarantee of abundance of the raw material is safeguarded by the existence of Luffa cylindrica germplasm banks maintained by Embrapa with control of the properties of Luffa and its easy cultivation, as well as the abundance of commercially available titanium dioxide, in addition to the possibility of producing the binding polymer. The final product acquires the capacity to absorb/adsorb contaminant oil from oily water and promote its chemical manipulation by photocatalysis, simultaneously. Its application is simple: just promote intimate contact of the product with the contaminated oily water. The result is going to be decontaminated water ready for reuse. After the manipulation of the absorbed/adsorbed oil, AQUALUFFA can be regenerated to be reused in the process or directed to an alternative application when the maximum reuse cycle is reached.