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A Biotechnology Approach to Desalinate and Purify High Salt Water for Sustainable Farming in Arid Regions from Earth to Mars

JSHS · 2020

Pooja Kasiviswanathan, Dr. Vijayapalani Paramasivan · Ames High School Ames, Iowa

Overview

Iowa State University Permanent drought is fueled by adverse effects of climate change and global warming, which is a critical problem worldwide. Consequently, shortage of fresh water challenges agriculture and food security. Vast water resources (oceans) and briny (high salt) water near arid regions are unfit for use due to high salinity. Emerging water management technologies have limited applications as they consume high energy. Therefore, using natural resources, I developed energy and cost-efficient strategies to convert high salt water to near fresh water for agricultural purposes. I cultured Synechococcus (cyanobacteria) strain PCC 7002 in briny water under white light or sun light, which resulted in desalination of the briny water to 68%. I filtered this biodesalinated water through basalt type volcanic rocks (which are commonly found in arid regions) and removed (purified) a significant amount of the PCC 7002 biomass. Surprisingly, this gravity filtration method using the naturally available rocks further reduced the salinity of the biodesalinated briny water to 9% due to adsorption of inorganic ions onto the rocks. Utilization of the purified biodesalinated briny water boosted the growth and biomass of crop plants in arid region (basalt type) soil. Thus, I identified a potential biotechnology strategy to convert high salt water to near fresh water, which will be highly valuable to combat drought and sustain farming in arid regions. Furthermore, this strategy will find potential applications to desalinate briny water on Mars to raise crops for NASA’s Mars Mission in near future.

Awards (1)

  • 1st Place Life Sciences; Poster Peer Awardee

Competition history

  • JSHS 2020 Category not listed

Resources

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Source: Junior Science and Humanities Symposium

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