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What is biochar? 

Episode Transcript

Snigtha Mohanraj
Water contamination is a problem that affects everyone across the world. There’s no one who’s completely safe from it, and especially a lot of lower-income and underprivileged communities that might not have access to treated water, they are much more affected by this issue. And so it’s really important that we have an inexpensive, environmentally friendly solution to remove a lot of these water contaminants since it really does affect everyone across the world.

Tan Deleon
On behalf of the members of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, welcome to this inaugural edition of Learning & Living STEMM in Connecticut, the podcast of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering. My name is Tan Deleon. I’m an elected member of the Academy, and in 2020, was elected to the Academy’s Governing Council, and I’m pleased to serve as host for this podcast. The Academy is a nonprofit created by a special act of the Connecticut General Assembly in 1976, with key areas of work, including advising and informing the people and the state of Connecticut, on science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine, collectively known as STEMM. This podcast is key to sharing with the residents of our state, interesting STEMM developments and increasing visibility for the state’s innovators and entrepreneurs, businesses and industries, academics, our talented workforce, and those doing STEMM-related work in public service. I am pleased to have as our guest Snigtha Mohanraj, a sophomore from the Engineering and Science University Magnet School. Snigtha received multiple awards for her research, including several from the Academy. We’ll be talking specifically about her student research project, “Implementing Inexpensive Biochar to Remove Contaminants in Water,” but also about her experience as a student researcher. Snigtha, welcome to the show and thank you for being here. Can you tell us just a bit about you?

Snigtha Mohanraj
Yeah, so as you said before, I am a sophomore at the Engineering and Science University Magnet School, ESUMS for short. I’ve been a student at New Haven Public Schools my whole life. And I’ve also been very interested in scientific research since a young age like kindergarten when we started doing the class science fairs. And I’ve been trying to conduct my own research since fifth grade within water contamination. And so for the past few years, I’ve been investigating different water contaminant removal methods by utilizing environmentally friendly solutions.

Tan Deleon
Fantastic, fantastic. And yeah, I mean, with the earth being mostly water, it’s an important part of our livelihood. So can you tell us a bit about your research, this specific research?

Snigtha Mohanraj
Yeah, so for this research, I was targeting the usage of biochar-enhanced filtration, in order to remove emerging contaminants from water. So emerging contaminants is an umbrella term that refers to water contaminants, whose presence in our water has long been suspected, but it’s only been recently confirmed and investigated due to recent advancements in technology. These contaminants can be very harmful to our health and other organisms and the environment. And thus, it’s really important that we remove them from our water. And so I want to use biochar, which is specifically used in soil amendment processes, usually, since they haven’t great retention properties, and can sequester a lot of the pollutants in the soil. And because of these properties, they are expected to transfer over to water contamination. And thus I investigated biochar, specifically coconut shell biochar and rice husk biochars. And then I doped them with iron oxide nanoparticles to further increase the removal method or the removal efficiency of this method. And so it was aimed to remove pharmaceuticals, pesticides, microplastics, and oil from water since they’re all prominent examples of emerging contaminants.

Tan Deleon
Okay, I mean, that’s a quite unique way or innovative way to use something for a different field in this field. So what inspired you to conduct this research?

Snigtha Mohanraj
Yeah, so as I said before, I’ve been investigating water contaminant solutions for a while now. I started looking into water contamination in fifth grade but I started developing solutions in seventh grade. In seventh grade, I only targeted microplastic removal. Then I went on to microplastic and oil removal and now I’m trying to target emerging contaminants as a whole, which includes microplastics, and oil, but a lot of other contaminants as well. And so in my project, I targeted pharmaceuticals and pesticides. Overall, the overall theme of just why I wanted to target this problem is because water contamination is a problem that affects everyone across the world, there’s no one who’s completely safe from it. And especially a lot of lower-income and underprivileged communities that might not have access to treated water, are much more affected by this issue. And so it’s really important that we have an inexpensive, environmentally friendly solution to remove a lot of these water contaminants since it really does affect everyone across the world.

