Read at :
http://www.greenprophet.com/2012/01/water-filter-beads-nitrates/
Water Filter Uses Bacteria Beads to Eat Nitrates
Karin Kloosterman
Low tech water filters loaded with a nitrate-munching bacterium help clean up fertilizers and feces in water waste.
Rainstorms wash away what nature can’t clean up, but this often comes at a severe environmental price. Water runoff from agricultural fertilizers, animal waste and human sewage are poisoning wells and aquifers with nitrates. These compounds cause harmful algae blooms and pose health risks for pregnant women and formula-fed newborns.
Water companies currently deal with the problem in a very basic way because getting the nitrates out by reverse osmosis is too expensive. They simply dilute the nitrate-laden water, explain professors Amos Nussinovitch and Jaap van Rijn from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The two scientists have developed a novel low-tech solution to take nitrates out of water in a cost-effective, environmentally friendly and non-toxic way.
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