SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the Six-foot-seven-foot-eight-foot-bunch! dept.
Heavy metals contaminate ground and surface waters from a variety of sources such as industrial effluent or fertilizers or pesticide applications. Cadmium and lead are the most common and toxic metals found in aqueous environments. They are persistent, they migrate, they accumulate in biological tissues, and they are carcinogenic. Removing these metals effectively and cheaply has been a big environmental challenge. There are a number of approaches to remove them including reverse osmosis, ion-exchange, chemical precipitation, coagulation, electrochemical treatment, and physical adsorption. Of these, adsorption is seen as very promising due to it being cost-effective, widely available, and easy to implement. There are a wide variety of adsorbent materials from the mundane (activated carbon, diatomaceous earth, polymers, etc.) to the exotic (carbon nanotubes and graphene oxide), but biochar has shown to be very efficient and cost-effective.
Biochar is generated from incomplete combustion of organic material at low temperatures under oxygen-starved conditions. It can be made using any organic material, such as forest and crop residues, algae, etc., and it results in a material with unique physiochemical properties such as producing a very porous material with abundant functional groups that bind to the metals. A group of researchers investigated the effectiveness of biochar made from banana waste, particularly the stem and leaves. They chose bananas because it is the fourth-most grown crop in the world. After a harvest, the stems and leaves are discarded in the field. Since the bananas only make up about 12% of the plant mass, this means a significant amount of biowaste is generated. They found that they could recycle the banana waste residues effectively for preparing adsorbents for treatment of heavy metals in contaminated water, and they hope that this would promote agricultural waste recycling as well as providing material for treating contaminated water.
Absorption at Wikipedia.
Journal Reference:
Xiyang Liu, Gaoxiang Li, Chengyu Chen, et al. Banana stem and leaf biochar as an effective adsorbent for cadmium and lead in aqueous solution [open], Scientific Reports (DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-05652-7)
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 01 2022, @12:23PM (5 children)
Great Lakes area, where you would never expect banana plants with big tropical leaves. A handful of years ago she found one on sale for a buck and on a whim bought it. It's very happy growing over the summer, multiplying by root propagation. Over winter the stalk & leaves are cut off near ground level and a half-meter of leaves are piled on top and generally starts up in the spring (we remove the leaves carefully).
We also bring in one or two of the little ones and in a sunny window with lots of water they have grown up near the ceiling.
Of course they never get tall enough to make bananas but that's OK, we like them as an interesting ornamental.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 01 2022, @01:47PM (1 child)
That would be a Musa basjoo or Japanese banana.
They do not produce edible fruit.
https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=d442 [missouribotanicalgarden.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 01 2022, @08:26PM
Thanks, that certainly looks like it. In the Great Lakes (N.A.) area we've never seen blooms or fruit of any kind, the warm season isn't long enough.
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Tuesday February 01 2022, @03:44PM
To be a wise ass, I believe bananas grow quite happily in the great lakes region: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Great_Lakes [wikipedia.org]
Understanding you mean the North American Great Lakes, my neighbor has a banana plant and similar experience at a similar latitude here in Oregon. He has a jacuzzi in the back yard and uses the leaves as a privacy screen. When there is a frost the leaves are destroyed, but for most of the year our cool Mediterranean climate lets the plant achieve a proper "tree" form.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 01 2022, @04:24PM
Great Lakes?? Iceland says hold my beer. [icelandmag.is]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 01 2022, @04:58PM
Banana plants evolved alongside Blacks and Latinos, which is why they multiply out of control even in areas you wouldn't expect.
Canines also evolved around man, but only White men were smart enough to domesticate them. Blacks and Mexicans only started domesticating them after they invented choke-chains and dogfighting.