Our project aims to reduce water pollution in the urban igarapés of Manaus, in the Amazon. These small streams are essential to the local ecosystem and communities, but many are contaminated by urban waste and untreated sewage.
To address this challenge, our team tested a phytoremediation solution using the aquatic plant Pistia stratiotes, which can absorb pollutants such as nitrogen and phosphorus from contaminated water. We conducted experiments with water samples collected from urban igarapés and compared samples with the plant to control samples over seven days.
The results showed a reduction in nutrient pollution and improved water clarity, demonstrating that phytoremediation can be a sustainable and low-cost solution for water restoration.
In addition, our project includes international collaboration with students from a school in California, USA, who are working on sustainable closed environmental systems for space exploration. Together, we explore how water purification and resource recycling technologies can be applied both on Earth and in future space habitats.
We also study ways to reuse the plant biomass to produce biofuel, promoting a circular and sustainable environmental solution.
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