BBC News - Can 'powdered rain' make drought a thing of the past?: ""Solid Rain" is a powder that's capable of absorbing enormous amounts of water and releasing it slowly over a year so that plants can survive and thrive in the middle of a drought.
A litre of water can be absorbed in as little as 10 grams of the material, which is a type of absorbent polymer originally pioneered by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Back in the 1970s, USDA developed a super-absorbent product made from a type of starch nicknamed the "super slurper".
The most widely used, commercial application of this technology has been in disposable nappies, or diapers as they are quaintly termed in the US.
But a Mexican chemical engineer called Sergio Jesus Rico Velasco saw more in the product than dry bottoms.
He developed and patented a different version of the formula that could be mixed in with soil to hold water that could then slowly feed plants."
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Thursday, August 22, 2013
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