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Researchers develop new method of cleaning toxins from the oilsands
Date:12/21/2011

Alberta's oilsands have water challenges. Oilsands development uses a vast amount of water and even though it's recycled multiple times, the recycling concentrates the toxins and metals leftover from extracting and upgrading the bitumen, resulting in tailings ponds that are both a lightening rod for controversy and a significant risk to the environment. A research project underway between biologists at the University of Calgary and engineers at the University of Alberta to help resolve the water issue is making rapid progress toward that goal.

Two years into the research, both groups are excited about their progress. A paper into the first round of research will be published in the January edition of FEMS Microbial Ecology.

Much of the research into tailings remediation has focused on microbes and their ability to settle the tailings sludge and clean the water. This NSERC-funded research is focused on a certain kind of bacterial growth called biofilms. Biofilms are everywhere in our environment, including in the plaque on our teeth and they can be very resilient, says Dr. Raymond Turner, a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Calgary.

"We've isolated biofilms that are indigenous to the oilsands environment and are highly tolerant to the stress associated with toxins and metals found in tailings water. Those consortia of biofilms are able to, slowly, detoxify the water," says Turner, who co-leads the project with Dr. Howard Ceri, biological sciences professor at the University of Calgary.

A sample of sediment, or sludge, was taken from a tailings pond in the summer of 2009. MSc candidate and paper co-author Susanne Golby was able to successfully cultivate biofilms from the sample under a variety of different conditions.

"It was really exciting when we found that multiple different species could be recovered within one biofilm. By altering the growth conditions, and exposing
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Contact: Leanne Yohemas
lmyohema@ucalgary.ca
403-540-6552
University of Calgary
Source:Eurekalert  

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