Cleaning Of Contaminated Water Using Wood, Bacteria And Sunlight
Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com – About one-fifth of the world’s population lives in areas where water is scarce.
Therefore, technologies to produce clean water from undrinkable sources, such as seawater, river or lake water, and contaminated water, are urgently needed.
Cleaning water with sunlight, bacteria, and wood. Image source
Now, researchers reporting in Nano Letters have developed a wood-based steam generator that, with the help of bacterial-produced nanomaterials, harnesses solar energy to purify water.
The researchers made their device with the help of bacteria that produced long cellulose nanofibers, which bound the layers of the device together. The team added bacteria to the surface of a block of wood and allowed them to ferment. Then, they sprayed an aerosol of glass bubbles—tiny hollow spheres that provide excellent thermal insulation—onto the surface.
The glass bubbles became embedded in the cellulose nanofibers produced by the bacteria, forming a hydrogel. Finally, the researchers added carbon nanotubes, which tangled with the cellulose nanofibers to form a light-absorbing, water-evaporating top layer.
The device works by transporting water upward through the wood to the light-absorbing layer, which is heated by the sun. The water evaporates, and the steam is collected and condensed to produce pure water. The insulating layer of glass bubbles keeps heat from being transferred downward through the device and lost, and the nanoscale structures lower the energy required for water vaporization.
As a result, the new device has a higher evaporation rate and efficiency than most existing solar steam generators.
Written by Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com Staff
Related Posts
-
New Imaging System Captures Text From Barely Open Books
No Comments | Oct 26, 2021 -
A New Solid-State Battery Surprises The Researchers Who Created It
No Comments | Sep 24, 2021 -
New Shape-Shifting Material Inspired By Human Bone and Beautiful Coral Reefs Created
No Comments | Apr 23, 2020 -
Ultrathin Quantum Dot LED That Can Be Folded Freely As Paper
No Comments | Oct 1, 2021 -
3-D ‘Living Tattoos’ Demonstrated For The First Time By MIT Researchers
No Comments | Dec 15, 2017 -
Robotel – World’s First Hotel Staffed By Dinosaur Robots
No Comments | Sep 3, 2018 -
Researchers Develop First Fully 3D-Printed, Flexible OLED Display
No Comments | Jan 9, 2022 -
Jellyfish-Like Robots Could One Day Clean Op The World’s Oceans
No Comments | Apr 26, 2023 -
CERN Collides Heavy Nuclei At New Record High Energy
No Comments | Nov 26, 2015 -
World’s Thinnest Technology – Only Two Atoms Thick – Invented
No Comments | Jul 7, 2021