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Bioremediation

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.

The heavily polluted red waters at Parys Mountain mine