100PhDs for Africa - news from Achraf Delhali
© 2025 EXAF/EPFL
We are pleased to highlight the remarkable work of Achraf Delhali, a doctoral student in the 100PhDs for Africa programme, whose research proposes an innovative approach to the joint challenges of industrial pollution and the increasing scarcity of water resources. This study illustrates the potential of materials science to address current environmental issues.
In collaboration with his team, Achraf Delhali has developed a sustainable method for manufacturing metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), porous materials known for their exceptional performance in capturing atmospheric water. This work is distinguished by the use of raw materials derived from waste, in particular tannery effluents as a source of chromium, and used plastic bottles (made of PET) as a source of terephthalic acid.
The resulting materials, MIL-101(Cr) and MIL-53(Cr), have properties equivalent to those of their counterparts synthesised from high-purity commercial reagents: high specific surface area, good thermal stability and excellent water adsorption capacity. This breakthrough represents an important step towards a more sustainable and economically accessible production of functional materials, with promising applications, particularly for water recovery in arid areas.
By valorising industrial waste while contributing to concrete solutions for water management, this research perfectly illustrates how science can reconcile technological innovation and environmental responsibility.
To consult the article.
Achraf Delhali's PhD is supervised by Professor Youssef Belmabkhout (UM6P) and Professor Kumar Varoon Agrawal (EPFL), as part of the 100PhDs for Africa programme.
100PhDs for Africa is a programme that grew out of the Excellence for Africa initiative run jointly by Mohammed IV Polytechnic University in Morocco and EPFL.