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Poplars to clean up environmental waste
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Purdue University researchers and Chrysler LLC are collaborating to use poplar trees to eliminate pollutants from a contaminated site.
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Purdue researcher Richard Meilan has developed a transgenic poplar tree capable of absorbing and breaking down various contaminants. The trees will be tested this summer at a former oil storage location in Kokomo, Ind. (Photo by Tom Campbell) |
The researchers plan to plant transgenic poplars at a former oil storage facility near Kokomo, Ind., this summer. In a laboratory setting, transgenic trees have absorbed trichloroethylene, or TCE, and other pollutants and processed them into harmless byproducts.
"This site presents the perfect opportunity to prove that poplars can get rid of pollution in the real world," says Richard Meilan, a Purdue molecular tree physiologist. Transgenic poplars contain an inserted gene that contains an enzyme capable of breaking down TCE and a variety of other environmental pollutants, including chloroform, benzene, vinyl chloride and carbon tetrachloride.
Meilan believes the transgenic poplars will be able to remove the TCE from the site, which was contaminated by tainted oil stored there in the 1960s. The chemical lies within 10 feet of the surface, making it accessible to poplar roots. "Three years should be enough time for them to grow up, send down roots to suck the pollutants up and break them down," Meilan says.
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