Mohamed Hijri's team evaluates the progress of work on a contaminated site in the Greater Montreal region, where they have planted cuttings that carry petrol?eating mushrooms. (photo credit:Université de Montréal )
At a disused oil refinery site in Montreal, Canada, willow trees are growing in highly contaminated soil and deep in the roots the fungi are at work cleaning up the mess humans have left behind. The actions of the fungi are being studied by at team from the University in order to find which species are the most effective.
Biological clean up technique.
This biological clean up – phytoremediation - is becoming more important is cleaning up contaminated sites but there is still much to learn to understand what are the best combinations of micro-organisms and plants.
The project in Montreal is headed by Mohamed Hijri, a professor of biological sciences and researcher at the University of Montreal’s Institut de recherche en biologie végétale (IRBV) and B. Franz Lang a professor at the university’s Department of Biochemistry.
Oil eating mushrooms clean up soil.
Their task is to find and cultivate the best micro-organism that can help microscopic mushrooms eat up the oil contaminated soils. They believe it is possible to produce decontamination units that will be able to ‘naturally’ tackle and clean up the most contaminated sites on the planet.
The system that they are using on the research site is simple. The team was able to isolate microscopic mushrooms and bacteria that specialised in ‘eating’ oil and petroleum contamination. These contamination digesting organisms are teamed up with higher plants and used to clean up waste sites.
Willow trees take up degraded ground contaminants.
The test site that Hijri and Lang are working on involves planting willow cuttings in the Spring months. Willow is a fast growing tree and it’s roots quickly dig down and take the micro-organisms with them. As the tree grows the degrading contamination is taken up in the tree body. At the end of the growing season the trees are harvested and burnt. The remain ashes contain all the dangerous heavy metals.
Hajri and Lang estimates that even the most contaminated of sites could be cleaned in just a few cycles. ”In addition, it’s beautiful,” says Hijri pointing to a picture of dense vegetation covering the ground of an old refinery after just three weeks. ”If we leave nature to itself, even the most contaminated sites will find some sort of balance thanks to the colonization by bacteria and mushrooms. But by isolating the most efficient species in this biological battle, we can gain a lot of time.”
“In contaminated soils, it isn’t the plant doing most of the work,” says Lang. “It’s the microorganisms i.e. the mushrooms and bacteria accompanying the root. There are thousands of species of microorganisms and our job is to find the best plant-mushroom-bacteria combinations.”
Best species and combinations being researched for natural soil decontamination.
Botanist Michel Labrecque is overseeing the plant portion of the project. The willow appears to be one of the most effective tree species of this type of work because of it’s speed of growth and quick development of leaves. In addition, its stem grows even stronger once it has been cut so there is no need to plant new trees every year. Work and research is still needed though to find out which is the best species of willow to undertake the role of decontamination.
The project headed by Hajri and Lang is called Improving Bioremediation of Polluted Soils Through Environmental Genomics. It’s not a small and obscure research project either. Phytoremediation could offer an effective and cost-efficient way of cleaning up the worse excesses of modern industry. It could become and affordable way of cleaning up the legacy of by-gone industries that operated before modern industrial regulations came into force.
30 billion dollar market in Canada alone.
The project has a budget of CAN$7.6 million over three years and a staff of 16 researchers. It’s not just ecology and biochemistry scientists involved. Political scientists and lawyers specialising in ethical and environmental issues amongst others are involved. The rewards are vast if the team can start to take it from field trials into the real world. Soil decontamination in Canada alone is though to be worth CAN$30 billion.
For Lang, this project is the culminating point of his career. “I was always closely tied to fundamental research. However, what we’re doing here is the fruit of the past 25 years of work. This concrete application of science could never have been possible had I not done fundamental research, and I plan on letting know our politicians in charge of financing.”
Already, several companies are knocking on his door and partnership agreements are in the works. If the project leads to commercial results, Lang wants the majority of proceeds to go to research at the University of Montreal and McGill University in disciplines connected to this project. “It will be a way of ensuring that the next generation continues this work,” says Lang.
External sites:
Prof. Lang.
Université de Montréal Institut de recherche en biologie végétale.
Incoming search terms:
- hijri soil remediation
- mushrooms cleaning up forest on island
- nature dangerous of pollution
- WILLOW TREES TO CLEAN UP POLLUTION
