Copper is usually dug out from the depths of the earth. But the nearest lake may soon become a new type of copper mine depending on the findings of a Brock research team.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Vaughn Mangal and fourth-year Chemistry student Reem Mahamoud are investigating how much copper is contained in Lake Erie’s algae blooms and how easily this metal can be extracted.

“With advances in technology increasing the production of electronics, the demand for copper is quite high and natural copper ore supplies are decreasing,” says Mangal. “We need to begin to look at different ways of harnessing copper.”

The researchers partnered with Destiny Copper, a Niagara-based copper extraction company, to carry out a year-long proof-of-concept project.

Mangal, who initiated the partnership with Destiny Copper, says he was inspired by practices of phytoremediation – using plants to extract and remove or reduce pollution – to come up with the idea of extracting copper from algae.

“Algae require trace metals like copper, nickel and zinc for their growth,” says Mangal. “Our idea is similar to phytoremediation, where algae accumulate copper that can be harvested and concentrated.”

Fourth-year Chemistry student Reem Mahamoud (left) and Assistant Professor of Chemistry Vaughn Mangal examine a collection of algae samples taken from Lake Erie.

Pollutants and chemicals from increased agricultural and industrial activity – including nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous – along with the impacts of climate change are fueling the growth of algal blooms in Lake Erie.

In agricultural regions, copper enters aquatic systems in the form of copper sulfate, as copper sulfate is a commonly used fungicide in fruit farms and vineyards.

Mangal says agricultural run-off supplies copper to Lake Erie and fuels the growth of algae.

“If successful, our approach would reduce copper concentrations in Lake Erie, manage algae bloom cleanup efforts, and recycle copper,” he says.

During the summer, Mahamoud collected Cladophora algae at several locations along Lake Erie’s shoreline.

She incubated the samples for almost a week and then experimented with different acids to break down, or digest, the Cladophora’s contents in various solutions.

“We have three or four different methods in mind to extract the copper out of the cells,” says Mahamoud.

“There is a lot of method development and troubleshooting to figure out the best way to maximize how much copper we get,” she says.

Mahamoud and her team are using specialized equipment in Brock’s Validation, Prototyping and Manufacturing Institute (VPMI) to carry out the experiments, set to wrap up next month.

The team is expected to have research analysis and results by next year.

“If the copper bioaccumulates to appreciable concentrations and we can extract it from the algae, that gives us a new source of copper, which is really important for our industry,” says Josh Clarke, Lead Chemist at Destiny Copper.

He says the research will continue if the proof of concept pays off.

Mangal says the idea of mining copper from algal blooms is part of a larger shift to a “circular economy” in which the reuse or regeneration of materials is a way to protect the environment.

“Our research is an example of how we take a problem of water pollution and try to spin it into some form of solution,” he says. “We can recycle this type of waste, found in algae, so that we can minimize our impact on the land through mining.”