The Cultivation of Energy Plants on Otherwise Wasted Soils - ENERREM
Institution
CRP Gabriel Lippmann
Partenaire(s) :
University of Louvain (B)
Du : 01/01/2009
Au : 31/12/2011
Budget : 402 000,00€
Contact(s) :
Hausman Jean-François
Summary
Despite the worldwide need for alternatives for the current petroleum-based energy production, the moral concern associated with growing plants destined for energy production on soils suitable for agriculture is evident. By following the motto “use waste, don’t waste use”, the utilization of resources to generate energy without stressing food production is an active field of research. Although many factors can limit the desirability to use soils for food production, one of the main reasons is pollution, and more specifically pollution by metals. The persistence and the detrimental effects metals on all forms of life added to the bioaccumulation of metals in vital organs have made that high concentrations of heavy metals are generally seen as the main problem in soil pollution.
A problem aggravated by the financial cost and the environmental burden associated with the cleanup of this type of pollution. In this project, the impact of heavy metal pollution on plants currently used as source of energy, sunflower and oilseed rape for oil and willow for wood, will be studied. These species were selected because they combine the potential for high biomass/energy production with the potential to extract heavy metals from soils and accumulate these in harvestable parts. Thereby combining energy production on polluted soils with the gradual increase of the soil quality (in-situ remediation).
Although the principles of phytoremediation are well known, information on energy output in real-life field conditions is scarce and the molecular mechanisms by which some plants are able to accumulate metals are not fully understood. In the first year of the project, several experimental parameters have been defined: these include the preparation and establishment of different experimental setups both in semi-controlled conditions and on field in realistic settings.
Besides the characterization of different moderately contaminated sites and a study of the growth and metal accumulation in the different plants this allowed us to delineate the Achilles heel for any practical application of the herbaceous species used in this study. When small, 5-10 cm high plants of sunflower or oilseed rape were planted on polluted soil they continued growing with a yield in biomass comparable to when grown in control soils; however, seeds germinated on polluted soils did not outgrow the stage of seedling but rather necrosed when being between 1-5 cm high. A proteome and metabolome targeted study has been undertaken to complete this integrated project.