Nanorust Used To Purify Water

eldavojohn writes "How do you remove arsenic from water? Well, a research team has discovered that adding and removing nanorust works well. From the article, 'The team added nanoscale iron oxide to contaminated water, where it clumped together with the arsenic. They then magnetized the nanoparticles with an electromagnet and pulled them out. "We only needed a surprisingly weak magnetic field," says Colvin. "In fact, we could pull then out with just a hand-held magnet, making this a very practical method.' Big news for developing nations that are plagued with non-potable drinking water."

Comments

Re:Some potential, but there are better options

[reverseengineer]

Much of the arsenic contamination in South Asian water is of natural origin- a fact that a lot of well-meaning developmental organizations learned when they dug wells in Bangladesh. The options for water without arsenic in the region are getting it from rivers, which are becoming a much less attractive option as they are forced to support ever greater populations and industrialization, and from wells deep enough to get below arsenic-bearing sediments, which are much more expensive.

The problem with filtration is that it requires a level of centralized distribution that does not exist in many parts of the world. Either you do it from a central water treatment plant, which requires building an infrastructure of pipes and sewers, or you have to distribute filters directly to people. This makes those people dependent on their government (bad choice) or western aid agencies (really bad choice)for drinking water. The idea here is that a village could make these themselves.

I definitely agree, though, that acceptable waste disposal will become a necessity for clean water in developing nations, particularly as they become more developed. Stories of industrial waste dumped into rivers used for drinking and bathing, and of human waste trickling through open trenches down city streets sound primitive, sound foolish- until you note that the great cities of the West operated like that for centuries, and indeed the part about keeping agriculture and industrial waste out of drinking water is still an problem.

Re:first world is no better

[Dr. Smeegee]

All too true. For years I had planned on making a couple of "bug-out bags" for my spouse and I to keep in our cars and one for the house. The bags would contain light sleeping bags, batteries, crank lights and radios, "Iron Rations" several rolls of quarters, some spending cash, bottle of bleach, "dog antibiotics", phone numbers of all and sundry and brace of water purification tablets and hiker-style filtration systems. When the planes hit the towers I was forcibly reminded and resolved to gather the needed items ... and again when Katrina hit ... and I have about half of it. :-/

I live in a flood zone (my house was in up to the second story in 1937), and yet without the terror looming over on me, the sensible, simple preparations keep getting pushed to the back of the burner.

I paid $6.00 for breakfast at Hardees this morning. I could have bought almost a weeks worth of water purification tablets for that.