Soil Remediation
Industrial hemp’s use as a phytoremediation technology is one of its many applications. Hemp has taproot system that is about 40 to 100 cm in length, this makes hemp appealing for phytoremediation.
Soil Health
The planet’s soil releases about 60 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere each year, which is far more than that released by burning fossil fuels. This happens through a process called soil respiration. This enormous release of carbon is balanced by carbon coming into the soil system from falling leaves and other plant matter, as well as by the underground activities of plant roots.
Short-term warming studies have documented that rising temperatures increase the rate of soil respiration. As a result, scientists have worried that global warming would accelerate the decomposition of carbon in the soil, and decrease the amount of carbon stored there. If true, this would release even more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, where it would accelerate global warming.
According to the United Nations, hemp phytoremediation has a plethora of benefits. For starters, it’s a solar-powered method of cleaning contaminated sites. However, workers can also pair it with mechanical cleaning methods. The U.N. specifically mentions that hemp is “useful for treating a wide variety of contaminants”.
In fact, these plants clean up contaminants within a few ways. When hemp absorbs the contaminants in the soil through its roots, it degrades the organic pollutants and traps heavy metals to filter them out of the environment. All plants have the ability to change the structure of the soil and rhizosphere around them through their chemically complex root systems. But, hemp is one of the plants that is particularly good at filtering out harmful chemicals for shallow contaminations. That’s why cleanup technicians have used it in disasters as extreme as Chernobyl.
Why use hemp for Phytoremediation
Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) is a multi‐use crop that has been investigated for its potential use in phytoremediation of heavy metals, radionuclides, and organic contaminants, and as a feedstock for bioenergy production. They represent top talent across disciplines, in an emerging market developing our new future.
The major feasibility constraint of phytoremediation is the utilization of the contaminated biomass after harvest. Hyperaccumulators, plants that exceed an accumulation threshold of 1000 µg g−1 dry weight, are typically annual plants with minimal aboveground biomass growth and shallow root penetration depth. Growing hemp for phytoremediation has the potential to alleviate many of the current challenges with hyperaccumulators: hemp has substantial aboveground biomass production, a deep root system, and options for value‐added industrial products that do not introduce toxins into the consumer marketplace.
One well‐known case of using hemp as a phytoremediator is at the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone following the 1986 nuclear power plant meltdown, although the results have never been published in the peer‐reviewed literature. A multitude of research has shown that hemp is capable of phytoextraction of heavy metals and radionuclides, with the contaminants being distributed throughout the entire hemp plant in different concentrations.
Land Advisory | Defining the key soil issues |
|---|---|
Cost Analytics | Discussing preliminary estimate |
Risk Management | Eliminating possible risks |
Planning & Scheduling | Discussing future plan of work |
Data Analysis | Required to quantify our findings |
POPULAR QUESTIONS
Arsenic, Cadmium, Selenium and many other types of toxic substances. Using hemp for coupled phytoremediation and bioenergy production has been investigated to a small extent in the early 21st century, generally focused on biomass grown in soils contaminated with heavy metals
Hyperaccumulators are unusual plants that accumulate particular metals or metalloids in their living tissues to levels that may be hundreds or thousands of times greater than is normal for most plants . Hyperaccumulator plants are of substantial fundamental interest and practical importance. Hyperaccumulators are exceptional models for fundamental science to understand metal regulation including the physiology of metal uptake, transport and sequestration, as well as evolution and adaptation in extreme environments.
We have created a controlled destruction sequence that creates biofuel, electricity and biochar.
A possible solution for mitigating the risk of contaminants dispersal, even at small volumes, is the implementation of a mostly closed system: contaminated material is disposed of on‐site, while bioenergy is produced for on‐site operations. Ideally, phytoremediation can result in other biomass‐derived product(s) with a net profit.