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UI engineers find switchgrass removes PCBs from soils
http://now.uiowa.edu/2015/02/ui-engineers-find-switchgrass-removes-pcbs-soils[font face=Serif][font size=5]UI engineers find switchgrass removes PCBs from soils[/font]
[font size=4]Environmentally friendly method neutralizes dangerous chemicals[/font]
By: Gary Galluzzo | 2015.02.16 | 09:30 am
[font size=3]University of Iowa researchers have found a type of grass that was once a staple of the American prairie can remove soil laden with PCBs, toxic chemicals once used for cooling and other industrial purposes.
The researchers report that switchgrass successfully removed up to 40 percent of the PCBs from contaminated soils in lab experiments. When boosted by a PCB-oxidizing microorganism, the removal rate reached 47 percent.
The finding may lead to a natural, environmentally friendly approach to reducing PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), which were banned for use by the U.S. Congress in 1979 but still permeate U.S. soils, waterways, and living organisms. In some communities bordering Lake Michigan, for example, residents are advised to limit their consumption of locally caught fish, due to industrial release of thousands of tons of PCBs during the 1950s and 1960s.
The researchers investigated how adding an aerobic PCB-oxidizing microorganism could enhance the oxidation of certain PCB congeners (PCB 52, PCB 77, and PCB 153). "It seems to have worked for at least one of the congeners studied,” says Tim Mattes, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and corresponding author on the paper, published in the journal Ecological Engineering.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2014.07.046[font size=4]Environmentally friendly method neutralizes dangerous chemicals[/font]
By: Gary Galluzzo | 2015.02.16 | 09:30 am
[font size=3]University of Iowa researchers have found a type of grass that was once a staple of the American prairie can remove soil laden with PCBs, toxic chemicals once used for cooling and other industrial purposes.
The researchers report that switchgrass successfully removed up to 40 percent of the PCBs from contaminated soils in lab experiments. When boosted by a PCB-oxidizing microorganism, the removal rate reached 47 percent.
The finding may lead to a natural, environmentally friendly approach to reducing PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), which were banned for use by the U.S. Congress in 1979 but still permeate U.S. soils, waterways, and living organisms. In some communities bordering Lake Michigan, for example, residents are advised to limit their consumption of locally caught fish, due to industrial release of thousands of tons of PCBs during the 1950s and 1960s.
The researchers investigated how adding an aerobic PCB-oxidizing microorganism could enhance the oxidation of certain PCB congeners (PCB 52, PCB 77, and PCB 153). "It seems to have worked for at least one of the congeners studied,” says Tim Mattes, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and corresponding author on the paper, published in the journal Ecological Engineering.
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