Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID DC_2023_PRWRERI_01

Biocomposites for Caffeine Detection and Removal in Aquatic Ecosystems

Institute: District of Columbia
Year Established: 2023 Start Date: 2023-09-01 End Date: 2024-08-31
Total Federal Funds: $23,000 Total Non-Federal Funds: $23,495

Principal Investigators: Magda La Torre

Project Summary: Caffeine is an emerging contaminant (EC) and is a pharmaceutically active compound (PhAC) pollutant. In recent years, there has been a revival in the coffee industry in Puerto Rico. This opens the need to a) develop tools that can quickly quantify caffeine concentration near such sites, b) produce biopolymeric membranes that can remove this contaminant, and c) test the impact of caffeine, caffeine quantifiers and caffeine removers via membranes on aquatic species. we will use the model freshwater organism known as zebrafish (Danio rerio), which has been shown to be sensitive to caffeine. Zebrafish embryos will be collected and exposed to varying concentrations of caffeine. Parameters to be studied will include embryo hatching/survival, morphological changes during development, and behavioural changes. The biopolymeric membranes produced in this work (caffeine detector, caffeine remover) will also be placed in embryo water to ensure they present no toxicity to the animals.