For the past five years, a Lehigh professor has been working on the largest iron-related environmental project in history.

Wei-xian Zhang, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, participated in a project where he and his colleagues at Tongji University in Shanghai, China, used two million pounds of iron to remove pollutants in industrial wastewater.

Zhang said he oversaw the project because he was most knowledgeable about the wastewater treatment concept and the necessary technology. He also provided advice for the project and tracked the day-to-day progress.

Zhang said his concern for the environment was a motivating factor in his research.

"All this work can change people's lives. It can make everything better," said Zhang.

For the project, Zhang and his team used a cheap type of scrap iron called zero valent iron, which they used to detoxify industrial wastewater.

In a university press release, Zhang said the project began as a pilot test using 2,000 pounds of iron to pretreated wastewater. Following the successful pilot test, the Shanghai city government approved a grant to construct a full-scale treatment reactor capable of processing almost 16 million gallons per day of wastewater.

China isn't the only country looking into this type of research. Zhang said the United States is attempting similar projects.

Zhang said he has used similar technologies in the U.S. and is working on a number of projects to clean up contaiminated areas.

Zhang also said he is proud of the project's success.

"There are two unique points of this project. One is that this one of the largest projects of its kind in the world. So that would make anyone proud to have accomplished," Zhang said. "The second is that we were able to make very effective technology, especially for developing countries because they can recycle all the scrap iron."

Environmental science major, Nicholas Johnson, '09, has read about Zhang's achievements and said this is the type of research people and the environment needs.

"If we do all we can to help the environment, then we'll be able to continue using its resources for a longer period of time," Johnson said, "but with less impact on the natural balance of things."

Johnson said Professor Zhang's research is impressive and practical, and that it's great to have Lehigh professors working on important world issues like this.

"I like that a Lehigh professor is one of the ones that's so prominent in a study thats as big as this," Johnson said. "It just shows that Lehigh has some of the top experts in their various fields and it's nice to know that we, as students, have the ability to learn from people with so much insight and experience."

Johnson said Zhang's research has important societal implications that people can learn from.

"He is researching ways that we can be less wasteful as a society," Johnson said. "We only have limited resources on Earth, so we should be mindful to make the full use of them whether it's recycling plastics or recycling scrap iron to purify wastewater."

According to an article about the project in "Environmental Science and Technology," based on the success of this project, several municipalities plan to implement the process Zhang and his colleagues developed for treatment of wastewaters.