How can you clean soil with gasoline?
Plant-based biofuels are an important asset in our transition to a decarbonised economy. However, growing them on agricultural land reduces the supply of food, driving up prices. According to the EU-funded CERESiS project, this competition can be avoided by using energy crops to decontaminate land not suitable for agriculture. The project has now been featured in the CORDIS series of explanatory videos titled ‘Make the connection with EU science’. CERESiS focused on perennial grasses and woody species with high biomass productivity. These plants absorb contaminants from the soil, which can be separated when they are processed for biofuel and sent for safe disposal, offering a twofold benefit to growers. “The high yield of these energy crops combined with their effective removal of soil contaminants incentivises farmers to plant them,” notes CERESiS coordinator Athanasios Rentizelas from the National Technical University of Athens. Over repeated harvests, the soil becomes decontaminated, increasing the total land available for food production. ‘Make the connection with EU science’ is a series of explanatory videos focusing on the scientific content and exploitation aspects of EU research projects.
Keywords
CERESiS, energy, biomass, soil, contaminants, biofuels, energy crops, SCWG, biofuel feedstocks, phytoremediation, ILUC, heavy metals