Cancer-causing chemicals and drugs like antibiotics
pollute many of America's lakes, rivers and drinking water supplies. Activated
carbon filters can remove about 40 percent of carcinogens and antibiotics from
these waters. But a tiny solar-powered filter made of two bacterial proteins
absorbs more than 50 percent more of the pollutants.
In addition, the filter - developed by a team at the
University of Cincinnati - can release the captured antibiotics so they can be
reused.
Antibiotics and chemicals enter waterways through
sewage and run-off from yards and farms. They can breed resistant bacteria and
kill helpful microorganisms, degrading the health of aquatic ecosystems.
The nano-filters, each smaller than the diameter of
a human hair, employ a protein used by drug-resistant bacteria to excrete
waste, but the researchers have turned it around so it sucks compounds in.
Another protein, which responds to sunlight, provides the pumping power for the
filter.
Environmental engineer David Wendell, one of the
developers, calls the innovation an environmentally friendly and cost-effective
way to extract and recover antibiotics from surface waters. He foresees the
possibility that, one day, a collection of nano-filters could be anchored
downstream from urban or farming areas to capture harmful compounds in water.
Details of the development and testing of the new
filter appear in the journal Nano Letters.
Sources :
http://www.voanews.com/content/solarpowered-proteins-filter-antibiotics-from-water/1645066.html
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