Tan Deleon
Yeah, I mean, and to your point, you know, there have been recent developments in Michigan and Mississippi with folks and water pollution and contamination. So yeah, to your point, it’s greatly needed. And so I appreciate how you’ve been doing this for such a long time. I guess, is it feasible to develop your research into like a household product? And if so, who would benefit most from the product is like, can we, can I go down to the store one day and potentially buy this solution? Or would it be something that the utility would leverage in order to do the last-mile delivery to like my house or someone else’s house, for example?

Snigtha Mohanraj
Yeah, so I think both methods are exactly what I’m envisioning for this, but the path that I’m actually taking it down right now is with the household implementation for just one family in a house. So what I’m trying to design is a sample prototype for just a water filter system that can just be placed on perhaps tap water just on the nozzle or be used somewhat similarly to like a Brita filter system. So the idea behind it is, it would act on its own or can supplement existing filters, but it can be used on household applications. And so I already have been designing like, basically a mold where it would have the biochar within it, and then also sand which is an established filtration system that can remove some of the larger contaminants like glass and large plastics. And in combination with the biochar, hopefully, it would be a functioning filtration system that can act on its own. And the path I’m taking it right now is for simple household usage. And so ideally, once I conduct more research to refine the prototype, it can become something that’s actually commercially available for families to buy and use.

Tan Deleon
Okay, so just so I understand so how much of a difference is it from like, like you said, the Brita filter? Like, what’s the, I guess the major difference? I know the biochar is what you’re using, but how different is that from what is presently provided in a Brita filter?

Snigtha Mohanraj
Yeah, so, in my testing, I actually compared all the biochar to activated carbon, which is the most one of the most efficient methods of removing contaminants currently. Now, these contaminant filtration systems are not targeted towards emerging contaminants, since again, they’re very new, but some of them can be pretty efficient for removing contaminants and activated carbon does have some high-efficiency levels. However, the issue is that when you’re talking about a Brita filter, one of the ones that like last on its own and works on its own, and you can use it within your kitchen for your water, whatever it is, those ones can cost upwards of $20. And they can be pretty expensive for a lot of lower-income families. The biochar that I’m trying to use, it’s using naturally abundant materials, it’s recyclable, sustainable, and it’s only going to cost about $2 per production, ideally, which is a significant reduction in cost and makes it a lot more accessible for especially a lot of lower-income families.

Tan Deleon
Aha, okay. So that’s the key distinction. That’s, that’s actually yeah. So you have a wider audience that you can provide, this concept to? Fantastic. So where has this research been presented? Has it been presented as of yet? Or is it still in development?

Snigtha Mohanraj
Yeah, so this research is what I presented last year at the Connecticut Science and Engineering Fair, so 2022. At that there, I received first place in the Urban School Challenge, and second place in the high school life science categories, which qualified me as an International Science and Engineering Fair finalist. And so I presented my research there in Atlanta, Georgia. This year, I also continued on my research with developing the prototype a little bit further. And so I presented at the Connecticut Junior Science and Humanities Symposium this year, in which I received second place in the oral presenter category. And so I’ll be going to Virginia Beach this year to present it at the national scale.

Tan Deleon
Wow, fantastic. Congratulations. That’s, that’s quite the accomplishment, quite the accomplishment. So, so I know you said you’ve, you’ve been doing this since or thinking about, you know, water contaminants since you were in fifth grade. So, I guess, you know, for folks on the phone that, you know, are maybe a fourth grader right now. Right? Well, what were some of the things that, I guess got you into this mindset or into the area of working with water and trying to, you know, improve some of the lives of most of the people on the planet? Yeah. So,

Snigtha Mohanraj
I mean, frankly, just water once I learned about how big of a contaminant issue, it really is, I was just been becoming really interested in I just thought, it’s a problem that affects everyone. There are so many contaminants that don’t have effective solutions. We use water on a day-to-day basis. So why isn’t there an efficient solution available? And so for me, it just kind of clicked in fifth grade. Although it wasn’t with water contaminants, it was about looking to acid rain, which is basically all the pollution that’s in our rainwater. And so I was looking into that, and that kind of sparked my whole thinking with water quality. And so learning about contaminants specifically, I was just interested by this is a problem that affects everyone, why isn’t there a better solution available? And so I wanted to focus on that.

