Bioremediation is a subset of biotechnology that uses organisms to solve pollution problems. In this case, I used acidophilic microorganisms I had characterized to design a system to help clean up a stream polluted by mine waste, specifically the Afon Goch ('Red stream' in Welsh), which exits the old Parys Mountain copper mine and is a significant pollutant source for the Irish Sea. I tested a lab scale pilot system using water from the mine to remove the problematically high iron content. I did this by encouraging the acid-loving microbes to use the dissolved iron as an energy source and thereby removing it from the water as solid iron oxides.
Read more about this work here.