Sniffing Out Chemical & Biological Threats - A New Approach For Removing Pollutants?
Dr. Hai Xiao of Missouri University of Science and Technology
Research to develop a new method to detect biological and chemical threats may also lead to new approaches for removing pollutants from the environment.
The research effort, led by Dr. Hai Xiao of Missouri University of Science and Technology, involves the development of tiny sensors – each about the size of a pinhead – that could be used to detect and identify chemical or biological agents. Xiao, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, along with colleagues from Missouri S&T and the University of Cincinnati are using a porous crystal known as zeolite to develop the sensors.
Zeolite’s molecular structure and unusual properties allow it to detect certain chemicals and trap them, Xiao says.
Funded through a $529,160 grant from the U.S. Army’s Leonard Wood Institute, the researchers are developing prototypes of the sensors, a process for manufacturing them and a means for deploying them in a battlefield or urban warfare situation. (more…)
‘Green Clean:’ Researchers Determining Natural Ways To Clean Contaminated Soil
by Caroline Barnhill
March 2006: The Coast Guard site before trees were planted.
Researchers at North Carolina State University are working to demonstrate that trees can be used to degrade or capture fuels that leak into soil and ground water. Through a process called phytoremediation – literally a “green” technology – plants and trees remove pollutants from the environment or render them harmless.
Through a partnership with state and federal government agencies, the military and industry, Dr. Elizabeth Nichols, environmental technology professor in NC State’s Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, and her team are using phytoremediation to clean up a contaminated site in Elizabeth City, N.C.
Phytoremediation uses plants to absorb heavy metals from the soil into their roots. The process is an attractive alternative to the standard clean-up methods currently used, which are very expensive and energy intensive. At appropriate sites, phytoremediation can be a cost-effective and sustainable technology, Nichols says. (more…)
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