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New Water Treatment Technology Could Fix Mars Soil and Earth Soil

posted by mrpg on Monday June 14 2021, @10:30PM   Printer-friendly
from the next:-fix-the-air dept.
Science

New Water Treatment Technology Could Fix Mars Soil and Earth Soil:

UC Riverside engineers have developed a catalyst to remove a dangerous chemical from water on Earth that could also make Martian soil safer for agriculture and help produce oxygen for human Mars explorers.

Perchlorate, a negative ion consisting of one chlorine atom bonded to four oxygen atoms, occurs naturally in some soils on Earth, and is especially abundant in Martian soil. As a powerful oxidizer, perchlorate is also manufactured and used in solid rocket fuel, fireworks, munitions, airbag initiators for vehicles, matches and signal flares. It is a byproduct in some disinfectants and herbicides.

Because of its ubiquity in both soil and industrial goods, perchlorate is a common water contaminant that causes certain thyroid disorders. Perchlorate bioaccumulates in plant tissues and a large amount of perchlorate found in Martian soil could make food grown there unsafe to eat, limiting the potential for human settlements on Mars. Perchlorate in Martian dust could also be hazardous to explorers. Current methods of removing perchlorate from water require either harsh conditions or a multistep enzymatic process to lower the oxidation state of the chlorine element into the harmless chloride ion.

Journal Reference:
Changxu Ren, Peng Yang, Jiaonan Sun, et al. A Bioinspired Molybdenum Catalyst for Aqueous Perchlorate Reduction, Journal of the American Chemical Society (DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c00595)

Original Submission

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  • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 14 2021, @11:06PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 14 2021, @11:06PM (#1145299)

    Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
    Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art
    Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
    Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

    Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
    I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
    Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
    Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

    Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
    Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
    Thou my soul's Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
    Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

    Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise,
    Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
    Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
    High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

    High King of Heaven, my victory won,
    May I reach Heaven's joys, O bright Heaven's Sun!
    Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
    Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 15 2021, @12:10AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 15 2021, @12:10AM (#1145308)

    Now that going to Mars is looking to be a near-future thing instead of sci-fi it seems that people are already researching how to make it work.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 15 2021, @12:32AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 15 2021, @12:32AM (#1145314)

      Either that, or everybody is going to throw "on Mars" into their PR and grant proposals to try to score NASA funding.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 15 2021, @05:06AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 15 2021, @05:06AM (#1145385)

        Certainly, but articles like this address real issues. That makes it a lot easier to separate the wheat from the chaff.

  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 15 2021, @12:16AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 15 2021, @12:16AM (#1145309)

    The home of our very own Ethanol-fueld, aka the Cholo.

    Never seen no river running through it, though.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 15 2021, @12:59AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 15 2021, @12:59AM (#1145320)

    Or you could just detonate it.

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 15 2021, @03:19AM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 15 2021, @03:19AM (#1145361) Journal
      You have to concentrate it enough in order to detonate it. That drops it to one of the harder approaches.

  • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Tuesday June 15 2021, @06:27PM (1 child)

    by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 15 2021, @06:27PM (#1145617) Homepage Journal

    So the plan is to lower the oxidation state. Perchlorate has four oxygen per chlorine. Chloride has none. Can that oxygen be liberated into some usable, possibly even breathable form?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 15 2021, @07:38PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 15 2021, @07:38PM (#1145641)

      If not, it is still useful to breathe in. It keeps the COVID out of the lungs.

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