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Sponge-Like "Swelling Glass" Absorbs Toxins in Water
MikeChino writes "A company called Absorbent Materials has created a new kind of 'swelling glass' that can clean up contaminated groundwater by soaking up volatile molecules like a sponge. Dubbed 'Obsorb,' the material can hold up to 8 times its weight in fuel, oil, and solvents without sucking up any of the water itself. Once the material is full it floats to the surface and the pollutants can be skimmed off."
A material wich can absorb all the toxens out of the water and when it is full all we need to do is grind it back into little pieces and flush it down the toilet and all our problems are solve.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
TFA refers to the material as Obsorb, but a linked page refers to it as Osorb.
So which is it?
Nah, it was stupid. It's just that I wasn't the only stupid person here.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
Cost is an excellent question, since there is already a product that does something similar that has been around since at least 2007.
PRP (Petroleum Remediation Product) is made from beeswax and soaks up oils as well. Since it is so light, it floats on water and only absorbs the oils. The bee's wax encourages naturally occurring micro-organisms to eat. The microbes feast on the bee's wax and don't stop eating until all the oil is gone, safely, naturally bio-degrading the petroleum and the PRP itself.
I understand that they mix ground up corncobs into the PRP to make a version that works without water and can bio-degrade oil on land.
I can see only three reasons for the glass version.
1. If it is cheaper to make
2. Since you clean it rather than let it decompose, it is reusable. But the costs of making and cleaning still have to be cheaper than the cost of PRP.
3. If the glass version will absorb chemicals that cannot be degraded by the micro-organisms that feed on the beeswax.
Great civilizations have lived and died on false theories. Don't mess up mine with a few facts.
They should sprinkle a few hundred tons on Wall Street. Imagine all the scum they could soak up there!
Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
Google is your friend. Apparently, this all centers around the use of zero-valent iron (which seems to merely be atomic iron without any binding).More info here: http://www.clu-in.org/download/remed/542-f-08-009.pdf Warning: PDF. Apparently, this is a hot topic, and Osorb isn't the only material out there using nanoZVI for cleaning purposes.
Interesting stuff. Hadn't heard of it before.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
Here is a slightly more informative article - http://www.the-daily-record.com/news/article/4701803