Mercury pollution does not only affect people’s lives today, but also future generations.
Lecturer and researcher of the Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering UGM, Ir. Agus Prasetya, Ph.D. (Photo source: UGM Public Relations / Gadjah Mada University)
Lecturer and researcher of the Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Gadjah Mada University (UGM), Ir. Agus Prasetya, M.Eng.Sc., Ph.D., developed a research method for removing mercury from the water using local materials. This research is motivated by concerns about the adverse effects of mercury pollution, due to illegal gold mining.
The research began with the concern of Dr. Agus Prasetya and his research team on the problem of mercury pollution from traditional gold mines. Mercury is spread in mine waste which then enters the water and can spread to rivers, lakes and other springs. Mercury waste can accumulate in plants, animals and humans and can cause health problems.
Mercury pollution is thought to cause various diseases in children in the villages around the mining site, such as bone fragility, mental illness, and abnormalities in the baby’s skull. According to him, mercury pollution does not only affect people’s lives today, but also future generations.
The concept he uses for remediation of mercury from contaminated water is by combining adsorption with phytoremediation or taking up mercury by plants. Adsorption is carried out using zeolites, known as natural adsorbents, which have good capability to capture mercury, and are abundantly available in Indonesia. After zeolite absorption, the next step is obtaining the rest of the mercury by plants.
In this study, water jasmine plants were used, but did not rule out the possibility of using other plants. From research conducted on a laboratory scale, this method has proven to be able to eliminate 90 percent of mercury in polluted water.
Picture 1. Echinodorus palaefolius or water jasmine (Photo by: Pinterest)
The research itself has been published in one scientific journal, which is Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering, with the title “Characteristics of Hg Removal Using Zeolite Adsorption and Echinodorus palaefolius Phytoremediation in Subsurface Flow Constructed Wetland (SSF-CW) Model”.
The experiment used water containing 20 ppm mercury and by using a device that combines adsorption and phytoremediation, then 2 ppm was obtained. After that the mercury is caught by zeolites and plants. If mercury cannot be separated from zeolite, it indicates that the process has stabilized.
Dr. Agus Prasetya and his team hope that this research can be further developed by testing on a field scale in collaboration with experts from several other fields of science. With field testing, the prospect of this method could be applied in locations that have been contaminated with mercury. According to this UGRG’s researcher, people can apply this technology if given proper training because it is not too complicated.
SOURCE:
Prasetya, A., Prihutami, P., Warisaura, A.D., Fahrurrozi, M., Petrus, H.T.B.M., 2020. Characteristic of Hg removal using zeolite adsorption and Echinodorus palaefolius phytoremediation in subsurface flow constructed wetland (SSF-CW) models. Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering. Vol. 8 (3). 103781. ISSN 2213-3437. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jece.2020.103781.
An undergraduate chemical engineering student at Universitas Gadjah Mada
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