Hitting Reality: Polish Energy Policy Meets the Facts

PHYTOREMEDIATION: NEW TECHNOLOGY IN POLAND

    Remediation of contaminated land by the use of plants that take up the pollutants is a very promising new approach. Phytoremediation relies on plants that can tolerate growing in contaminated soil and also have the ability to take the pollutants out of the soil. They are harvested and re-planted as necessary until the level of contamination comes within the targeted concentrations.

 
   “Phytoremediation is based on the use of natural or genetically modified  plants capable of extracting hazardous substances i.e. heavy metals including radionuclides, pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons from the environment and turning them into safe compounds.” Mahar (2016). “Phytoremediation is emerging as an efficient treatment technology that uses plants to bioremediate pollutants from soil environments…phytoremediation of organics appears a very promising technology for the removal of contaminants from polluted soil.” Sing and Jain (2003) [full citation in references]. “[P]hytoextraction, the use of plants to extract toxic metals from contaminated soils, has emerged as a cost-effective, environment-friendly cleanup alternative.” Lasat (US EPA 1999). The US Department of Energy funded early phytoremediation projects in Poland beginning in 1999. Since that time, the scientific understanding of the process has grown by an order of magnitude. See studies noted below.

Scientific Studies.

    A variety of plants have been thoroughly tested for phytoremediation. Hemp is one of the principal plants species studied. Ahmad et al. found in their study published in 2015: “The results revealed heavy metals accumulation; Cu (1530 mg kg ), Cd (151 mg kg ), and Ni (123 mg kg ) in hemp plants’ leaves collected from the contaminated site.” Earlier Linger et al. (2005) observed: “The roots always accumulated the highest Cd concentrations… which reached a maximum of 830 mg(Cd) kg-1(d.m.) in .. plants after 24 days.” The hemp uptake rate varies with soil chemistry and other conditions, so that each locations has to be specifically analyzed to determine what additives may be necessary and what results are achievable. Various other plants have been tested and used in practice. Uptake rates have been enhanced as scientists understand more of the mechanism involved. This should continue to improve.

Case Studies

    Some notably publicized cases have occurred involving phytoremediation. The most famous being the use of plants to remove radioactive cesium in Chernobyl. "Hemp has proved to be one of the best phytoremediation plants we have found," said Slavik Dushenkov, a research scientist at Phytotech Laboratories. Because of the extent of contamination, this was the most cost-effective method of dealing with it, although the process is going to continue for many years. A similar approach is being taken at the Fukushima nuclear site. Another publicized example comes from farmers in Taranto, Italy, where they are removing dioxin from steel plant emissions that contaminated farmland. This may be concluded by 2023 after several seasons of planting. Another project used hemp in the recovery of contaminated farmland in Colorado, pictured below:

 Laura Cascardi (2012)

Polish Regulations

     Poland now has a statute  of contaminated land with specific standards and a law requiring reporting  of contaminated land. The legal mechanism is strict liability and there is a surprising number of cases being processed under the public radar. “In 2018 GDOŚ alone received almost 1000 applications [involving contaminated land remediation]. Many queries affect from lawyers' offices, various organizations, but also private entities accordingly to Monika Jakubiak-Rososzuk, adviser to the General Director of GDOŚ…. From the beginning of the existence of a register of historical pollution of the earth's surface and damage to the environment, 608 decisions determining the remediation plan were issued . Krzysztof Halkiewicz, director of the GDOŚ legal office.” Teraz Środowisko (online) 2019. There is a clear demand for more cost-effective methods of remediating contaminated land in Poland. At least one major phytoremediation remedy has been approved in Poland.

    There are several approaches to soil contamination in remediation: (1) excavation and re-disposition; (2) fixation and (3) phytoremediation. Excavation is always the most expensive, but the public often forgets that excavation is only half of that equation, the dirty soil has to go somewhere. "Soil washing" in popular in Europe, but still poses problems for final disposition. Landfilling the excavated material is probably the most common approach, but the land owner remains liable for future problems at the landfill in this case. Phytoremediation removes the contaminants, keeps the soil in place, and allows destruction or stabilization of the compounds so removed. Where feasible, phytoremediation is the safest, more cost-effective and most environmentally-friendly approach.The relative cost of these approaches is set out in these figures (although the numeric values are slightly dated, the relative cost are still relevant):

     The cost of the remedial investigation, risk assessment and follow-up sampling will run the same across the remedial alternatives. They would be an added cost to the above figures (which should also be updated for inflation). Actual costs will vary from site to site based on the contaminants involved. However, I believe that phytoremediation will always be the less expensive option and least environmentally disruptive where the conditions are appropriate for its use. The times indicated do not include regulatory review and report preparation. I also believe that phytoremediation will require less red tape.

     We will be launching a company in Poland to conduct phytoremediation in the very near future. If you have contaminated industrial land or farmland, we will be providing the most experienced team in Poland to deal with these problems.   

References

Lasat, Phytoextraction of Metals from Contaminated Soil: A Review of Plant/Soil/Metal Interaction and Assessment. Journal of Hazardous Substance Research: Vol. 2. (2000 U.S. EPA].

Singh and Jain, Phytoremediation of toxic aromatic pollutants from soil, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology December 2003, Volume 63, Issue 2, pp 128–135.

Cunningham and Berti, Remediation of contaminated soils with green plants: An overview, In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology, October 1993, Volume 29, Issue 4, pp 207–212.

Ahmad et al. Phytoremediation Potential of Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.): Identification and Characterization of Heavy Metals Responsive Genes, Clean Air, Soil and Water Journal, Vol. 44, Issue 2 (2015).

Sharma et al. Phytoremediation: role of terrestrial plants and aquatic macrophytes in the remediation of radionuclides and heavy metal contaminated soil and water, Environmental Science and Pollution Research, January 2015, Volume 22, Issue 2, pp 946–962.

Maciej Bosiacki, Tomasz Kleiber and Bartosz Markiewicz, Continuous and Induced Phytoextraction  Plant-Based Methods to Remove Heavy Metals from Contaminated Soil,  InTechOpen. [some success with other types of plants].

Mahar, Challenges and Opportunities in the Phytoremediation of Heavy Metals Contaminated Soils: A Review, Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, Vol. 126 (2016).

Girdhar,  Comparative assessment for hyper-accumulatory and phytoremediation capability of three wild weeds, 3 Biotech. (Dec. 2014)  4(6): 579–589.

Linger et al. (2002). Industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) growing on heavy metal contaminated soil: fibre quality and phytoremediation potential. Industrial Crops and Products, Vol. 16 (2012), 33–42.

Linger et al. Cannabis sativa L. growing on heavy metal contaminated soil: growth, cadmium uptake and photosynthesis, BIOLOGIA PLANTARUM 49 (4): 567-576,(2005).