Latest News Archive
Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
31 December 2019
|
Story Dr Cindé Greyling
|
Photo Anja Aucamp
Dr Mariana Erasmus, SAENSE Platform Manager, says water remediation is vital for both the ecosystem and industries.
KovsieInnovation at the UFS supports innovative research outputs in various ways – one of which is to protect the intellectual property and to register patents where viable. This is in line with KovsieInnovation’s broader aim to create third-stream income for the university. Patent registration is a complex process and the UFS is proud to have the needed expertise to properly facilitate such an endeavour.
The SAENSE Platform
South Africa is a water-scarce country, with many water hungry industries (such as agriculture and mining). “Industrial processes often contaminate water with heavy metals, harmful chemicals, radioactive waste, and even organic sludge,” Dr Mariana Erasmus, SAENSE Platform Manager, explains.
Hence, water remediation is vital for both the ecosystem and industries. One of the key functions of the SAENSE Platform is to offer water-remedial solutions for the (bio)remediation of nitrates, heavy metals, and salts, among others. The platform’s activities and services are supported by undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers, using Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) funding. TIA is a national public entity that serves as key institutional intervention to bridge the innovation chasm between research and development.
From waste to water
Through the joint effort of two mining companies and the UFS/TIA SAENSE Research Platform, a new treatment for mine drainage (MD) has been developed. This patented B-DAS (Barium – Dispersed Alkaline Substrate) technology effectively treats the major contaminants found in acid, alkaline, or neutral mining wastewater. The aim of the B-DAS system is to provide a passive water-treatment solution with minimum waste production; it can also be a potential pre-treatment for reverse osmosis (RO) to lower the requirements of the membranes and therefore potentially reduce the RO cost.
The success of the patent is that it turns unusable water into water that is fit for agricultural purposes at a reduced cost and increased efficiency.
‘Your capacity for change is limitless’
2013-09-13
|
 |
Ready for the world - students taking part in the 2013 Leadership for Change programme getting ready to travel to universities in the USA, Europe and Asia.
Photo: Johan Roux
12 September 2013 |
“You will change this campus, city, country, continent and the world, because you have the capacity for greatness,” Prof Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the University of the Free State (UFS), said.
He addressed the 2013 group of first-year students in the Leadership for Change programme at a farewell function before they will leave for universities abroad. The first 104 students from the 2013 total of 144 will depart on 18 September and return on 3 October 2013. The second group of 40 students will be abroad from 11 to 25 January 2014. The students are from the Bloemfontein and Qwaqwa Campuses. They will be accompanied by mentors from the UFS.
The students will visit 17 universities in the USA, Europe and Asia.
The first 71 first-year students in the Leadership for Change programme were sent abroad for two weeks in September 2010 to get intense exposure to the academic, social, cultural and residential lives of students in the USA. In 2011 the student number more than doubled and universities in Europe were included. In July 2012 the programme brought students from around the globe to the UFS for the Global Leadership Summit.
Prof Jansen inspired the young leaders, saying, “If you learn leadership values in your four years of study, a change will come. Build the new value system and take it into the country. Your capacity for change is limitless.”
He encouraged them to learn to know the stranger, not only abroad, but also the beggar at the street corner. “Learn to be comfortable with the beggar, as well as with the professor in the classroom.”
A stringent evaluation and training programme preceded the group’s visit abroad, and Prof Jansen could not formulate their achievement better: “I cannot tell you how proud I am of you.”