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Phytoremediation

Posted by michael on from the nausicaa-of-the-valley-of-the-wind dept.

Mr.Intel writes "Wired has an article up about an 18 year old biology whiz who has done some very interesting research on phytoremediation (plants used to clean contaminated soil). This type of soil remediation is very eco-friendly compared to traditional methods but requires about 10 to 20 years to be effective. Marc Burell (the kid who did the experiments) used wheat to remove lead from soil in Mississippi."

3 of 15 comments (clear)

  1. Fungi have this property, too by Deagol · · Score: 4, Informative
    Check out this link on mycoremediation.

    Overall, very cool stuff. Check out this site. It's great if you're into mushrooms (no, not those kind!).

    --
    Method of processing duck feet
    1. Re:Fungi have this property, too by bhima · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes, THOOSE kinds too!
      Read his page, buy his books!, Grow Shrooms!

      --
      Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
  2. Well, its not just soaking up contaminents. by Veramocor · · Score: 2, Informative

    One of the things that phytoremediation does is soak up metals and organic compound.

    It also can have the effect of converting either the metal or organic chemical to a different form.

    Say converting lead from its soluble Pb2+. To its reduced mettalic form Pb which isn't as toxic.

    Or in organic chemical say PCBs, ploychlorinated biphenols, the plant may break off a few clorines off the phenol chain, again making it less toxic (or at least easier to break down).

    So with the correct choice of organisms this should be a safe way of cleaning up things.

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    Veramocor