On 19 April 2016, CL:AIRE supported the first International Symposium on Phytoremediation for Energy and Element Developments (SPEED) held at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in London. Global estimates indicate that there are over 400 million hectares of abandoned land unsuitable for agriculture due to contamination by toxic levels of metals.
Leading researchers explored the research challenges of using phyto treatment technologies to bring contaminated land back into use. The presentations and discussion looked at the economic and policy drivers for using this technology to not only clean land, but also to increase the value of the processes including metal and energy recovery from the biomass.
Presentations at the symposium addressed the use of innovative technologies, priority contaminants, policy implications and discussions on the future vision for this priority sector.
Presentations included themes and speakers from:
- Ying Jiang : The UK contaminated land context
- Mei Lei (Chinese Academy of Sciences): Land remediation in China (delivered by Ying Jiang)
- Paul Bardos/Andy Cundy: Land remediation methods
- Eleni G. Papazoglou (Agricultural University of Athens): Use of energy crops for phytoremediation purposes
- Richard Lord (University of Strathclyde): UK energy crop trials
- Ana Luísa Fernando (Universidade Nova de Lisboa) Production of energy crops in contaminated land - Opportunities and Risks
- Neil Bruce (York University) - Recovering metals for catalysis
- Fred Coulon (Cranfield University) Enhancing Sino-UK policy convergence
- Phil Longhurst (Cranfield University) Policy & practice - questions for next steps
The EPSRC funded CORE network (Creative Outreach for Resource Efficiency) sponsored the Cranfield University led event with input from the research council’s CL4W (Contaminated Land for Wealth project). Details can be found at the CORE website link: http://www.core-community.net/speed-event-how-plants-can-bring-land-back-to-life/
A workshop following the event was then used by the speakers to discuss research initiatives and prioritise development opportunities. A priority outcome was to identify demonstration sites within the UK and EU for biomass trials where added value crops can be integrated as part of the phytoextraction process.
For further details and interest in this area please contact the event leader: Phil Longhurst, +44 (0)1234 754953 p.j.longhurst@cranfield.ac.uk