THE POTENCY OF XYLEM AS A WATER FILTER

Abstract
The scarcity of clean bacteria-free drinking water has been a relentless problem
all over the world. We clean dirty water that may contain dangerous diseases by
using water filtration. According to research, plant xylem could be used as a filter
to remove bacteria from water with only pressure and a tube. Instead of using the
sapwood from a white pine, we used Mango tree as a substitute. Approximately 3
cm(3) of sapwood can filter water at the rate of several liters per day, sufficient to
meet the clean drinking water needs of one person. We took the branch of a
mango tree (Mangifera indica), peeled off it’s bark and cambium, and the piece
was put inside of the tube (at the end) and sealed with super glue. We didn’t
want the filter to be dry so we soaked it in some tap water first. The xylem filter
could effectively filter out bacteria from water with rejection exceeding 99.9%
because of it’s xylem pores that are about the same size as the average
pathogenic bacterium. "It's too early to compare, but with further development
of xylem-based filters, I think it would be fair to compare it to other filtering
methods," says Rohit Karnik, mechanical engineer at MIT and coauthor of the
study. These sapwood filters could provide a useful low-cost and low-tech
solution to water filtration that don’t require hefty investment in fuel, expensive
chlorine treatments, and UV lamps. These could bring clean water to less-
developed areas and could also help out stranded campers/hikers to get their
hydration just from a nearby tree.