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refreshing kombucha Tea, which is now all the rage among some global populations, may also hold the key to creating affordable, environmentally sustainable living membranes for water filtration, reports say. a recent paper Published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society ACS ES&T Water. Experiments by researchers at Montana Tech University (MTU) and Arizona State University (ASU) show that membranes grown from kombucha cultures prevent the formation of biofilms — which are water A major challenge in filtering.
as we have previously reported, you need three basic ingredients to make kombucha. Just combine tea and sugar with a kombucha culture called SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast). This culture is also known as “mother”, tea mushroom, tea fungus or Manchurian mushroom. (Kombucha is believed to have originated in Manchuria, China or Russia.)
Whatever you call it, it’s basically similar to a sourdough starter. SCOBY is a sturdy collection of gelatinous cellulose fibers (biofilms) that create the perfect breeding ground for yeast and bacteria thanks to the active bacteria in culture. Dissolve the sugar in non-chlorinated boiling water, then steep some tea leaves of your choice in the hot sugar water, then discard them.
After the tea has cooled, add the SCOBY and pour the whole thing into a sterilized beaker or jar. Then cover the beaker or jar with a paper towel or cheesecloth to keep the insects away, let it sit for two to three weeks and voila! You have your own homemade kombucha. A new “daughter” SCOBY will float on top of a liquid (technically in this form called a membrane).
In addition to its popularity as a beverage, kombucha is expected to be a useful biomaterial. For example, Scientists at MIT and Imperial College London last year Created a new tough “living material” A SCOBY that could one day be used as a biosensor. These materials could help purify water or detect damage to “smart” packaging materials. Scientists can’t use the wild yeasts commonly used in kombucha because these yeasts are difficult to genetically modify.Instead, the researchers used lab-grown yeast, specifically a species called Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or brewer’s yeast.They combined brewer’s yeast with a Foalobacter (can make a lot of cellulose) to make their “mother” SCOBY.
The team was able to engineer cells in yeast to produce dark enzymes that sense pollutants and then break them down after detection. One of their prototype materials can detect the contaminant estradiol, while the other can detect luciferase, a bioluminescent protein. Any number of other strains can be exchanged to achieve different functional properties.
Now we have the possibility of a SCOBY based water filter. According to the authors of the latest paper, contaminated drinking water is linked to 2,000 daily child deaths globally. Commercial polymer filters are compact and versatile, and they can filter out many dangerous contaminants, including bacteria, parasites, and even some viruses. However, due to the accumulation of clay, oil, minerals and bacterial biofilms, the pores of these filters can eventually become clogged, reducing filtration speed and water flow. The latter are particularly persistent, and once formed, are difficult to remove. Scientists are developing materials, methods and chemical treatments to combat biofilm adhesion to filters. But perhaps a more promising strategy is to focus on developing materials that inhibit bacterial growth. That’s where the Kombucha SCOBY comes in.
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