Dubai Researchers Search Sand
Dubai Researchers Search Sand For Survival On Mars
Sand is very common things. You can see almost everywhere. Sand is already the second most used natural, and non-renewable, resource after water.
We use sand in glass, building materials and many other fields. So can we survive on Mars using sand? Researchers in the UAE are looking for ways to use sand more beneficially.
What Percent Of The World Is Sand?
Desert and polar deserts, cover 30% of the world’s land area. In addition 28 percent of the world as poor regions. There is little rain and vegetation in these areas.
How Can We Use Sand More Beneficially?
Researchers found way researchers have found some ways to use sand more beneficially. Here are some ways:
– Making building material from sand by using organism.
– To give more water retention in the sand.
– We can feed the plants using sand fed bacteria.
Students at Imperial College London began research to find a way to make solid bricks using sand. These bricks can also be painted, reused and made into natural material. Dr. Stephen Wilkinson told Euro news: ‘We are planning to produce Urea using microorganisms’. Microorganism’s crates calcium carbonate which can act as glue between the sand grains or cement between the sand grains and create building blocks. He also told this process is to slow and expensive.
As clean water is wasted around the world, the EU is spending a lot of money to fill this gap. For nearly twenty year, the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) in Dubai has been investigating how plants and beneficial organisms can survive in hard weather conditions and areas with poor water and soil quality. They found a technique that makes deserts more useful. A technique that increases the amount of bacteria and fungi in sand to create a stronger water and food web to feed plants. In addition, the same company is working on natural coal production using palm waste.
Climate-technology company ‘Dessert Control’ plans to shorten the process of turning sand into vegetation using nanotechnology. By using this technology they are trying to make the sand behave more mineralized and like soil. Dr. Orn Supaphol says ‘we can transform half a hectare in one day’. They plan to find a worldwide solution after raising a large sum of money for their plan.