Tan Deleon
Okay. Yeah. And with the advent of, you know, all the issues from a sustainability perspective, this, this plays very well into that. Has, has there been I know, you kind of alluded to the fact that your solution doesn’t have as many are is more sustainable, and like the Brita solution with respect to some of the materials that are used, can you talk a bit about your, the materials that you’re using a bit more and how that sustainability is, is actually had?

Snigtha Mohanraj
Right? Yeah, so the main component of this filter is the biochar, specifically the coconut shell biochar. And, essentially how biochar is made is that you have a biomass material, and then you pyrolyze it or basically burn it at high temperatures with limited or no oxygen present. There are a lot of farmers who use this technique for their agricultural processes, where they can just do it on the land. They just fill up a container with the biomass and then they burn it and it’s turned into biochar. Obviously, there’s a little bit more that goes into it, but it’s a relatively simple process. And that was something I was also able to replicate with just some simple school equipment. And so it’s an easily prepared, I guess, material. And so the main component, which is the coconut shell biochar, as long as you have the coconut shells, which are already in actually been at scrap material, you can pyrolyze it into by the biochar. And then the other component of it is the iron oxide nanoparticles which are essentially improving the efficiency of the biochar even further, even though the biochar does have some high efficiency without it. However, the iron oxide nanoparticles are able to further enhance it. And for this, this process was still relatively simple, I use a Coprecipitation method, and I was still able to do this within the school labs. And this part could be a little bit trickier than the biochar part. However, the number of nanoparticles that are actually required for each biotech filter, I say, it’s very minimal. So the cost of actually producing the nanoparticles is almost negligible when we’re talking about the actual product that would be sold.

Tan Deleon
Okay, are you sure you’re a sophomore in high school? I mean, that’s, that’s remarkable. I mean, sounds, like something a professional scientist would be doing. You know, so, so good on you for that. So let’s, let’s kind of shift gears a bit. And, you know, let’s talk about some of the things that you do. What are some of the things that you do for fun outside of your research?

Snigtha Mohanraj
Yeah, outside of research, some things I do for fun. I mean, on a day-to-day basis, I’m taking a German class right now, which has been pretty cool.

Tan Deleon
Sprechen sie Deutsch?

Snigtha Mohanraj
Ich spreche Deutsch but not very good. But yeah, that language has been pretty interesting for me, my brother studied on his own, so I became a little interested. I also do parliamentary debate with my school, which has been really fun. I actually also just want to a Model UN conference in Europe. And that was a really great experience for me. And so debate is definitely one of my passions. I also am part of the local New Haven rowing team. And that’s been a lot of fun. I’ve been doing it for about a year and I really like getting out in the water. But yeah, those are some of the things I do in my free time where I guess outside of research.

Tan Deleon
Okay, sounds like there’s a link, everything has there’s a potential link with water with everything that’s kind of neat. That’s kind of neat. So just speaking of about, you know, you said you were at a Model UN. So policy seems to be a big thing when it comes to creating a solution to water pollution and contamination. Can you speak a bit just about how policy and some of the concepts and innovations that you’re coming up with how they can be potentially put together to, to push forth greater solutions for society?

