Project number
25064
Organization
UA Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering
Offering
ENGR498-F2024-S2025
Heavy metal contamination, from both natural and anthropogenic sources, affects millions of people worldwide. This problem is particularly difficult for Native American communities impacted by abandoned mines. As current heavy metal removal methods can be costly and generate secondary waste, cost-effective, environmentally friendly bioremediation alternatives are needed.
The team’s solution is a passive treatment system that uses fungal-based bioremediation (mycoremediation) to remove heavy metals with minimal energy inputs. To develop this system, the team first performed batch experiments to assess the biosorption capacity (milligrams of metal removed per gram biomass) and adsorption rates of the Fusarium fungus in a mixed heavy metal solution designed to emulate acid mine drainage. The team’s treatment system is based on the findings from these experiments.
MIW first flows through a limestone pond to precipitate aluminum and iron. Next, the water enters a passive packed-bed reactor containing inactivated fungal media. Here the heavy metals adsorb onto the surface of the media during chemical, physical and electrostatic interactions. The system operates at a target flow rate of 10 gallons per minute, relies on gravity-driven flow, and aims to reduce heavy metal concentrations to meet EPA discharge standards.
The team’s solution is a passive treatment system that uses fungal-based bioremediation (mycoremediation) to remove heavy metals with minimal energy inputs. To develop this system, the team first performed batch experiments to assess the biosorption capacity (milligrams of metal removed per gram biomass) and adsorption rates of the Fusarium fungus in a mixed heavy metal solution designed to emulate acid mine drainage. The team’s treatment system is based on the findings from these experiments.
MIW first flows through a limestone pond to precipitate aluminum and iron. Next, the water enters a passive packed-bed reactor containing inactivated fungal media. Here the heavy metals adsorb onto the surface of the media during chemical, physical and electrostatic interactions. The system operates at a target flow rate of 10 gallons per minute, relies on gravity-driven flow, and aims to reduce heavy metal concentrations to meet EPA discharge standards.