TEAM CATTAILS
Team Cattails is a four year, undergraduate team driven research project facilitated through the Gemstone Honors program at the University of Maryland, College Park. Our research goal is to evaluate the suitability of cattail seeds for oil adsorption under different environmental conditions and compare this to other natural sorbents.
Highlights:
Team CATTAILS was formed in the spring of 2014. So far, we have completed a literature review paper and a methodology paper, and have written a thesis proposal for our project along with giving several presentations about our research. We have completed preliminary data on the adsorbance and selectivity of cattail seed fiber to oil and have begun testing the cattail seed fibers under differing environmental conditions, simulating varying oil spill situations. The team is very excited to continue working on this project and will continue data collection in the upcoming year.
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April 2016
Click here for a copy of our Undergraduate Research Day poster!
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November 2015
Click here to watch our research in action as we presented at the Gemstone Junior Colloquia of 2015!
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August 2015
The pond for the Cattails has been created!!! Now the new cattails will have a lovely container to live in and lots of water to grow. :) If you want to see it- click here!
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April 2015
Team CATTAILS won the library award!!! This is an annual award for a Gemstone team that demonstrates excellence in the research process, with a top award of $2,000. To see the presentation, click here.
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Spring 2015
Cattail growth not as expected. The team has contacted local experts for advice.
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December 2014
Team Cattails has planted the cattails that we will be doing research on. We plan to record their growth in the upcoming months.
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August 2014
Team Cattails just had their first team bonding experience at the obstacle courses behind the ERC at UMD! We also made a field trip to the cattails located by the greenhouses on campus. Pictures are available in the photo gallery!
Thoughts about our project?
Research
Problem:
In 2013, over 90 million barrels of oil PER DAY were consumed globally and approximately 5 million barrels of this oil was released into the environment. The release of this oil can prove to be detrimental to the health of coastal habitats and marine life.
Furthermore, these spills are difficult to clean up. Current oil spill remediation methods (chemical dispersants, mechanical devices, sorbents, and in-situ burning) have significant drawbacks, such as limited efficiency under dcertain environmental conditions, human health risks, lack of sustainability, and negative environmental side effects.
As a result, it often takes decades for an ecosystem to fully recover. Oil spills lead to a loss of marine life and the destruction of coastal habitats: animals die, beaches are ruined, and fish are poisoned, causing small business owners and fisheries to suffer devastating losses.
We need a quick, sustainable and efficient solution!
Loose cattail fibers released from the pod at the top of the cattail plant
Natural Sorbents
Natural sorbents can be reused, degraded, incinerated, or disposed in landfills as a means of removal (Fingas, 2012; ITOPF, 2012). As a result, they are often seen as a more enironmentally friendly solution for oil spill removal. Most are absorbents and act like sponges (ITOPF, 2012), however, this makes the recovery of the absorbed liquid challenging.
Cattails (Typha, spp.)
Cattails are one of the most commonly found plants in marshes and shallow waters around the world, especially along the east coast of the United States. The two major types are the broad leaf and the narrow leaf cattail. Within their pods are cattails seeds. These seed fibers are hydrophobic, oleophilic, and have a large surface area, making them an ideal oil adsorbent. For our project, we are researching the properties of cattails more extensively in differing environmental conditions.
This photo was taken of the team in the spring of 2014, in a patch of cattails found on campus