Snigtha Mohanraj
Yeah. So I definitely think policy is a really big issue. Whenever you’re presented with a problem like this, you have two approaches, you can talk about prevention or remediation. And right now I’m focusing on the remediation. So once these contaminants have already entered our water, how can we remove them? But obviously, in an ideal world, they would never get in the water in the first place. Right. So I’m not as versed in this because again, I’ve been working in the remediation aspects of this. However, prevention would be achieved through using proper policies. And I think that’s a really important issue that we should be advocating for. And I’ve been working with some other water quality groups. And I think it’s really important that we’re actually implementing policies so that we can actually protect our environment and our water sources. But it isn’t something that I’ve worked with too closely yet.

Tan Deleon
Okay. Now, that’s understandable, but at least I mean, it seems like you are doing this from you’re looking at it from a holistic perspective, right? So it’s not only I’m gonna come up with a solution, but there are also soft things that you can that you have to do in order to make that solution more viable, so to speak. Is that, that I get that right, or? Okay, all right. So so I guess, what coursework have you had, have you taken? Or what? What have you had to learn in order to get to this point, where you so you know, have so much knowledge on this topic?

Snigtha Mohanraj
Right. So, um, environmental science isn’t actually something that I’ve learned much in school. And I think it’s something that should be touched a lot more on within our school subjects. However, it’s not really and we do have an environmental science elective. That’s usually taken by some seniors at our school. But again, that’s kind of the only exposure, you get to these kinds of topics. And so environmental science, and specifically water contamination is something that I completely learned about on my own. It’s kind of an evident problem, since we learn on it, well, we experience it on a day-to-day basis. I mean, we drink water every day, but we never really know the specifics of what’s in our water. And so I just did some online research and started learning about this problem. And since I’ve been working on water contamination for several years, my knowledge has just grown over it. I’ve been developing different solutions, looking into specific contaminants. And so I guess a lot of it just comes from online research, just reading into what’s really in our water, and what can we do to help that? And then scientific research as a whole, that’s also something that isn’t taught as much in school, we learned basically textbook science within our classes, but not really, how can we apply that to solve problems that we’re actually interested in? And so I definitely think that school subjects can benefit more from actually teaching these kinds of skills. But I guess for me, I got really lucky in kindergarten when we started doing, like, just the class science fair projects. And I think that really sparked my thinking and made me have that kind of curiosity to try to look into other solutions. And so since then, I’ve been working pretty much independently to conduct my own projects. And that’s kind of what got me here.

Tan Deleon
Okay, yeah, I mean, I want to actually pull on that thread a bit, a bit, too, because so I think you’re spot on with the fact that the application of knowledge is not technically something that you’re taught. You’re, you’re taught to learn something, but applying what you learn is, is completely different. So I guess, you know, in your opinion, like, what do you think? What are potential changes? Because I mean, you’re, you’re in it right now you’re in school, you’re, you know, you’re going through the motions and the processes. So I guess, like, you know, for our listeners out there, what are, what do you think would be potentially an improvement so that people can apply what they’re learning more? I mean, maybe it’s a vocational course or something like that. But, I mean, what do you think?

Snigtha Mohanraj
Well, I genuinely think one of the best things is to just get involved in science fair. I think science fair is one of the best ways of choosing some kind of problem that you’re interested in, and then applying what you already know, or what you aim to learn about, and trying to solve a real-world issue. And so I think science fair definitely gets you the skills regarding that application thinking. And I think my school is excelling in the fact that we actually have a school science fair now. So normally, we would just compete in the New Haven District Fair, or some students who were very interested, would present at the Connecticut Fair as well. But now we actually have a school fair and they require a lot of the students based on what specific class you’re taking. So it’s a little bit particular not everyone actually has to do it. But a vast majority of the students are now required to participate in science fair. And they have free range in what kind of topic they’re choosing, and a lot of liberty and what they are actually interested in investigating and what they actually want to do with the science fair project. And so I think the science fair, definitely giving that kind of leeway, I guess, to choose what you want to do. And actually applying what you already know or want to learn about, is great for really cultivating those skills. And I think it’s great that my school, this is our second year now having a science fair, I think it’s a great exposure for all the kids, especially for the middle school kids, because my school’s in middle school high school.

