Method of reducing environmental methylmercury and limiting its uptake into plants and organisms
OwnerKim Sehye PINGREE, Qunhui ZHOU +2inventors
InventorsKim Sehye PINGREE, Qunhui ZHOU, Jon E. MILLER, Sascha J. WELZ
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Abstract
The disclosure relates to methods and processes for protecting food supply, organisms including fish and aquatic life, and plants from mercury accumulation by reducing the presence of methyl mercury in ecosystems, sediment, and pore water. The disclosure including treating sediment and/or pore water with an amendment that contains a sorbent and a halogen source, or a halogen containing sorbent.
Claims28
A method of protecting aquatic, marine, and/or swamp organisms from mercury toxicity, comprising
- Identifying a sample in the aquatic, marine and/or swamp ecosystem,
- treating the sample with an amendment, the amendment comprising a sorbent and a halogen source, and/or a halogenated sorbent, and
- reducing the amount and/or production of methylmercury in the sample,
- where the content of methylmercury in a pore water in the ecosystem is reduced by at least 60 percent.
The method according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the amendment is a carbonaceous material or an inorganic material.
A method of protecting a crop from mercury contamination, comprising
- Identifying a soil sample into which a crop will be planted
- treating the sample with an amendment, the amendment comprising a sorbent and a halogen source, and/or a halogenated sorbent, and
- reducing the amount and/or production of methylmercury in the sample,
- where the content of methylmercury in a pore water of the soil sample is reduced by at least 60 percent.
A method for removing methylmercury from a soil pore water, comprising
- treating a sediment samples that contains the pore water with an amendment, the amendment comprising a sorbent and a halogen containing compound, and/or a halogenated sorbent, and
- reducing the amount and/or production of methylmercury in the sample,
- where the content of methylmercury in the pore water is reduced by at least 60 percent.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.