Bioremediation of mine-affected water

受地雷影响的水的生物修复

• 批准号: RGPIN-2018-03821
• 负责人: Baldwin, Susan
• 金额: $ 2.04万
• 依托单位: University of British Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=712634
• 关键词: Bioremediation; mine; affected; water

Rapid new advances in geochemical, genomic and informatic science and technology are transforming the way that engineers design, monitor, control and operate complex biologically-based processes for remediation of contaminated water, a cause for great concern in most parts of the world. Mining is an example of one economically important Canadian industry where its sustainability depends on meeting increasingly more stringent water quality guidelines. Water treatment technologies that leverage natural geochemical and biological processes versus conventional chemical methods are gaining support as more cost-effective and reliable approaches to remove chemical compounds from mine-influenced water (MIW) so as to protect aquatic ecosystems. Widespread acceptance and adoption of these naturally based water treatment approaches are hindered by lack of knowledge on the myriad of interrelated factors that influence their effectiveness. We will focus on high-priority constituents of concern that require urgent attention due to their imminent impact on the environment. These include selenium, nitrogen compounds such as nitrate and ammonium and sulphate. Current methods to remove these require several steps, are energy intensive and produce large volumes of sludge. The new processes that we will develop leverage the metabolic potential of enriched microbial consortia from mine sites that have the capacity to simultaneously remove more than one compound at a time. This has the potential to greatly simplify MIW treatment reducing costs and increasing effectiveness. However, due to the complexity of microbe-microbe interactions and the effect of environmental variables on the dynamics of microbial population composition and metabolism, it is challenging to maintain reliable bioreactor performance and successful treatment. In our work, we propose to better understand these complexities and construct dynamic models that will be used to develop novel bioaugmentation and biostimulation strategies to make MIW treatment more reliable, cost-effective and less impactful on the environment. To achieve these goals we will use high-resolution characterization and monitoring enabling technologies. We propose to resolve mechanisms of contaminant removal to the chemical species level using chromatography and mineralogical methods. Sequencing of genetic biomarkers and whole DNA will be used to identify microorganisms and assemble their genomes so that microbial population structure and function can be tracked over time and under different conditions. Chemistry and genetic data from laboratory and field bioreactors will be combined using emerging machine-learning approaches for feature selection and modeling that will inform new process control philosophies that we will test to improve the effectiveness and reliability of MIW treatment.

地球化学、基因组学和信息学科学与技术的快速新进展正在改变工程师设计、监测、控制和操作以生物为基础的复杂水修复过程的方式，这是世界上大多数地区非常关注的问题。采矿业是加拿大一个具有重要经济意义的行业，其可持续性取决于是否满足日益严格的水质准则。与传统化学方法相比，利用自然地球化学和生物过程的水处理技术作为从受地雷影响的水中去除化合物从而保护水生生态系统的更具成本效益和可靠的方法，正在获得支持。由于缺乏对影响其有效性的无数相互关联因素的了解，这些基于自然的水处理方法的广泛接受和采用受到了阻碍。