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News Stack: Glass Water Filtration, Experts to Phillipines, and Heavy Metal @ Brown University

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In Singapore, Dr. Gurdev Singh leads a research team that is developing an innovative application for recycled glass: water filtration. Further development of the glass ceramic membrane is needed, although mentions of specific areas of utility range from recycling car-wash runoff, irrigation water, and gray-water (water collected via rooftops from storms and rain).

Dr. Singh says, “Besides its ability to eliminate solids and pathogenic bacteria that cause diseases like typhoid and cholera, the glass ceramic membrane also has a high flux, meaning water can flow through it very quickly. All you have to do is insert the glass ceramic membrane into a bottle cap and pour.”

Other news channels have drawn implications from the article about the membrane's use in water for human consumption, but that's a stretch from its initial stages. Read the original article HERE.

photo credit: AFP

Philippines: Over 1,000 have been confirmed dead with many more missing due to last weekend's devastating typhoon and flash floods on the Philippine's second largest island, Mindanao. Flash floods hit the lowlands and swept away men, women, children, and devastated villages. The disposal of the bodies into mass graves was halted to allow families to identify their loved ones, although serious health-risks are posed as storage facilities are currently overwhelmed beyond capacity.

A team of Swiss water experts have been dispatched to the island with the specific charge of ensuring safe drinking water and the prevention of water-borne illnesses across affected areas. They will also work to educate the local populations on proper hygiene in their current situation. Original article HERE.

Brown University, Rhode Island: Engineers at the University have been able to reduce volume contamination of cadmium, copper, and nickel from water through a combination of processes not previously used in conjunction. Simply put, one process “us[es] an electrical current to transform positively charged metal ions (cations) into a stable, solid state where they can be easily separated from the water and removed.” The other process “involves using hydroxides and sulfides to precipitate the metal ions from the water, so they form solids.” This combined process shows promise of heavy metal reduction without the undesirable consequences of each isolated process: too much toxic sludge. For a more technical understanding, find the article HERE.

 

-TBG

 

One Response to News Stack: Glass Water Filtration, Experts to Phillipines, and Heavy Metal @ Brown University

  1. Howard T. Lewis III December 22, 2011 at 10:56 pm #

    nobody in Louisiana cme out with statements and satellite feed evidence about HAARPand Katrina, or has repeated about the senate defining the DH oilwell blow out as “intentional”. Besides The Big Island of Hawaii, one of the first to go fascist. Fascism is priapism with a loaded gun with the safety off.

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