Liquid Nanoclay, treatment that converts desert sand into fertile soil

By mixing clay nanoparticles with water and then bonding them to sand particles, the arid soil can be conditioned to bear fruit.

Liquid Nanoclay (LNC) is the name of the discovery of the Norwegian scientist Kristian Morten Olesen who seeks to condition the arid lands that are in areas of up to 50-degree Celsius. According to the El Espectador, it is now possible to turn the desert sand into the fertile soil through LNC, a process patented by the scientist Kristian Morten Olesen. This Norwegian discovered that by mixing clay nanoparticles with water and then bonding them to sand particles, the arid soil can be conditioned to bear fruit.

Normal sand particles are very loose so they have a very low water retention capacity and that does not allow the soil to be fertile. Morten explains that when Liquid Nanoclay is added to the sand, these particles come together, which means that they can retain water for a long time increasing the possibility of agricultural yield.

Since 2005 the scientist has been working on his product, "this process does not involve the use of any chemical agent, we can change the low quality sandy soils on high-yield agricultural lands in just seven hours," Morten explains.

One of the driest areas in the world is found in the deserts of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where temperatures can reach 50-degree Celsius. "It's expensive since we have to buy water regularly to irrigate these plants," says Faisal Mohammed Al Shimmari, a cultivator from Al Ain, an oasis in the UAE desert.

The difference in the use of water with territories where the climate is temperate is considerable, since they use almost three times morewater, according to the same medium. Therefore, the United Arab Emirates imports around 80 percent of its food.

It is likely that many farmers in the world are in the same situation because the increase in global drought has caused every year an area that measures half the size of the island of Great Britain to become desert. Although the solution for this is the Liquid Nanoclay, at the moment it is expensive. The treatment price per hectare of desert varies between USD 1,800 and USD 9,500, depending on the size of the project.