2000 – Water purification process for use in low-income communities and in times of natural disaster.

* Alcantar focused on the development of a method using natural materials extracted from a cactus plant as a non-toxic, renewable procedure to purify water. * Taught by her grandmother about native medicinal plants in Mexico, she discovered that the mucilage of nopal of prickly pear cactus purified water. * Used this process to assist people during the 2010 Haiti earthquake * Process also successful in purifying water in areas where heavy metals and bacteria went into the groundwater * Following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Alcantar found that this process could purify water that was tainted with oil.

Degradation of off-flavor compounds in aquaculture systems; Inhibition of fermentation of amyloid b-protein fibrils using cactus mucilage; Ammonia removal in freshwater & saltwater systems; Scaling-up off-flavor compound degradation using aquaculture reacting canister technology; Inhibition of fermentation of amyloid ?-protein fibrils using cactus mucilage extracts; System for removing ammonia from a freshwater system; Composition & method to reduce sediment & bacterial contamination from water; Electrospun cactus mucilage nanofibers; Composition & methods for reducing or preventing medical device-related infections; Cactus mucilage & ferric Ions for the removal of arsenate (As(V)) from water; Enhanced targeted drug delivery system via chitosan Hydrogel & chlorotoxin; Use of cactus mucilage as a disoersant & absorbant for oil in oil-water mixture; Method of controlled delivery for use in electrochemical power sources; Transparent conducting composition (TTCs) for creating chemically active surfaces; Water purification method using plant molecules; Cutin-like materials with advanced functionabilities & methods of manufacturing

Category:
Chemical Engineering

Completion Status:
yes

Patent Number:
11278011; 10946056; 10766790; 10660315; 10391135; 10166528; 10138143; 10125037; 10105656; 9839709; 9776895; 9555392; 9522114; 9339574; 9163374; 9125959; 8501338; 8163418; 8034302; 7943259; 7943049; 10934453; 10253208;

Co-Inventor:
Daniela Miranda de Lima Stebbins; Kevan Main; David Morgan; Zeinab Veisi; Leonid Breydo; Vladimir N. Uversky; Ryan G. Toomey; Tunan Peng; Eva Stephanie Lobbens; Wen Zhao; Sarina Joy Ergas; BabuJoseph; Kevin A. Young; Audrey Lynn Buttice; Sylvia W. Thomas; Yanay Pais; Mark Lawrence Kayton; Daniel Restrepo; Nicholas S. Laconi; Michael Pierce Ebaugh; Dawn I. Fox; Rana Falahat; Marzenna Wiranowska; Andres M. Cardenas-Valencia; Xiaoling Ding; Lawrence C. Langebrake; Julie Harmon; Fei Guo;