![\"\"](\"http:\/\/biomateriales.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/crustaceans.jpg\" "\\"crustaceans\\"")
<\/a>When Flavio Campagnaro bought brewing equipment from an auction at a closing Molson factory in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, it wasn\u2019t with the intention of brewing up batches of homemade beer. Instead he\u2019s using the drums too cook up something far more potent: pesticides.<\/p>\nCampagnaro is the vice president of manufacturing for ViveNano, a biotech startup that\u2019s hoping its technology can help diminish residual chemicals in agricultural runoff. Traditional pesticides, including those used on organic crops, require what ViveNano\u2019s CEO Keith Thomas calls a \u201csoup of chemicals\u201d to become water-soluble streams capable of killing weeds and other pests.<\/p>\n
And you likely know the rest of the story \u2013 it rains, and these chemicals drain from the fields into groundwater, rivers, lakes, and streams, where they wreak havoc on the ecosystem, drinking water, and oceans.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The technology that aims to end this story uses nanoparticles to create a water-soluble \u201ccage\u201d that can be filled with a pesticide\u2019s active ingredient. The two particles bond, and when the nanoparticles dissolve in water, so do the pesticide molecules. Thomas said the company sticks to such biodegradable components as chitosan, an amino acid found in crustacean shells, which makes the process more water-quality friendly.<\/p>\n
Because nanotechnology is a relatively recent development, some are concerned that scientists have no way of knowing how its use on crops will affect humans years down the road. Thomas however, dismissed those fears. \u201cAnytime you have a new technology, it\u2019s impossible to know its effects,\u201d he said. He also pointed out that, though the biosolid cage is a nanoparticle, the entire molecule is about the same size as the pesticide molecules currently fending off bugs and weeds.<\/p>\n
The technology won\u2019t be on the market for at least two years or so, Thomas said. It is undergoing final field testing, and then the company must spend an additional year or two working with various regulatory agencies before it receives approval to market it.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, the company is looking at other applications, including increasing solar panel efficiency. Campagnaro said a product to diminish the energy loss that occurs when sun shines through glass-tiled solar panels should be on the market by the fall.<\/p>\n
The technology could also be used in pharmaceutical development, though Thomas said that the financial and time investments necessary for that market are, at present, beyond the scope of the company\u2019s resources. \u201cWe\u2019re not that big right now, so we\u2019re going to have to pick and choose our applications,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Desarrollo de nanopart\u00edculas a partir de crust\u00e1ceos para eliminar contaminantes tipo pesticidas usados en la agricultura y que por acci\u00f3n de la lluvia estos lixiviados llegan a los mantos acu\u00edferos,\u00a0r\u00edos\u00a0y lagos. When Flavio Campagnaro bought brewing equipment from an auction at a closing Molson factory in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, it wasn\u2019t with the intention of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,24],"tags":[29,40,39,36,37,7],"class_list":["post-77","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-informacion-acerca-de-avances-noticias-y-nuevos-desarrollos-en-biomateriales","category-biotecnologia","tag-chitosan","tag-crustacean","tag-crustaceos","tag-nanoparticles","tag-nanoparticulas","tag-quitosana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biomateriales.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biomateriales.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biomateriales.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biomateriales.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biomateriales.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/biomateriales.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79,"href":"https:\/\/biomateriales.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions\/79"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biomateriales.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biomateriales.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biomateriales.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}