PLANTECO uses versatile photosynthesizing Microbial Mats to treat wastewater and oil spills and produce reusable “Green Water” and “Green Energy”. Our engineered Microbial Mat Aquatic Treatment System (MMATS) utilizes contaminants in wastewater, oil spills, greenhouse gases and sunlight to rapidly produce biomass harvested for bioenergy production and organic fertilizer for soils. Microbial mats provide many benefits:

• Water Quality - Treatment of wastewater to reuse as “Green Water”
• Bioenergy - Biomass production for “Green Energy”
• Carbon Credits - Entrapment of greenhouse gases and rapid bio-conversion of carbon dioxide for bioenergy production and oxygen 
• Bioremediation - Passive treatment of municipal and agricultural wastewater, landfill leachate, oil spills, acid mine waste, pink water, militarization/demilitarization wastewater to degrade and remove organic and inorganic contaminants including metals

The distinguishing feature of constructed Microbial Mats compared with all other engineered green systems using active microorganisms is the integration of photosynthetic bacteria into the microbial consortium, creating a self-sustainable ecosystem with minimal need for supplemental nutrition.

The mature microbial mat consortium is a dynamic and highly adaptable microbial community that can be applied in different ways for agriculture, aquaculture, bioremediation of contaminants and energy production. The following lists actual and potential applications:

• Treatment of municipal and agricultural wastewater
• As a fish feed for tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus or Tilapia nilotica
• Aquaculture filter, transforming nitrogenous fish wastes into benign products. The process involves rapid sequestration of ammonia from water.
• Soil amendments, such as fertilization via nitrogen fixation and plant growth stimulators
• Sequestration of heavy metals
• Degradation of recalcitrant toxic organic contaminants
• Removal of radionuclides from low level radioactive waste
• Biopolymers production

A constructed MMATS consists of organisms that self-associate to form a complex and highly adaptive ecosystem capable of removing contaminants from the environment. The MMATS comprises cyanobacteria, purple autotrophic bacteria and other microorganisms organized into a layered structure which is held together with slime.

MMATS used by PLANTECO are 100% natural, non-toxic and not offensive in odor. “Constructed” denotes the standard growing technique that is extremely inexpensive and adaptable to multiple environments.

Like other active microbial systems, MMATS simultaneously sequester heavy metals and degrade organic and some inorganic contaminants. The overall oxygen concentration in the system can be controlled. A variety of bioremediation reactions are enabled within different metabolic zones (micro-environments) in the mat, such as anoxic bioreduction of metals; metabolism of perchlorate and explosives; sequestration and metabolism of petrochemicals; dechlorination of trichloroethylene; or nitrification under highly oxic conditions.

Microbial mats have been tested and proven economically with various patented treatment designs including floating mats on ponds with low-flow and batch mode large volumes of water (e.g. removal of manganese from acid coal mine drainage).

Dry mats can be used as a biosorbent for removal of organics and metals from water. Mats immobilized as biofilms on vertical boards have been tested for the final polishing treatment of radioactive water. Mat microbes have also been immobilized on silica particles and tested for the removal of a menu of radionuclides, including plutonium and uranium.
The immobilization represents an important advance of the technology in terms of the rates of removal and ease of engineering and management.