Economic viability of phytoremediation of a cadmium contaminated agricultural area using energy maize: part I: effect on the farmer's income

This paper deals with the economic viability of using energy maize as a phytoremediation crop in a vast agricultural area moderately contaminated with metals. The acceptance of phytoremediation as a remediation technology is, besides the extraction rate, determined by its profitability, being the effects it has on the income of the farmer whose land is contaminated. This income can be supported by producing renewable energy through anaerobic digestion of energy maize, a crop that takes up only relatively low amounts of metals, but that can be valorised as a feedstock for energy production. The effect on the income per hectare of growing energy maize instead of fodder maize seems positive, given the most likely values of variables and while keeping the basic income stable, originating from dairy cattle farming activities. We propose growing energy maize aiming at risk-reduction, and generating an alternative income for farmers, yet in the long run also generating a gradual reduction of the pollution levels. In this way, remediation is demoted to a secondary objective with sustainable risk-based land use as primary objective

Application of Phytoremediation in Restoring Sustainable Development to the Environment: Economic and Soil Conditions

The quality of soils as found in the Voivodeship of Łódź was analyzed from the point of view of potential application of the phytoremediation method, taking into account subdivision by heavy metals found in the soils as well as their origins and properties. Grades of soil purity are presented and border values of heavy metal content were identified.Celem niniejszego artykułu jest przedstawienie priorytetowych zagadnień i powiązań, dotyczących ekonomicznych i glebowych uwarunkowań zastosowania technologii fitoremediacji w przywracaniu zrównoważonego rozwoju środowiska. Analizie poddano zasadność stosowania fitoremediacji w przywracaniu zrównoważonego środowiska jako metody alternatywnej do kosztownej rekultywacji terenów w celu usuwania zanieczyszczeń, które jest niewykonalne do przeprowadzenia na dużych areałach. Wykazano opłacalność stosowania fitoremediacji w odzyskiwaniu pierwiastków śladowych z gleby w procesie phytominingu. Przeanalizowano jakość gleb występujących w województwie łódzkim w aspekcie potencjalnego zastosowania metody fitoremediacji z uwzględnieniem podziału metali ciężkich zawartych w glebach uwzględniający ich pochodzenie oraz właściwości. Przedstawiono klasy czystości gleb i wyznaczone w nich graniczne zawartości metali ciężkich

Integrating phytoremediation with biomass valorisation and critical element recovery: A UK contaminated land perspective

In the UK, the widespread presence of elemental contaminants such as arsenic and nickel in contaminated sites and more widely release of platinum group metals into the biosphere are growing concerns. Phytoremediation has the potential to treat land contaminated with these elements at low cost. An integrated approach combining land remediation with post-process biomass to energy conversion and high value element recovery is proposed to enhance the financial viability of phytoremediation. An analytical review of plant species suitable for the phytoremediation of nickel, Arsenic and platinum group metals is reported. Additionally, a preliminary model is developed to assess the viability of the proposed approach. A feasibility appraisal using Monte Carlo simulation to analyse project risk suggests high biomass yield plant species can significantly increase the confidence of achieving financial return from the project. The order of financial return from recovering elements was found to be: Ni > Pt > As

Poplar from phytoremediation as a renewable energy source:gasification properties and pollution analysis

Biomass gasification is a very efficient process to produce clean energy in the form of a fuel gas (syngas). Hazelnut shells and poplar have good energy production potential and they are abundant in nature. Hazelnut shells have the characteristics of a very good fuel and poplar is among the fastest growing trees; furthermore, poplar demonstrated the capability to absorb organic contaminants (i.e. heavy metals) from the soil in which they are cultivated. However, poplar is not usually used for biomass gasification and its potential is not fully assessed. Here, 3 types of biomass, hazelnut shells (HS), simple poplar (P) and poplar coming from a phytoremediation procedure (PHYP), were chosen as representative samples to be characterized and tested in a steam gasification process carried out on a bench scale fluidized bed gasifier. A comparison is reported on gasification results, such as gas composition, tar production and gas yield for the biomass feedstocks mentioned above. It was concluded that hazelnut shells and poplar (P and PHYP) could be easily gasified in a fluidized bed gasifier, thus producing a good quality gas with low polluting by-products. The PHYP sample showed lower tar content and higher gas yield. It is guessed that Ca and Mg, found in higher quantities in the PHYP sample, could have had a catalytic effect in tar reforming thus producing lower quantity of heavy hydrocarbons

