Mycofiltration: Does Straw with Mycelium Make a More Efficient Erosion Control Than Plain Straw Wattles?

Overview

Objectives/Goals The objective of this experiment was to find out if straw with mushroom mycelium growing in it will be a better erosion control by retaining road sediment runoff better than straw without. Methods/Materials I built a board 122 cm to imitate a road, with sides to contain all of the runoff. I spread 625 grams of soil over an 80 cm length of it and elevated one end to simulate a 5% grade. I then poured 8 liters of water, divided evenly into two watering cans, to replicate rain onto the soil. The water/soil ran unobstructed into a bucket at the end of the ramp in three of the tests. The water/soil ran through plain rice straw three times. The water/soil ran through rice straw inoculated with mushroom mycelium three times as well. I took a sample of the runoffs to find the Suspended Sediment Concentration (SSC). I used a vacuum filter to vacuum off most of the water in the samples, and then dried each filter with its soil sample in a 105º C oven for ninety minutes. The filters with soil were weighed; the weight of the filter then subtracted to find out how much soil was in each sample. The weight (mg) of soil was then divided by the amount of water/soil from the sample (L), to calculate the SSC. Results In the tests with no barrier, all 625 grams of soil washed down the ramp with 8 liters of water, so the SSC was 78,125 mg/L. The SSC average was 5,006 mg/L for the tests using plain rice straw, blocking 94% of the sediment. The SSC average for the straw with mycelium was 2,536 mg/L, blocking 97% of the sediment. Conclusions/Discussion The results of this experiment agreed with my hypothesis. The mycelium did work better, as I had thought it would, but the difference was not as significant as I had expected. For this experiment to be applied to the real-world, I would see if straw wattles inoculated with mushroom mycelium are a feasible improvement to plain rice straw wattles. To do this experiment again, I would inoculate straw wattles with mushroom mycelium and use them on the sides of dirt roads as plain rice straw wattles are currently being used. I felt I needed to do this model to obtain background information before doing it on a full scale.

Competition history

• CSEF 2004 Environmental Engineering · Entry J0801

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