It is obvious by looking at the color of the water being pumped out of the New Orleans Soup Bowl back into Lake Pontchartrain that it is not clean. We know that the water is contaminated from the tests, which were taken to check its water quality. Technology may be the answer to this problem. For instance there is a new biotechnology, which uses membranes to filter the water while simultaneously generating electricity, which can be used in the process. The Environmental BioTech Division of Arizona State University Biodesign Institute has it all figured out. It is the brainchild of Bruce Rittman, PhD.

Rittman has developed a biofilm reactor to remove contaminants such as nitrates and perchlorate from water. The biofilm uses micro-organisms, which attract electrons and change their characteristics effecting the ionic bonding of the contaminants. The contaminants like nitrate and perchorate receive electrons and turned into nitrogen gas and chlorine, which actually help clean out other bacteria from the water. The micro-organisms need the electrons and are hungry. Everyone wins and we get clean water.

The biofilm reactors were originally made to feed on hydrogen gas, but it works extremely well on many other substances involved in water pollution. A company called Applied Process Technologies now has Rittman