Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hey everyone thanks to all of you on the forum for all the help with my project last year, it was really great. Last year I did a project on phytoremediation and I did fairly well, I came in 2nd overall. Now this year I plan on going to Canada-Wide because I haven't made it yet of the past three years, so I need to do really good. I am in grade 10 and I like the environmental science category and I plan on possibly doing phytoremediation again and just expanding on it. If you can think of a better environmental sciences project idea then please tell me. So for phytoremediation some of the things I would like to expand on that I may need some help on are:

1. I've heard that the plants used for phytoremediation can be used to create energy after
2. Also these plants are used for mining metals so I wanted to know how to extract the metals from the plants after
3. How would I test the soil for contaminates, because last year I tester contaminated water which is much easier to test

If you could answer any of these questions for me that would be great because I hope to have a really good project this year, thanks!

Hi,

Continuing on a prior project can be an excellent plan, especially if you want to go to Canada-Wide. What did you do for your project last year? Phytoremediation is an excellent topic, but for a science fair, you will need a toxin that you can measure and a plant that growth fairly quickly. For a prize-winning project you need a project that is original and significant. I recommend that you spend a week or two doing as much background reading as possible before selecting the final topic. At your level, you should read recent scientific papers on your topic and find a question that you can answer with a controlled experiment that has not been done before.

Here are some examples of projects you can consider:

Here’s a paper on removal of a phosphorous-containing pesticide using water hyacinth.

http://naturalsystems.uchicago.edu/natu ... acinth.htm

Here’s a paper on phytoremediation of a polycyclic hydrocarbon using a mold.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_o ... archtype=a

Here is a summary of results for removal of lead and mercury by phytoremediation:

http://www.bvsde.paho.org/bvsarp/i/full ... r/over.pdf

Do you have a hazardous site available that you could use for testing? Do you have access to a lab that has equipment for analysis of the toxin you are testing for?

This is a very interesting topic. Please let us know if you need help finding background articles on a specific topic.

Donna Hardy

Thankyou for those links they were all very helpful except the second link was broken. Now I have been doing some background research for a few days now and I am going to put all my time into it for the next few weeks. Now the project on the Ethion and Water Hyacinth would you happen to know where Ethion is available for purchase because I do know it is legal in Canada but I couldn't find any links online. Lab equipment wise I am slightly limited due to the fact I live in a small city that doesn't have a whole lot of resources. I would have access to my highschool science lab and possibly some equipment from my dad`s work (Shell Canada) but I`m not to sure. I found something that may actually be of some help to me, you said to find an unanswered problem and I found out that once the plants are used for retrieving metals they are then burnt into ashes. The problem is that they haven`t found the most efficent way to retrieve the metals from the ashes so if I could test a few ways to extract the metal and see which one works best then that could work in my favour. I must say thankyou so much all of the information in your post is very helpful, I`ll make sure to keep you updated on my project, and if you have any suggestions or find anything else then I`d love to see it.

Hi,

It’s good you are doing the background reading. The ethion project seems very promising and would be good for a science fair because results can be obtained fairly quickly, within week or two. I will check the second link and see if there is a different way to send this to you.

Ethion is not sold for home use, but is used on crops, so you should check with a local agricultural supply store to inquire about this item. You could also contact the manufacturer, FMC, and inquire about a local distributor. This product might be sold only in very large containers, and you will only need a small quantity for your project, so it might be worthwhile to ask for a free sample.

http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/profiles/ex ... n-ext.html

The problem about recovering metals from ash is interesting. Ethion is composed of mostly carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur, so would evaporate when ashed. The phosphate group might remain in the ash, however. Heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, and chromium would remain in the ash of a plant sample so this would be a good project if you wanted to study toxic metals.

Do you have an idea about how you would measure ethion? This would be essential in doing a science project on this topic. In this paper, the authors extracted the ethion in benzene:acetone, concentrated it on a small chromatography column packed with florasil, and then measured it with a gas chromatograph. Is there a lab at your father’s work that has this equipment, or is there a local environmental testing laboratory that could help you with these samples? You need access to an analytical laboratory and a local chemist who is willing to help you.

http://naturalsystems.uchicago.edu/natu ... acinth.htm

Here’s an interesting link with a variety of ideas for phytoremediation:

http://departments.oxy.edu/biology/gnor ... 269,14,The most important single act of phytoremediation?

Let me know about your progress.

Donna Hardy