Saturday, September 30, 2006

Microbes to solve drinking water problems?

From http://www.ecofriend.org/entry/microbes-can-solve-worlds-drinking-water-contamination-crisis/
"Australian scientists have discovered a comparatively cheaper and environment-friendly solution – microbes! Yes, microbes found in old waste sites in Australia. They can not only tolerate lethal soil and water cocktails created by waste petroleum and chlorine, but can also break them down to a non-toxic matter for humans, the scientist informed.

Megha Mallavarapu, from a government-backed environmental research centre based in South Australia state, told Reuters,

"We have isolated bacteria which can live on those waste compounds… Anywhere there has been a fuel dump, a munitions store, an old chemical factory or heavy manufacturing plant, there is potential for toxic substances to leak into groundwater underneath." "
http://www.ecofriend.org has several articles of this type ( the blog is run by Irani Sen). Search under 'Irani on bacteria' gave several artcles on the uses of bacteria including possibilties of cleaning nuclear waste:
http://www.ecofriend.org/search.php?q=Irani+on+bacteria&submit.x=1&submit.y=9&submit=Search
Irani has also various artcles on sources of bio-fuel;
http://www.ecofriend.org/entry/11-most-amazing-sources-of-bio-fuel-part-i/

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