PLEASE, HELP!

 

Suggest ways to detect and remove methylmercury from fish but don't forget that the fish must remain safe for eating. 

Very necessary!

I can't think of any way to remove it without it ending up as tasteless mush. Detecting and quantifying it is more straight forward though; you should be able to find something to suit your needs by simply Googling it. 

31 minutes ago, revinsideAAA said:

Suggest ways to detect and remove methylmercury from fish but don't forget that the fish must remain safe for eating. 

Instead of detecting and removing toxic compounds from wild seawater fishes, easier would be to not let fishes consume Mercury compounds.

That can be done by using fish farms, in which you can control environment (water quality) and what fishes are eating.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_farming

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_hatchery

 

5 minutes ago, Sensei said:

Instead of detecting and removing toxic compounds from wild seawater fishes, easier would be to not let fishes consume Mercury compounds.

That can be done by using fish farms, in which you can control environment (water quality) and what fishes are eating.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_farming

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_hatchery

 

Unfortunately, I just need to remove the mercury from the fish

5 minutes ago, revinsideAAA said:

Unfortunately, I just need to remove the mercury from the fish

I can't see how you can do that without physically damaging the fish because the mercury is locked up in each cell.

Edited November 16, 20187 yr by StringJunky

Just now, revinsideAAA said:

Unfortunately, I just need to remove the mercury from the fish

Buy and eat fishes from land fish farms only. e.g. east-central Europe carps from Czech, Slovakia and Poland.

 

22 minutes ago, StringJunky said:

I can't see how you can do that without physically damaging the fish because the mercury is locked up in each cell.

I am participating in a school chemistry tournament. There is such a task

I use google translate that's why may be mistakes.

In that case, the onus is on you to come up with the ideas, not us. 

1 hour ago, revinsideAAA said:

I am participating in a school chemistry tournament. There is such a task

Given the toxicity of mercury compounds, I am surprised at this.

Try googling "extraction of methylmercury"; that should get you several results related to plant and animal tissues.

1 hour ago, Strange said:

Given the toxicity of mercury compounds, I am surprised at this.

Try googling "extraction of methylmercury"; that should get you several results related to plant and animal tissues.

I found it on the Internet

Approximately three-quarters of the total mercury content originally present in tuna fish could be removed by two-hour extraction of one part of shredded precooked fish with 7.5 parts of dilute hydrochloric acid containing 0.33% cysteine hydrochloride. Nearly two-thirds of the mercury could be removed from 1.5 cm thick slices of precooked fish by 24-hour extraction under the same conditions, at about 2 °C.

 

However, this is probably wrong

4 minutes ago, revinsideAAA said:

However, this is probably wrong

Why?

23 hours ago, revinsideAAA said:

Approximately three-quarters of the total mercury content originally present in tuna fish could be removed by two-hour extraction of one part of shredded precooked fish with 7.5 parts of dilute hydrochloric acid containing 0.33% cysteine hydrochloride. Nearly two-thirds of the mercury could be removed from 1.5 cm thick slices of precooked fish by 24-hour extraction under the same conditions, at about 2 °C.

After this treatment the fish is also not eatable anymore. HCl will destroy the aminoacids as well.

 

I don't see why the HCl will destroy the amino acids, but I am doubtful about how appetizing the fish would be after this treatment.

Maybe in this way

-RCO-NHR- + H⁺   + H₂O = -RCOOH + ⁺NH3-R 

That is hydrolysis of a protein into amino acids, and it is a pretty sluggish reaction.  Typically it is performed at 110 °C in constant boiling HCl for 24 hours on a protein to effect complete hydrolysis.  I would assume that "dilute" hydrochloric means 1 M, but I am not sure.

Nevertheless, In my opinion any chemical treatment will change the meat of the fish.

On 16/11/2018 at 4:15 PM, revinsideAAA said:

I am participating in a school chemistry tournament. There is such a task

I use google translate that's why may be mistakes.

 

Perhaps this school project is meant to push home the fact that there is no known way of removing the mercury and rendering the fish safe to eat.

Is your school somewhere in the Pacific, perhaps near where there is a particular mercury problem?

Edited November 17, 20187 yr by studiot