Industrial sulfate pollution could be practically eliminated using a biological process discovered at the Engineering School of the University of São Paulo. The technique, which involves mineral carbon and microorganisms, was tested at a leather tannery, where in 48 hours it reduced the presence of sulfate from 3,000 milligrams per liter to just two or three milligrams.

When dumped into the environment, such as in runoff from the leather, paper, shoe and sugar industries, sulfate can “consume the oxygen from rivers and cause widespread deaths in fishes and other environmental damage,” chemical engineer Arnaldo Sarti explained to Tierramérica.

The costs of the technique are now being studied for large-scale implementation, he said.