Sunflowers to save us: repairing contaminated land and powering our homes
06/04/2016

We know our land is valuable, but we haven’t always valued it in the past. Currently, there are more than 400 million hectares of contaminated or abandoned land (that’s roughly 400 million rugby pitches). Obviously that amount of contaminated land can be hazardous to public health as well as our ecosystems. And so we’re starting to think differently about these spaces: could this land help meet our energy needs?
Land can become contaminated with naturally occurring contaminants like arsenic, and aggravated by mining and metal extraction. Notably, our industrial history has left pollution on land. However, if we could grow crops such as willow or sunflowers on contaminated land, could we ‘remediate’ these damaged spaces? Specific plants take up environmental contaminants from the soil through a process called ‘phytoremediation’. This could mean safer soil for agriculture or development in future, with the additional bonus of producing crops that can be used as an energy source for homes and businesses.
In the UK, just 18% of land contaminated (most commonly by toxic forms of metals) has been recovered. If the contaminated land stock was used to produce energy crops, it could directly contribute to replacing millions of tonnes of oil equivalent fuels. It would also reduce the need to grow energy crops on agricultural land – freeing up more space for growing food to meet the needs of our population.
Phytoremediation is not a new discovery. When it was first recognised 45 years ago enthusiasm for its results led to it becoming seen as a solution which failed to deliver. However, recent advances make it more feasible to improve the economics of clean-up, so now may be the time for landowners to seriously consider turning these soils back into use.
Research has been exploring how we can better exploit the plant’s uptake of elements, as well as processes the biomass to produce energy. New findings also have potential to reduce the emission of contaminants during energy production, as well as recover metal elements, e.g. nickel, arsenic and even platinum group metals where these are extracted around the world. With 60% of the UK’s land contaminated by metal, extracting these and putting them back into our economy makes economic sense. These metals would be processed from the land into the plants, then extracted from the plants using biochemical or thermal processes.
The big question for those interested in phytoremediation is whether we can change the economics of cleaning our land and make it worthwhile financially as well as environmentally. This month, for the first time, a major event is going to look at the science behind this approach. The first international Symposium on Phytoremediation for Energy & Element Developments (SPEED 2016), organised by Cranfield University, brings together researchers and policy-makers to discuss the current state-of-the-art and future vision for the technologies involved.
The event will review the most recent scientific opportunities and consider the contribution and development challenges to achieving low cost, low energy soil treatments that recover valuable resources for future use.
Categories & Tags:
Leave a comment on this post:
You might also like…
Library resource trial: Debrette’s Etiquette
We have organised trial access to Debrette’s Etiquette until 31 July. Debrett’s Etiquette is an unrivalled guide to protocol and modern manners, offering advice about: addressing royalty, people with titles and members of the professions ...
Unlocking the secrets of ancient technology with science: the new Cranfield Archaeomaterials MSc
We are a society that is very much intertwined with our ‘things’ – they mediate all our relationships. But why do people adopt certain technologies, and reject others? What motivates societies to choose new ...
A flying visit from Diamondo Earthrounding promoting sustainable aviation
As the world works to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through various initiatives such as the introduction of grants and commissions for research advancement toward the further use of sustainable aviation fuel, Diamondo Earthrounding ...
1,000th Cranfield Defence and Security staff publication added to CERES!
We are very excited and proud to announce that the 1,000th Cranfield Defence and Security (CDS) staff publication has been uploaded to CERES, our institutional repository. Dicken L, Knock C, Carr D, Beckett S. (2022) ...
CORD is turning six!
We officially launched Cranfield Online Research Data (CORD) on 24 May 2016, so it’s CORD’s 6th birthday today! CORD has passed several significant milestones over the last six years, with 350 depositors adding 1,360 total deposits. ...
A view from inside the Energy Entrepreneurship module
I'm Wayne Coulter, Marketing Manager in the School of Water, Energy and Environment here at Cranfield University. As part of my job I work with our students to produce content that tells the story ...