A Photosynthetic Advanced Oxidation
Process
Donnie Stangroom, Zuhra Omary
Ryerson University, CaB research leaders
challenge.
Waste Water
● Contains various
dissolved compounds left
over from human use
❖ Includes runoff,
leaching, industrial
processes, municipal
water use, and etc
Oil Sands
Oil Sands
● Uses an extreme process to separate
bitumen from sands
● Waste water is largely recycled
● What can’t be recycled anymore goes to
tailings ponds, which is about 10% of the
overall water used in the process
● Has disturbed some 715 square km of earth
Tailings Ponds
Water leaches from
ponds into local water
sources such as the
Athabasca river
and groundwater
Toxic Organics
● Organics can mimic
hormones similar to how
PBC mimics estrogen
❖ Causes cancers
and impairs
organ function
● Can bioaccumulate and
enter the food chain
Toxic Compounds in Tailing Ponds
● Toxic compounds in tailings ponds include
Naphthenic acids (NAs) and polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons (PAHs)
● Naphthenic acids have been shown to cause
liver failure, cancer and mimic hormones like
estrogen
● Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons are known to
cause cancer and mutations.
Oxidation is setting fire underwater.
● Advanced oxidation
process (AOT) is a
process of “burning”
something in solution
using hydroxyl radicals
● Products of AOTs are
CO2, water and salts.
Limitations
● The chemicals used are
unstable and would
need to regularly by
replenished.
● Some catalysts can lead
to more toxic byproducts
before they are
mineralized.
Red Tide Algae
Helpful or Harmful?
-Some species of
red tide algae are
harmful to fish and
other marine life.
-Photosynthesis
sequesters carbon
dioxide.
It’s all in the
situation.
Hydroxyl Radical Production.
-Red tide algae can be harmful to fish for a
variety of reasons production of hydroxyl
radicals is one of them.
-Hydroxyl Radicals will break down any
organic molecule.
In a tailings pond these radicals are helpful.
NADPH Oxidase.
-Makes hydroxyl radicals
indirectly.
-Present in humans and
plants.
-Used an immunological
defence, a lack of which can
be fatal.
Genetics Behind Hydroxyl Production
NADPH Oxidase - Enzyme complex
that reduces NADPH to NADP and
Oxidize molecular O to superoxide.
Glycocalyx - Holds NADPH oxidase
components outside the cell.
H2O2 - Reacts with super oxide to
make OH .
Experiments Phase 1.
Can the algae alone help mineralize the tailings ponds?
-Can hydroxyl radical producing algae live in oil sands
process affected water (OSPW)?
-Could we modify OSPW to make it more suitable?
-Do they still produce hydroxyl radicals and if so how
many?
-How quickly would that allow algae to mineralize
organics in tailings ponds? Given the above work.
Conclusions
-If red algae can live in OSPW, great! We can continue
phase 1.
-Do they still produce OH radicals and how many? If they do
excellent!
-Once we know how much OH. they make in OSPW we can
find out how long it would take to “clean” a given volume of
OSPW.
Experiments Phase 2.
How do the algae produce OH. ?
Phase 2
-Protein sequencing of NADPH
oxidase complex
-Genome sequencing of NADPH
oxidase
-Transfer of NADPH oxidase
component proteins to freshwater
red algae.
Conclusions.
The sequence of amino acids in the component
proteins of NADPH oxidase will allow us to identify
the corresponding genes.
Study of the genome itself once sequenced allows for
the identification of regulatory pathways involved.
As well as opening the possibility of transfer to other
organisms which would allow for remediation of a
wide range of aquatic environments.
Genetic Modification.
Transfer of the genetic
mechanism for making
hydroxyl radicals allows for a
wide range of water treatment.
Crispr Cas/9
Prokaryotic
defence
mechanism for
labelling foreign
DNA.
-Allows for the efficient transfer of multiple genes at
once.
-NADPH oxidase has 6 component proteins making
CRISPR an ideal method.
-Works by using a protein to hack the DNA repair
mechanism of the target organism into making
desired alterations.
What Our Process
Means for Canada.
-Clean water in the Athabasca
river.
-A method of removing landfill
leachate from ground water.
-Removal of human waste
products in various aquatic
environments without the
need for infrastructure.
In conclusion advanced oxidation techniques can
remove numerous organic compounds from water.
Currently these process would be very expensive on a
large scale.
-Our process solves that problem by sustainably
carrying out AOTs.
-It also works without producing any toxic byproducts or
greenhouse gasses.
References
see research proposal for the exhaustive list of
references. All images were obtained from Google
Image results.