Using Moringa oleifera seeds to sustainably produce clean drinking water

Our research focuses on using the seeds from the Moringa oleifera tree to create an innovative and sustainable water treatment technique for the developing world. This tree grows in equatorial regions of the world where clean water is lacking. The seeds contain a cationic antimicrobial peptide that will adsorb preferentially to sand, creating “sticky killer” sand that can remove 99.999% of E. coli and viruses. Our current model predicts removal of 1 micron particles (like bacteria) using the clean bed filtration theory. The next step in this project is to advance this technology via hybridizing it with a newly emerged cellulose-based nanomaterial (Dr. Sheikhi’s Lab), and to scale up the lab-scale filters (5 – 10 cm in length) to field-scale filters (1 – 2 ft). Over the summer, the student will be running column experiments using various types of substrates (e.g. sand, crushed glass, silt) and matching these experimental results with model predictions. This student would be working in Dr. Velegol’s and Dr. Sheikhi’s labs along with a graduate student and a number of undergraduate students.

For more information: Stephanie Velegol