This document provides an outline and background for a project using mycoremediation to filter contaminated greywater in Dominica. It discusses how hurricanes have damaged coral reefs through debris and wastewater runoff. The objective is to design a biological treatment system using fungi to remove contaminants from waste streams before they enter the ocean. The group visited a mushroom farm to learn mushroom growth and conducted an experiment packing plastic columns with sand, sawdust, and mushroom mycelium to test nutrient removal through the columns. Tasks and next steps are outlined in a Gantt chart.

1. FILTRATION OF CONTAMINATED
GREYWATER USING
MYCOREMEDIATION
Midterm Presentation
November 1st, 2022
Natalie Whitaker, Marguerite Azzara, Freddy Nocella,
Isaiah del Campbell, David Traynham, Ally Barrera

2. OUTLINE
• Background
• Literature Review
• Rationale
• Objective
• Venn Diagram
• Lab Procedures
• Tasks

3. BACKGROUND

4. BACKGROUND –
HURRICANES IN
DOMINICA
 In 2017, the Island of Dominica was
devastated by two category five
hurricanes. The first was hurricane
Irma on September 6th followed
closely by Hurricane Maria on
September 18th.
 Landslides caused by the hurricanes
led to heavy amounts of debris and
contaminates flowing through the
land into the ocean causing
significant damage to the coral
reefs. The people of the island also
contribute to the issue by dumping
grey water directly into the street.
This drains into the ocean without
treatment or filtration.

5. LITERATURE REVIEW

6. LITERATURE REVIEW – WHAT IS
MYCOREMEDIATION AND HOW DOES IT
RELATE TO GREYWATER?
• Mycoremediation is the use of fungus to remove contaminates from the
environment. Grey water is household wastewater that originates from anywhere
except a toilet, like shower water. Common constituents that are tested for in
household greywater include nitrate, phosphorus, BOD5 and suspended solids
(Abed 2016).
• Many fungi absorb and retain specific elements, namely heavy metals, in their
biomass through a process called hyperaccumulation. (Cotter 2014)

7. LITERATURE REVIEW - NITRATE
REMOVAL USING MUSHROOMS
• Nitrates and nitrites are a very common pollutant in many streams and
runoffs. Using mushrooms to intercept the pollutants can mitigate the
issue before the pollutants enter oceans or rivers. Mycelium and
mushrooms have a sponge like matrix which can hold onto pollutants,
and they can also uptake them from soils as they grow. Differing
species have different capacities for the uptake, but all can retain some
levels of nitrates and nitrites (Agoroaei 2008).

8. LITERATURE REVIEW – CORAL BLEACHING
AND HURRICANE MARIA IN DOMINICA
• Coral bleaching is one of the negative consequences caused by excess runoff and
greywater inputs. Coral bleaching is caused by a variety factors, most notably a warming
climate. Despite this, there is emerging research that contaminated water also plays a role.
Excess nitrogen interrupts the symbiosis between the corals and their algae partners,
since cell division of the algae is limited by nitrogen levels. If too much nitrogen is
present, the algae reproduce too much and is the symbiosis is thrown off (Pogoruetz
2016).

9. RATIONALE

10. RATIONALE
• Coral Reefs in Dominica have faced a
large amount of stress from wastewater
runoff and storm runoff due to recent
hurricanes in the last few years that have
led to coral bleaching. By filtering this
wastewater and stormwater runoff before
it enters the sea, the coral will be
exposed to less harmful containments
that will help slow/eliminate coral
bleaching.

11. MEDIA FROM ISLAND

12. OBJECTIVE

13. OBJECTIVE
 The objective of this project is to engineer and design a biological
treatment system to remove contaminates from waste streams entering
the ocean

14. VENN DIAGRAM
Sustainable
Communities
Environmental
Solutions
Resiliency
Our Project
Socio-
economic
Factors
Science/
Biology
Engineering
Design

15. MUSHROOM MOUNTAIN
SITE VISIT

16. MUSHROOM MOUNTAIN
 On October 11th, our group attended a tour of Mushroom Mountain in
Easley, SC.
 We learned about various types of mushrooms as well as how to grow
them and what conditions/food sources would work best as we grow
Tiger Sawgill mycelium for our projects.

17. MUSHROOM MOUNTAIN PICTURES

18. MUSHROOM MOUNTAIN PICTURES

19. LAB PROCEDURE

20. MATERIALS
• Tiger Sawgill mycelium
• Sand
• Hickory sawdust
• Plastic columns
• Peristaltic pump
• Tubing
• Hach RIcDR 900
• Nitrate, Sulfate, Phosphate from RICCA Chemical
• Nitrate, Sulfate, Phosphate test reagents from Hach

21. METHODS
1. A 50/50 mixture of sand and sawdust will be created and used in addition to the mushrooms. This mixture
will then be packed into the columns with the mushrooms in different ratios. Columns A and B will have
no mushrooms, columns C and D will be 90% sand and sawdust and 10% mushrooms, columns E and F
will be 75% sand and sawdust and 25% mushroom and columns G and H will be 50% sand and sawdust
and 50% mushrooms.
2. A nutrient solution will be created with DI water, nitrate standard, phosphate standard, and sulfate
standard. This solution will then be pumped through the column at a rate of 4 mL/min. Three, 200 mL
pour volumes will be run through each column and 5, 40 mL samples will be collected from each pour
volume.
3. After the samples are collected, they will be analyzed using the DR900 for nitrate, phosphate, and sulfate.

22. RESULTS
1. After samples have been collected and analyzed, breakthrough curves for each
contaminate will be generated. These will be created by plotting the C/C0 (fraction of the
initial contaminate concentration) versus the pore volume that has gone through the
column.
2. Comsol will be used to model the nutrient movement through the column.

23. EXPERIMENTAL PROGRESS:
Column after being packed with
sand/sawdust mixture and mycelium.
A small portion of medical gauze was
used as a filter to keep substrate from
exiting the effluent tube

24. EXPERIMENTAL
PROGRESS:
 The lab setup was effective, and the first
experimental run was a success.
 What we noticed could be improved
 The tubes in the peristaltic were being
pulled
 Reactors will be placed in the back
while the sample collection tubes will
be moved in front of the reactor
vessels.
 Mild leakage was observed. The
observed amount is thought to be
negligible
 The DR900 won’t work based that it reads the
samples based on a color spectrum, due to
the fact that our samples have an amber
color we are exploring other ways to read
containment levels. One of the methods that
we think will work best will be to dilute our
samples to make the color negligible.

25. TASKS

26. GANTT CHART

27. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• We would like to thank Dr. Darnault for his guidance in the design and
execution of our lab and Dr. Dodd for his ongoing support and
knowledge.
• Dr. Ogle for providing project scope and equipment.
• Brandon at Mushroom Mountain for sharing his expertise in the area
of mushroom research.

28. THANK YOU