When researchers try to imitate plants that are able to decontaminate water

When researchers try to imitate plants that are able to decontaminate water

Every weekend in the summer, the Science Ticket goes off to discover the solutions living beings provide to help us solve our technical, medical and scientific problems. This is the principle of biomimicry or bioinspiration. Today’s close-up of plants that can clean water.

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Some plants can absorb iron from water. This is the case with water mint or some invasive exotics. These plants live in water. And they were able to inject very small amounts of magnesium into their leaves.

Based on this observation, Claude Grayson of the Chimeco Laboratory at the National Center for Scientific Research said (CNRS) a process to deal with water pollution on a larger scale. What it did, schematically, was it turned the roots of these plants into a powder. You use it like a sponge by placing it in a column in which the water is filtered. This natural sponge retains many forms of pollution including zinc, nickel, lead and arsenic. The carrying capacity of plants doubles and expands. Invasive alien plants that are considered a beneficial disaster become invasive. The sponge can be used once as an aid or recycled. A factory filter filled with minerals is not considered waste. He will be able to serve again.

It’s really exciting to clean with plants because that’s what we might call clean chemistry. It avoids the use of lime which can generate toxic sludge or red sludge. A patent was filed, a pre-industrial guide was created and a company was created two years ago with a portion of the capital held by the National Scientific Research Council. It is the articulation of the science that goes into development. Contracts were signed with many manufacturers. Research on decontamination of plants has been around for 13 years. 36 patents have been filed.

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