I am halfway through my final year of Chemical and Material Engineering and one of the key aspects to this year is a full year research project. My project investigates the use of struvite to immobilise heavy metals in contaminated soils. Struvite is a white crystalline substance which can be produced using wastewater and some additional chemicals. In my experiment struvite is added to soil dosed with heavy metals and the amount of heavy metals present in the active form are analysed over a 10-day period. This project is important as it demonstrates a possible way to close the nutrient loop which helps to solve one of the key agricultural environmental issues.

This project features a large amount of lab work compared to other projects. This is due to the soil preparation phase which takes five weeks and the chemical precipitation of struvite as each experiment produced very small amounts of struvite. At the peak of the experimental lab work my project partner and I were in the lab 3-5 times a week working around our other papers. Due to the long time required to complete the experiment we had to quickly understand lab authorisation protocols. This was made challenging due to the presence of heavy metals and the extra work needed to prove that these chemicals would be used safely due to their toxic nature. We also overcame some challenges thanks to the lab technicians. such as finding out there are more efficient ways of folding filter paper than into quarters. This small adjustment decreased the time it took to filter a sample from 30 minutes to 10 minutes and dramatically shortened the overall process of making struvite.

With the experimental phase of my research project almost over the focus moves to writing a research report. Working on a large project like this is relatively new to me and I have enjoyed it far more than I expected and am excited to see what the final results of the experiment will show.