Science raises a glass to cleaner water

Donal Hickey learns how uisce beatha is truly the water of life.

THE term ‘wee dram’, so much part of the lexicon of Scotch whisky lovers, could soon have an entirely new meaning. For, a by-product from whisky is being used by researchers in a bid to clean contaminated ground and waste water. Water pollution is a global problem and those behind the new product reckon they are onto something big.

The team at the University of Aberdeen believe they have found a new technique, potentially worth millions of pounds. They’ve given it a rather long-winded name, Device for the Remediation and Attenuation of Multiple pollutants (DRAM), and claim it has huge potential in industry.