Metal Accumulation by Jatropha curcas L. Adult Plants Grown on Heavy Metal-Contaminated Soil

Jatropha curcas has the ability to phytoextract high amounts of heavy metals during its first months just after seeding. Notwithstanding, there is scarce information about metal uptake by adult J. curcas plants. To shed light on this issue, 4-year-old J. curcas L. plants were planted in a soil mixture of peat moss and mining soil (high metals content), and the biomass growth and metal absorption during 90 days were compared with those of plants growing in peat moss. The main metal found in the mining soil was Fe (31985 mg kg-1) along with high amounts of As (23717 mg kg-1). After the 90-day phytoremediation, the plant removed 29% of Fe and 44% of As from the soil mixture. Results revealed that J. curcas L. translocated high amounts of metals to its aerial parts, so that translocation factors were much higher than 1. Because of the high translocation and bioaccumulation factors obtained, J. curcas L. can be regarded as a hyperaccumulator plant. Despite the great capacity of J. curcas L. to phytoremediate heavy-metal-contaminated soils, the main drawback is the subsequent handling of the metal-contaminated biomass, although some potential applications have been recently highlighted for this biomass.University of Seville (VIPPIT-2019-I.5

Deposition of ZnO-Al (AZO) thin films for optical properties

Zinc Oxide (ZnO) is an inorganic compound and it is doped with aluminum to increase its capabilities. Aluminum Zinc Oxide (AZO) thin films are semiconductor materials that have band gap energy of 3.3eV. Various method of deposition have been study to growth AZO thin films. It has been extensively use in solar cell application, display application, gas sensing purposes, and thin film transistors (TFTs). In this work, sol gel method and spin coating was used to deposited AZO thin films. The ZnO sol-gel were synthesized using zinc acetate dihydrate as precursor, isopropanol as solvent, diethanolamine as sol stabilizer, and distilled water as oxidation agent. Then, synthesized ZnO were doped with different mole ratio of aluminum nitrate nanohydrate to produced AZO. The glass substrate was used as substrate and AZO thin films were then calcinated at 300°C and 500°C. The characterization of AZO thin film were done using X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM), and Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The XRD results show that the ZnO with hexagonal wurtzite-type structure and temperature does have effect on the film intensity which related to crystallinity of thin films. Through AFM analysis, the value of RMS decreases from 3.018 nm to 2.240 nm as the temperature increases. Meanwhile, from UV-Vis result, it can be seen that AZO thin film have a high transmittance percentage above 90% after wavelength 400 nm with band gap value of 3.3 eV. FESEM image show that the grain boundary of AZO decrease with both parameter (mole ratio and calcinations temperature). Both parameters do have effect on AZO thin film. EDX analysis shows that there are existence of zinc, oxide, and aluminum

PLANTS FOR PHYTOREMEDIATION AND BIOFUEL PRODUCTION

Today decontamination of heavy metal polluted soils is a very important problem in Ukraine. Soils are always contaminated by pollutants, pesticide remains and heavy metals. Soil contamination is a result of functioning mining, metallurgy and chemical industry plants as well as non-rational application of chemical means of plant protection in agriculture. The range of such preparations as well as the areas of contaminated soils increase every year. That is why it is necessary to study innovative techniques of soil decontamination from heavy metals and their compounds. Phytoremediation with the help of plants is one of the most efficient decontamination techniques

Ecomining as a pattern of integrated approach towards sustainable mining

This paper briefly describes the Educational Project “EcoMining: Development of Integrated PhD Program for Sustainable Mining & Environmental Activities” (2019–2022), which is being implemented between Dnipro University of Technology (DUT, Ukraine) and Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg (TU BAF, Germany) under support of German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)