The flood in July 2021 polluted many rivers in the Eifel region. The pollutants include heavy metal cations that can harm ecosystems and human health. Therefore, I looked into electrolytic decontamination of rivers that are polluted by heavy metal cations. The project is based on the principle of unpolarized electrodes, which allows the removal of specific ions from water at very low voltages, without deposition of any other cations on the cathode. This prevents contamination by other metals and enables reuse. For example, copper, zinc and lead cations can be removed from water and replaced with harmless magnesium cations.