Tan Deleon
Okay, okay. Yeah, no, that, that definitely sounds apropos. So, so let’s switch gears just a bit more. Because when you were brought up the contaminants that you were trying to remove? I don’t know. I think we broadly just discussed the contaminants. Are there any specific contaminants that, I mean, I don’t know a lot about this. So are there any specific contaminants that I should be potentially aware of? Or are our listeners should be aware of that is presently I know, I know, like the Brita have filters, you know, remove lead, and, you know, some, some real higher end things. But can you tell us just a bit?

Snigtha Mohanraj
Yeah. So water contamination in general isn’t talked about a lot. But when we’re considering that I think the things that are talked about the most are like lead and heavy metals. The thing about emerging contaminants, though, is that they don’t have that much attention just because they’re so new. But some of the most prominent examples of emerging contaminants that I think people should be wary of because you can find them in a lot of water sources. And they can lead to detrimental health effects, which are things that are under pharmaceuticals, pesticides, microplastics, and oil, which is why I targeted them in my project. Specifically, some of the examples I chose to test were acetaminophen and ibuprofen, which are pharmaceuticals. There’s glyphosate, Simazine, and DEET which are all pesticides, the microplastics that I specifically targeted were PET microplastics, since that’s the most commonly used form of plastic, and it can be found in a lot of water sources. And then I also tested gasoline and oil. So all of these contaminants that I tested, I specifically chose because they can be found in a lot of water sources. And so I thought it was really important to actually confirm that we can remove them using this method.

Tan Deleon
Okay, that’s interesting that there’s a lot of Tylenol in, I mean, that’s, that’s crazy. So I guess it’s really educating the public. Is that I mean, because how does how do these? I mean, I can understand like the, you know, the gas and oil, potentially, you know, runoff from a car or something. But how are pharmaceuticals? I don’t know if you know this, but how are pharmaceuticals getting in the supply?

Snigtha Mohanraj
Yeah, so the main way to the best of my knowledge is just when we are like ingesting pharmaceuticals, we don’t fully process it. And I don’t know the exact percentage or the concentration, but a lot of it doesn’t go completely processed. And in our like, just own waste, it’s getting deposited into the water streams. And when that goes out of the toilet into the sewage system, and to water sources. It’s still present because it’s never actually, like, disintegrated, it’s still pretty much the original composition it was in.

Tan Deleon
Okay, yeah. Wow, that’s, that’s, that’s eye-opening, actually. That’s really eye-opening. Okay. I’m actually a little dumbfounded by that, but okay. Very interesting. All right. So are there, any mentors that you have that have helped you along this path thus far?

Snigtha Mohanraj
There were definitely some school teachers that definitely helped with this. And so I guess, the environmental science teacher at my school, he’s also the eighth grade physical science teacher, I’ve worked pretty closely with him over the years. Mr. Rushworth, he’s kind of in charge of science club and so I’ve worked with him, since I’m now president of the science club. And so I’ve worked with him pretty closely. And then Miss Anderson. She’s a sixth grade science teacher, but she also helps out with science club and Miss Matej, who is a physics teacher, but she again is also another science club supervisor. So my research specifically I did mostly independently, it’s something that I did at home, just because, well, I did at home, but I also did some components in a school lab. But I didn’t do it in an external lab just because of one, COVID protocol, and two, my age, since I’m under 16 most labs do not allow me to actually work within them. And so most of the work I did was actually independent. But these three school teachers definitely did help out just with supervision when I was using school labs and just a little bit of guidance when I was like applying or developing my research. And then Dr. Fabian Menges and Miss Denise Shuster also served as mentors just for the one external part of my project where I gained access to liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry for one of my analyses. Yeah, so that piece of equipment definitely wasn’t available at home or at school. But with their help, I was able to gain access to that at Yale. And that was really helpful. So I’m really appreciative for their help.

