Removing microplastics with engineered bacteria

Researchers altered bacteria found in wastewater treatment, where microplastics can enter environment

13-Jan-2025 - Microplastics can go right through wastewater treatment plants, and researchers have engineered bacteria commonly found in there to break down this pollution before it can persist in the environment. Researchers from the University of Waterloo added DNA to several species of bacteria found in ...

Searching the sewers for viruses

"In the future, additional tools will be integrated into the pipeline that will even enable us to predict the effects of a newly discovered mutation"

14-Oct-2022 - Algorithms developed at the Max Delbrück Center are able to quickly detect new SARS-CoV-2 variants in wastewater. But that’s not all: the tool, which Altuna Akalin and his colleagues have now presented in “Science of the Total Environment”, can also find other pathogens. SARS-CoV-2 is one of many ...

Recycle high-tech waste biologically

Innovative biotechnological process extracts gallium from industrial wastewater

18-Mar-2021 - Gallium is a rare metal, but it is widely used in the high-tech industry. This extreme contrast makes recycling indispensable. However, current recycling processes are costly and chemically polluted. Biotechnological approaches, therefore, rely on peptides, as they are able to bind metallic ...

Stora Enso and Gasum to make renewable energy from wastewater in Sweden

10-Oct-2018 - Stora Enso and energy company Gasum have signed a contract to build a biogas plant at Stora Enso’s Nymölla paper mill in Sweden. The plant, built and operated by Gasum, will turn the mill’s wastewater effluent into renewable energy. Gasum plans to upgrade the biogas into Liquefied Biogas (LBG) ...

Even low concentrations of silver can foil wastewater treatment

17-May-2018 - Research at Oregon State University has shed new light how an increasingly common consumer product component - silver nanoparticles - can potentially interfere with the treatment of wastewater. The findings suggest conventional toxicity testing methods for silver concentrations at treatment ...

Changes in mouse breast tissue after exposure to fracking chemicals

07-Feb-2018 - In a study, environmental scientists led by Laura Vandenberg at the University of Massachusetts Amherst report that they observed changes in mammary gland development of female mice exposed during early development to the chemicals used in unconventional oil and gas (UOG) extraction - including ...

Alternative antimicrobial compounds could come from wastewater

25-Jul-2017 - Municipal wastewater may become a key ally in the fight against antibiotic-resistant disease-causing bacteria and fungi, a new study at Stellenbosch University (SU) found. "Certain bacteria in municipal wastewater produce antimicrobial compounds or biosurfactants that can help prevent the growth ...

Bacteria-coated nanofiber electrodes clean pollutants in wastewater

30-Jun-2017 - Cornell University materials scientists and bioelectrochemical engineers may have created an innovative, cost-competitive electrode material for cleaning pollutants in wastewater. The researchers created electro-spun carbon nanofiber electrodes and coated them with a conductive polymer, called ...

Zap! Graphene is bad news for bacteria

24-May-2017 - Scientists at Rice University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) have discovered that laser-induced graphene (LIG) is a highly effective anti-fouling material and, when electrified, bacteria zapper. LIG is a spongy version of graphene, the single-atom layer of carbon atoms. The Rice lab ...

Microbial fuel cell converts methane to electricity

19-May-2017 - Transporting methane from gas wellheads to market provides multiple opportunities for this greenhouse gas to leak into the atmosphere. Now, an international team of researchers has taken the first step in converting methane directly to electricity using bacteria, in a way that could be done near ...