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 A team of scientists from Stanford may have found a way to turn extremely toxic by-products of sewage treatment into precious resources for agriculture and electronics, while also allowing for far more efficient water reuse.

"Sulfur is a key elemental cycle with room for improvements in efficiently converting sulfur pollutants into products like fertilizer and battery components," said senior author, Will Tarpeh.

Anaerobic filtration has been highlighted as a cost-effective treatment process, but it produces large amounts of sulfide.  Current management techniques create additional toxic chemicals, which makes further disinfection of the water difficult.

Using electrochemical sulfur oxidation, the researchers began turning the wastewater sulfides into useful products and analyzed the process with microscopy to determine where the reaction may be limited, plus any blockages that may stop sulfur recovery.

"Hopefully, this study will accelerate adoption of technology that mitigates pollution, recovers valuable resources, and creates potable water all at the same time," lead author, Xiaohan Shao.

IFL Science