Consulting & implementation of field trials for optimized remediation of contaminated soils
.Using plants and microorganisms to restore polluted soils (in-situ) offers many advantages:
- increased biodiversity through greening on unfertile soils
- land restoration
- re-valorising potential
- cheaper and more sustainable solutions for remediation
Plants have different strategies of coping with heavy metal contamination. Some species have adapted the ability to tolerate high pollution and accumulate those elements in their leaves and stems, where they can be harvested and removed from the ecological areas. The plant biomass can then be burned and in the future the ash will become a valuable resource to regain the metals, as is already tested on a big scale for Ni, where up to more than 150 kg Ni per ha could be harvested with Alyssum sp.
Degradation of organic pollutants by microorganisms in soils is faster on planted areas. Therefore, the planting of tolerant species increases decontamination of soils.
We offer (from small to large scale):
- plant selection for uptake of specific metals, organic pollutants and climatic conditions
- implementation of trials for optimized plant consortia, agriculture and harvest
- development of additional strategies for increasing metal uptake and degradation of organic pollutants
- consulting on hydroponic systems for treatment of contaminated water
alchemia has 20 years of experience in the area of nature-based solutions for a variety of different purposes. The possibility to remediate soils and regain metals are two key areas within phytotechnology. We have experience with technologies of phytomining of metals from different sources (waste incineration ash, soils, industrial waste and mine tailings) on lab and pilot scale and agromining on demonstration scale.