Phytomining For Nickel

jvl001 writes "The Globe and Mail has an interesting article about Inco's attempts to extract nickel from a plant (alyssum) grown on nickel rich soil. Selective breeding and bacterial adjuncts are capable of producing a plant that once incinerated may produce ash with up to 30% nickel. Waste heat from the incineration process may be used for power generation. A neat way of making use of use of land otherwise unusable for agriculture. In this case unusable because of past Inco activity."

Comments

Re:Can this reclaim land?

[Webmonger]

Yes. Here's a paper (in PDF) that discusses phytoextraction as a means of reducing heavy metal contamination:

Of course, the practicality depends on the level of concentration and the efficiency of the plants. . .