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Team:Lethbridge
From 2011.igem.org
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| + | =<font color="black">Achievements= | ||
| + | aGEM Winners held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada | ||
| + | Regional Finalist at the American Regional Jamboree held in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.A. | ||
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=<font color="black">Project Description= | =<font color="black">Project Description= | ||
Managing byproducts of the extraction and refinement processes is a common problem in harvesting natural resources, such as oil. In most cases, tailings ponds are used for storing the toxic water byproducts, which not only have severe negative environmental impacts but also by using current methods can take decades before they can be reclaimed. The current remediation methods need to be improved to provide economical, effective and efficient processes to decrease the negative environmental impact of the tailings ponds. The tailings ponds contain toxic organic compounds, heavy metals and fine clay particles, all which require improved methods of treatment. We will produce a tailings pond clean up kit that uses environmentally safe methods to accelerate the decontamination of toxic organic molecules, heavy metals, and settle the fine clay particles at an increased rate. Toxic compounds will be degraded into metabolizable compounds at increased rates by using proteins that act within a common degradation pathway co localized within a microcompartment in the form of an easily distributed dry powder. Removal of heavy metals, such as iron, from samples of tailings ponds water will be achieved by inducing the formation of iron nanoparticles, which can be removed together with the generated biomass. The rapid formation of fine clay sediments will be facilitated by the use of bacteria cell aggregates, increasing sedimentation rates from many decades to days or even hours. The kit will consist of either cell- free components or genetically modified organisms (GMO) that pose no threat to the environment as they will have been programmed with a method of rendering the cell inert and destroying its DNA once the desired action is completed. The methods within the tailings pond clean up kit will be applicable for large-scale treatment facilities as well as <i>in situ</i> tailings pond treatment. | Managing byproducts of the extraction and refinement processes is a common problem in harvesting natural resources, such as oil. In most cases, tailings ponds are used for storing the toxic water byproducts, which not only have severe negative environmental impacts but also by using current methods can take decades before they can be reclaimed. The current remediation methods need to be improved to provide economical, effective and efficient processes to decrease the negative environmental impact of the tailings ponds. The tailings ponds contain toxic organic compounds, heavy metals and fine clay particles, all which require improved methods of treatment. We will produce a tailings pond clean up kit that uses environmentally safe methods to accelerate the decontamination of toxic organic molecules, heavy metals, and settle the fine clay particles at an increased rate. Toxic compounds will be degraded into metabolizable compounds at increased rates by using proteins that act within a common degradation pathway co localized within a microcompartment in the form of an easily distributed dry powder. Removal of heavy metals, such as iron, from samples of tailings ponds water will be achieved by inducing the formation of iron nanoparticles, which can be removed together with the generated biomass. The rapid formation of fine clay sediments will be facilitated by the use of bacteria cell aggregates, increasing sedimentation rates from many decades to days or even hours. The kit will consist of either cell- free components or genetically modified organisms (GMO) that pose no threat to the environment as they will have been programmed with a method of rendering the cell inert and destroying its DNA once the desired action is completed. The methods within the tailings pond clean up kit will be applicable for large-scale treatment facilities as well as <i>in situ</i> tailings pond treatment. | ||
Revision as of 03:58, 29 October 2011
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