Assessing Environmental Sustainability of Phytoremediation to Remove Copper from Contaminated Soils

Juan J. Espada (), Rosalía Rodríguez, Andrea Delgado, Gemma Vicente and Luis Fernando Bautista
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Juan J. Espada: Department of Chemical, Energy and Mechanical Technology, ESCET, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28933 Móstoles, Madrid, Spain
Rosalía Rodríguez: Department of Chemical, Energy and Mechanical Technology, ESCET, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28933 Móstoles, Madrid, Spain
Andrea Delgado: Department of Chemical, Energy and Mechanical Technology, ESCET, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28933 Móstoles, Madrid, Spain
Gemma Vicente: Department of Chemical, Energy and Mechanical Technology, ESCET, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28933 Móstoles, Madrid, Spain
Luis Fernando Bautista: Instituto de Investigación de Tecnologías para la Sostenibilidad, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28933 Móstoles, Madrid, Spain

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 6, 1-17

Abstract: Phytoremediation stands out as a promising technology for removing heavy metals from contaminated soils. This work focuses on studying the environmental performance of phytoremediation in removing copper from contaminated soil located in an old Spanish mine using the life cycle assessment (LCA) method. For this purpose, Brassica juncea (brown mustard), Medicago sativa (alfalfa) and their rotary cultivation were assessed along with different options for managing biomass (landfill disposal and biomass cogeneration). In addition, soil excavation and soil washing treatments were also compared to phytoremediation. M. sativa proved superior to B. juncea and their rotary cultivation, regardless of the biomass disposal option, achieving impact reductions of 30–100%. This is due to the ability of M. sativa to fix nitrogen, which reduces fertiliser requirements. Among the biomass management alternatives, cogeneration was superior to landfill disposal in all cases by allowing for energy recovery, thereby reducing environmental impacts by 60–100%. M. sativa + cogeneration is the option that presents the best environmental performance of all the studied treatments, achieving reductions up to negligible values in four of eight impact categories due to the impacts avoided by energy production. On the contrary, soil excavation is the less desirable option, followed by soil washing treatment.

Keywords: phytoremediation; phytoextraction; life cycle assessment; soil remediation; copper removal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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