In a groundbreaking discovery a group of students from UK, have designed an edible water bottle. This discovery would solve the bigger issue of handling plastic bottle waste, which is a major source of environmental pollution. Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez along of few other students have been working on their model nick named, Ooho water bottles, developed from edible membranes for a few years now. The smithsonian.com has reported that this water bottle looks like a jellyfish, and has the capability to put an end to the bottled water industry, when developed thoroughly.
The legendary creativity of a highly recommended Spanish chef, Ferran Adria has motivated this design student, to create Ooho bottles. The model of this water bottle was inspired from the juice filled pearls added to bubble tea servings, where the chef uses an edible capsule for encasing fluids in the membrane. This process also known as sheperification was adapted by Gonzalez and his team.
For making the edible capsule they used calcium chloride solution. The students took a frozen ball of water and dipped it onto calcium chloride solution, which formed a gelatinous layer. Later this layered structure containing frozen water, was added to another solution to make the mould firm. To reinforce the structure, it was kept in the second solution of brown algal solution for hours. This resulted in encapsulation, and the mould was thick and strong. The team has also explained the reason behind solidifying water into ice first as, 'The main point in manipulating the water as solid ice during the encapsulation is to make it possible to get bigger spheres and allow the calcium and algae to stay exclusively in the membrane."
Researchers have tested this edible bottle in many cities across Europe and have received encouraging feedbacks. However, the team has to work on issues like container's strength, ability to reseal the bottle as well as how to make Ooho bottles hold larger water capacities. Right now the outer membrane of this bottle is as fragile as skin of a fruit, so researchers are working to develop the bottles further.
via Science - Google News http://ift.tt/1nzv5I1
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