Short Summary
Intense mining in Germany causes mine drainage with high potential to contaminate fresh water. We cooperated with leading experts including environmental coordinators, Germany’s biggest mining company (RAG), water quality specialists, and environmental chemists. While exploring solutions, we identified mine drainage as a rich source of valuable metals. Due to dwindling resources and increasing demand we engineered bacteria for ecofriendly recycling of these metals and scavenging into nanoparticles. A NASA associate pointed us towards ferritin, a metal binding protein. Collaborating with the RAG during our project, we discussed the impact of iron and copper on fresh water quality as well as requirements for a device capable of filtering mine drainage. In close contact with an expert on copper biochemistry, we developed a functional system for copper uptake – unprecedented in the iGEM community. Through continuous discussions with various stakeholders, we identified printing acquired metals as a promising application.Ruhrkohle AG (RAG)
Searching for a possible source of metal ions we contacted the Ruhrkohle AG (RAG) which is Germany's biggest coal mining corporation. The RAG is responsible for many coal mines stretch over great areas underneath the state of Saarland and North Rhine Westphalia where our University is located. One of the major tasks of the RAG is to pump up mine drainage which is caused by ground water seeping through different layers of rock and flooding the coal mines. This water is getting contaminated with heavy metals and threatens to pollute water supplies if it is not pumped out before rising into the groundwater bearing layers. The water has a temperature of approximately 20°C and depending on its quality is either further processed by removing iron or gets dumped directly into rivers. To learn more about the mine drainage and how it affects the growth of E. coli we visited the mines Hanel and Zollverein to take water samples of mine drainage sites which showed high concentrations of iron up to 41 mg/l and used those for our first growth experiments. https://2018.igem.org/Team:Bielefeld-CeBiTec/Ferritin
Benjamin Lehner National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
At NASA, scientists also think about the possibility to utilize bacteria for the purpose of biological remediation of metals. One of those scientists is Benjamin Lehner who works at NASA on the uptake of iron from moon rock which could be used to produce electronics in the future.
Physics Department and Nanoparticle Experts
To gain valuable insight about physical characteristics of our nanoparticles we stood in close contact with the physics department here at our university. By granting us access to measurement equipment like an electron microscope and through a constant dialog with the department we were able to attain a new level of understanding about our nanoparticles. Beside the expertise and advice on how to deal with nanoparticles we made extensive use of multiple TEM microscopes which require an experienced operator who spend long hours helping us to load the probes inside the vacuum chamber and set up the TEM correctly.
Jon Marles-Wright Ferritin Expert
Ferritin is a capital field of research and it is hard to get a grasp of all the possibilities this amazing protein presents. Jon Marles-Wright which is also affiliated with the Newcastle iGEM Team was a great help in this regard and described to us in the optimal practices in the lab regarding our ideas with ferritin.
Prof. Dr. José Argüello Copper Importer Expert
Prof. Dr. Jose M Argüello is a professor at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). His main field of science is the homeostasis of micro nutrients as in prokaryotic systems.
Walter Thomas
Walter Thomas is an expert on mine drainage working for the environmental department of the saarland. We talked at the telephone about the problems of mine drainage and the bad public attention about this topic. In his opinion either the coverage is not existent or it is too sensational. Moreover he supplied us with data sheets about metal ion concentrations in pits throughout the Saarland region here in Germany. Using the information provided by Mr. Thomas we learned that 160 mg/kg copper is the upper limit for surface water stated in the environmental quality standard (Umweltqualitätsnorm / UQN) and that multiple mining drainage locations exceed these limits for example in 2017 amounts of 652,50 mg/kg copper where measured in the mine drainage of the mine in Reden.Dr. Rüdiger Gaydoul
Dr. Rüdiger Gaydoul is the executive director of HBICON, a local institute for surveillance of the quality of natural resources as water quality and as consulting institution for companies. We asked him about the necessary properties of tap water and actually used processes to separate metal ions from drinking water. Furthermore as a contact person to the industry we talked as well about the target group of our system being middle-class businesses with less financial resources than big companies. We talked as well about our reactor design and he stated some ideas. His expertise about industrial and economic structures helped us to improve the way we designed our reactor toward being financially viable for middle-class business.
