Seeds from the Moringa Tree can be used for Water Purification

From: Physorg

Pure water is a key requirement for good health and alternative cheap, safe methods are required in many countries. In a paper that has just been published in the leading American Chemical Society journal on interfaces, Langmuir, researchers from Uppsala University in co-operation with The University of Botswana describe how extracts from seeds of the Moringa oleifera tree can be used for water purification.

Flocculation of particulate impurities is a common first stage in purification of water. This often uses addition of either aluminium or iron salts. Aluminium, particularly, has undesirable health implications. An alternative procedure that uses a natural extract from seeds of the Moringa oleifera tree is used in Africa.

Research in a paper that has just appeared in the leading American Chemical Society journal on interfaces, Langmuir, describes how very small amounts of the protein from these seeds can bind strongly to surfaces and thus would cause contaminant particles to aggregate. The Scattering Centre at Ĺngström Laboratory and the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Uppsala University is a centre of expertise in exploiting a powerful technique known as neutron reflection to measure structure and composition of layers of just a few nanometres (millionths of a millimetre) at the interface between a solid and a liquid.



A co-operation with the University of Botswana where there is a long interest in exploiting natural products has led to a research project that provides important insight in to the way that protein molecules from the Moringa oleifera seeds interact, binding stongly both to each other and surfaces so as to cause aggregation in to large lumps that are readily removed from the water.

"It is nice to see how the basic interactions of molecules can play a role in solving practical problems," says Adrian Rennie, Professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Uppsala University. "Understanding of the process may lead to further development in water purification with materials that are locally available and environmentally friendly."

Discovery in Legumes Could Reduce Fertilizer Use, Aid Environment

Nitrogen is vital for all plant life, but increasingly the planet is paying a heavy price for the escalating use of nitrogen fertilizer.

Excess nitrogen from fertilizer runoff into rivers and lakes causes algal blooms that create oxygen-depleted dead zones, such as the 6,000 to 7,000 square mile zone in the Gulf of Mexico, and nitrogen in the form of nitrous oxide is a potent greenhouse gas.

But new findings by Stanford researchers that reveal the inner workings of nitrogen-producing bacteria living inside legumes such as soybeans could enable researchers to blunt those negative effects and aid efforts to make agriculture more sustainable.

"We have discovered a new biological process, by which leguminous plants control behavior of symbiotic bacteria," said molecular biologist Sharon Long. "These plants have a specialized protein processing system that generates specific protein signals. These were hitherto unknown, but it turns out they are critical to cause nitrogen fixation."

The ability of legumes to capture nitrogen from the air and turn it into plant food, or "fix" it, also leaves the soil enriched through the plant matter left after harvesting, creating a natural fertilizer for other crops, which is the basis for crop rotation. Alternating legumes with other crops has been a major component of agriculture around the world for thousands of years. Yet until recently, little was known about how nitrogen fixation worked, or why some legumes are efficient at fixing nitrogen and others poor.

The key part of the process that Long's research group uncovered is a plant gene that triggers a critical chemical signal. Without the signal, no nitrogen gets fixed by the bacteria. Dong Wang, a postdoctoral scholar in Long's lab who pinned down the gene, is first author of a paper describing the work, published Feb. 26 in Science. Long, a professor of biology, is senior author.

"Savior Bud" Sucks Moisture From Trees for Drinking Water

For dry areas, every drop of drinking water is important. Moisture collectors are a big help, and this concept design, modestly called the Savior Bud, is one idea to help gather up moisture from a tree's respiratory process and create drinking water.

Shown off at Yanko Design, the Savior Bud - designed specifically for African landscapes - is hung from a tree branch with the tree's leaves       inside. It collects the moisture expelled from the leaves.

The process goes like this:

1. Find a broadleaf tree with lots of leaves.

2. Opening the Savior Bud like a giant clamp, surround a few leaves, and release. The Savior Bud should now be containing the leaves like you see in the picture below, sort of like a greenhouse.

3. In about four hours, the leaves will have produced about one cup of water. Turning the bottom of the bud like a faucet will release the water to be put into a separate container for drinking.

Additional details below. I wouldn’t mind one of these for camping or something like that, would you?

Also, C-3P0 not required.

Designers: Kim Hyo Jin and Seol Ah Sun

'Revolutionary' water treatment units on their way to Afghanistan(applications in the developing world)

"The system is based on a proprietary consortium of bacteria-- you can find them in a common handful of dirt," said lead scientist Sabin Holland. "In the right combination and in the right medium, they have the capability to clean polluted water with a very high efficiency very quickly. It truly is a revolutionary solution." 

The physical systems themselves-- called "bio-reactors"-- use little energy, are transportable, scalable, simple to set-up, simple to operate, come on-line in record time and can be monitored remotely.


The first two units, about the size of standard shipping containers, will be deployed by the Army to Afghanistan. "The science and engineering technology behind this process have both military and civilian applications". "The technology was developed for remote applications where little infrastructure exists, such as remote military operations, disaster relief and nation-building situations." "These systems would be immensely useful right now in Haiti," Holland said.


 "One of the most pressing threats to public health in the aftermath of the recent earthquake is contaminated water and the lack of infrastructure to clean it up." Holland has managed the research and development of the systems and directs the Texas Research Institute for Environmental Studies at Sam Houston State. "We have gone from basic research into the bacteria to actual construction and deployment of the systems in seven years. The typical time from discovery to commercialization is 14 years," Holland said.


"The bacteria, the 'bugs,' we are working with are naturally occurring. We have isolated a small subset of them-- each bacterium has a specific function-- and we have engineered a biofilm that is self-regulating and highly efficient at cleaning wastewater." Holland and his colleagues have tested and demonstrated the systems' capabilities and effectiveness at several municipal and military sites-- to the satisfaction of the Army-- by cleaning influent wastewater within 24 hours after set-up to discharge levels that exceed the standards established by the Environmental Protection Agency for municipal wastewater, "leaving less than ten percent of sludge, in most cases less than one percent."


"The typical septic system or traditional waste treatment process can take as long as 30 days and leave 40 to 50 percent sludge," he said.