TINA: An OPen-ecosystem bioremediation and sustainable mining solution
Project timeline: 8 weeks
Project team: Riad El Soufi, Mimi Kigawa
We created TINA as a proof of concept that microbes can purify waterbodies and reduce toxins present in the seafood we consume.
The presence of heavy metals in the environment can occur naturally or as a result of anthropogenic activities. Industrial activity and rapid urbanization have caused an elevated accumulation of heavy metals in oceans and waterways that make their way into the water we drink and the food we eat.
Manganese is one of the most overlooked contaminants in our coastal ecosystem today. While Manganese (Mn) is an abundant element in terrestrial and coastal ecosystems and an essential micronutrient in the metabolic processes of plants and animals. Mn is generally not considered a potentially toxic element due to its low content in both soil and water. However, recent studies worldwide have reported Mn as a potential toxic contaminant for several aquatic species caused by increasingly large inputs of Mn from human activities, such as mining activity and mining waste, exacerbated by climate change.
Mn often remains unnoticed as a contaminant due to its role as a micronutrient for plants and animals and to its ubiquity in the environment. However, consumption of high Mn concentrations may cause severe adverse health effects such as a neurodegenerative disorder, cardiovascular toxicity, and liver damage.
No one in this team had a biochemistry background, however, we wanted to work in Harvard’s state-of-the-art environmental lab and were really excited about harnessing the natural wonders of the bacterial world.
40% of the world’s lakes and rivers are contaminated with heavy metals. These pollutants travel complex pathways that eventually make their way into the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we consume
Our team learned about the potential for various microorganisms (e.g., bacteria, mycelium) to breakdown toxins in the environment, speciifcally heavy metals, and looked to design with bioremediation as the focus to sustainably clean up pollutants from the environment while solving for its slow speed and costly setbacks.
An undergraduate at Harvard, DaLoria Boone, was researching the efficacy of using the bacteria strain Pseudomonas Putida MnB1 to sequester Manganese for a drinking water filtration system at the Environmental Lab. Her research and results gave us confidence and foundational knowledge that expedited our ability to conduct several experiments focusing on the design of how the bacteria would grow and its efficacy of sequestering Manganese on different materials and forms.
Our experiments with Pseudomonas Putida MnB1 primarily focused on
1. Finding the best material and geometry for bacteria to grow
2. The ability for Manganese removal when grown on those geometries, with real water samples
A detailed look at our experiments
Based on our experiments, results showed that the Schwarz CLP structure was the most effective in growing Pseudomonas Putida and that became the chosen structure for our final design. It is important to note that due to time limitations, we could not conduct our tests in triptychs as standard for scientific validation. However, together with Boone’s research, initial experiments give a great level of confidence for the potential of this bacteria to sequester Manganese, AND there is a certain degree of geometry optimization that can be done to ensure maximum bacterial growth and sequestration.
A look at how we designed TINA as a system that incorporates 3 phases:
1. a bacterial growth phase
2. a pollutant removal phase,
3. a physical extraction phase.
Imagining how TINA would look like situated in a marsh
While the designs and experiments we conducted may be really early stage proof-of-concepts, we hope that whoever is seeing this will feel inspired to build out TINA in their own way, and get to experiment and test for all of the other bacteria strains that have powerful capabilities to help remove toxins in our waterways. This is just a very humble start.