Tan Deleon
Wow. Yeah. I mean, I don’t really know many people that can get access to a mass spectrometer. That’s a that’s quite, quite amazing right there. But yeah, I mean, it seems like everyone needs guidance, mentorship, and having the right people, you know, open up those doors for you is kind of quintessential to being able to move the needle, so to speak. So, yeah, so so good on you and good on them for for for seeing the potential and fostering that potential. So, what are your some of your long-term goals and expectations for your future career?

Snigtha Mohanraj
Yeah, so long term, I definitely want to go pursue higher education, environmental science. It’s something I’ve been pretty interested in for a while, as I’ve talked about water contamination. But I’ve also been working as a climate change activist within my local community. And so I’d like to further that kind of work as well through my knowledge in environmental science. In addition to that, I’ve also really enjoyed my AP Biology class that I took last year. So that is another path that I might want to pursue a little bit. But I definitely do want to study environmental science. So that’s the main path that I want to go on right now.

Tan Deleon
Okay, I remember AP Bio, that was actually one of my favorite classes in high school. So I had a really good biology teacher, Mr. Salvia, if I remember his name correctly, but yeah, that was definitely a good class. So I don’t think you can go wrong either way, which is basically the point. So So I guess, are there, is there anything that you would like our listeners to know about your research that that I haven’t asked you, or hasn’t been stated thus far?

Snigtha Mohanraj
Yeah, um, one thing I’d like to add, though, is just, I feel like a lot of scientific research can seem pretty intimidating at first when you hear about it, and you hear about the journey that went into it. But just for people who are listening, I’d like them to know that you can really start from nothing and go so far with it. There’s so many projects that you can just do at home. But even if you’re shooting for more than just that, personally, for me, I don’t have a lot of equipment at school, I don’t have a lot of equipment at home. My family is not like scientists or anything. So a lot of it I had to do from the ground up. And a lot of like even the liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry that I talked about, that wasn’t something that I just had access to. But I reached out to a ton of people. And it was kind of discouraging at some points, but I reached out to a ton of people. And so you can really start from having like not many resources, not much guidance or anything like that, and still go so far with research, just because it’s such a flexible field. And it’s something where you can choose what you want to do, and then just have to reach out to other people, there are so many people who would actually want to help you. And just this year, when I was working on some other research as well, I remember one of the mentors that I reached out to was just like, I’m so glad that Snigtha reached out because I’d love to help with this project. I wish more students knew that they could reach out for help because a lot of scientists would love to help them and help foster their own curiosity. And so I do think it looks a little bit intimidating at first, but once you start, like reaching out to other people, if you’re really interested in it, it becomes so much easier. And it’s a really flexible, interesting field. And so I hope that a lot of people who are looking into it don’t get scared away, and they actually start pursuing it.

Tan Deleon
I think that’s a vital message to our, to our listeners, because I think a lot of people get overcome by, you know, I don’t have this or I don’t have that. And you know, I don’t know how to potentially get to that point. Right? So I think I think your message of you know, it may be discouraging, right, but persevere, keep reaching out. There are people that are willing to help you. And there are people that are willing to foster, you know, some of the initiatives that that you’re interested in, so, so thank you for that. So with that, I would like to thank our guest, Snigtha Mohanraj, for those living in Connecticut and others tuning in from outside our state. We enjoyed learning about your research. So so thank you so much, really appreciate it. And the fact that you’re a student and you’re going through the learning process still, I think it’s remarkable out your, your appetite is so voracious and for learning and you know, I applaud you for that. I encourage you to subscribe to this podcast on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, or Spotify, and visit the Academy’s website at www.ctcase.org. That’s www-C-T-case-dot-org. To learn more about the guests read the episode transcript and access additional resources as well as to sign up for the case bulletin. Thank you once again Snigtha.