<i>“This new technique is really aimed at removing that little bit of oil in that water that needs to be removed before you can consider it treated.”</i><p>This is for the tail end of oil/water separation, after existing processes have done most of the work. Here's an overview of oil/water separation.[1] Note the line "Very small particles, such as those of 10 microns (micrometers) and less in diameter, do not rise according to Stokes’ Law (or hardly at all) because the random motion of the molecules of the water is sufficient to overcome the force of gravity and therefore they move in random directions." This is a way to apply magnetic forces to those tiny droplets.<p>The lines at the end of the article, about this being useful in oil fields, probably were added by some PR person.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.hydroflotech.com/oil-water-separator-theory-of-operation" rel="nofollow">http://www.hydroflotech.com/oil-water-separator-theory-of-op...</a>
This work was done years ago at MIT, and MIT holds the patent. Look up Zahn and Hatton.<p><a href="https://news.mit.edu/2012/how-to-clean-up-oil-spills-0912" rel="nofollow">https://news.mit.edu/2012/how-to-clean-up-oil-spills-0912</a>
They mention at the end of the article they are working on larger scale water processing systems which would recover and reuse the particles. I think this is critical not only for efficiency but also health and safety. I'd rather not end up drinking unknown nanoparticles... I hope the musings in the article that it might also work for lead removal turn out true. Good luck!