Lead is a toxic metal that poses a health hazard even in small concentrations.
The researchers note that since yeastthe cells used in this process are inactive and dried, they do not require special care, unlike other types of "filters" that use living biomass. In addition, such yeast is a waste product of the brewing industry and is therefore widely available.
Yeast change after lead ingestion. The top row shows pictures of “pure” yeast, the bottom row shows the same yeast adsorbing lead. Source: MIT News
The authors of the work considered that the city in whichabout 700 thousand people live (Boston was used in the experiment), consumes about 750 million liters of water per day. To clean the water supply system of such a city, about 20 tons of yeast per day, or about 7 thousand tons per year, will be required. At the same time, one Boston Beer Company brewery annually produces over 20 thousand tons of the necessary yeast and is able to fully cover the needs of a large city.
Lead is highly toxic even in tinyconcentrations. The growth of e-waste and emissions from mining increases the concentration of this substance in the environment. Unlike organic pollutants, heavy metals do not biodegrade, but persist for a long time. At the same time, they are either impossible or very expensive to completely remove by conventional methods, such as chemical precipitation or membrane filtration, the authors of the work note.
The fact is that conventional cleaning processesare not effective enough when the initial concentrations they have to remove are low, on the ppb scale and below. They either cannot remove these trace amounts completely or consume a lot of energy and produce toxic by-products.
Patricia Statutu, MIT researcher and co-author of the study
Scientists will continue their research to developan industrial filter in which brewer's yeast can be used. In addition, they are working on a technology to recover lead from water for industrial reuse.
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