Cleaner Drinking Water

Almost one billion people across the developing world depend on untreated water sources for drinking and daily needs. It is estimated that each year about two million people die from water-borne diseases. A new research shows that tree seeds could provide a low-cost means of water purification that could drastically reduce water-borne diseases in water sources.

The Moringa oleifera is a vegetable tree native to Africa, Asia, and South America. The tree grows fast, resistant to drought, and contains an abundant amount of nutrition. It yields cooking and lighting oil, soil fertilizer, and edible seedpods, flowers and leaves. Also, the tree’s bark, roots and gum have many medical uses. This tree could help provide millions of people with cleaner drinking water.

According to a Canadian water purification agency, the Clearinghouse, the Moringa tree water treatment method can reduce bacteria in untreated water

by 90 to 99.99 %

“It’s (Moringa oleifera] seeds can be used to purify drinking water at virtually no cost.” ~ Michael Lea, a researcher at Clearinghouse, a Canadian organization

Moringa tree cultivation could provide jobs, nutritional benefits, and cleaner water. This solution could help to limit a large cause of death and disease in the world.

[Tree Cleans Water]

Green Chemitry Application: TAMLs Catalyst

As a catalyst for cleaning, tetra-amindo macrcyclic ligand activators (TAMLs) have been explored to possibly destroy stubborn pollutants by accelerating hydrogen peroxide cleansing reactions. This is a very important application of chemistry because it shows how green chemistry can lessen some of the damage to the environment caused by traditional chemistry.

Benefits of TAML studies:

-applying the catalyst to waste water can reduce staining and hazardous chemicals. (greatly reduce smells and colors)
-the catalyst could possibly be used in the future to disinfect drinking water
-the catalyst could possibly be used to clean up bioterror attack contamination

If broadly adopted it is speculated that TAMLs could save millions of dollars in cleanup costs.