New South Wales, Australia
September 11, 2008
Technology under development at
the University of New South
Wales could offer new hope to farmers in drought-affected
and marginal areas by enabling crops to grow using salty
groundwater.
Associate Professor Greg Leslie, a chemical engineer at UNSW's
UNESCO Centre for Membrane Science and Technology, is working
with the University of Sydney on technology which uses
reverse-osmosis membranes to turn previously useless, brackish
groundwater into a valuable agricultural resource.
"We are looking at ways to grow plants on very salty water
without damaging soil," Professor Leslie said.
"We're incorporating a reverse osmosis membrane into a
sub-surface drip irrigation system."
The irrigation system relies on the roots of the plant drawing
salty groundwater through the membrane – in doing so removing
the salt which would otherwise degrade the soil and make
continued cropping unsustainable.
Desalination such as this requires a pressure gradient to draw
clean water through the membrane. Professor Leslie has
demonstrated that, by running irrigation lines under the ground
beneath the plants, the root systems of the plants provide
enough of a pressure gradient to draw up water without the high
energy consumption usually required for desalination.
"We're going to provide agriculture with a tool to grow crops in
drought years when there is limited access to run-off and
surface water," he said.
The membrane technology, developed by Professor Leslie and the
University of Sydney's Professor Bruce Sutton, has been patented
by UNSW's commercial arm, NewSouth Innovations. |
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