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CERESIS HORIZON 2020 Project

A SUSTAINABLE SOLUTION TO THE CHALLENGE OF EXPLOITING CONTAMINATED LAND AREAS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF SUSTAINABLE BIOFUELS

“CERESiS: ContaminatEd land Remediation through Energy crops for Soil improvement to liquid biofuel Strategies” Horizon 2020 Project Final Conference was held in the CERTH – Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, situated in Thessaloniki, Greece.
The CERESiS research team from the University of Tuscia in Greece was represented by Prof. Andrea Colantoni, Dr. Leonardo Bianchini and Dr. Riccardo Alemanno from the Department of Agriculture and Forest Sciences (DAFNE).
The concept proposed in CERESiS was to combine contaminated land characteristics and phytoremediation techniques using energy crops with advanced integrated technologies for conversion to liquid biofuel and contaminant separation, thus developing integrated pathways for biofuel production from contaminated land.
The University of Tuscia scholars studied the soil remediation and the production of different types of biomasses through the growing of Reed Canary Grass (Phalaris Arundinacea).
Prof. Andrea Colantoni, CERESiS Project coordinator at the University of Tuscia and Associate Professor of the Department of Agriculture and Forest Sciences explained that in the frame of optimization of cultivation and harvesting methods of energy crops have been completed by DAFNE research team such tasks of study as:
– Optimized cultivation strategies for contaminated land;
– Direct-drilling of Phalaris Arundinacea into grassland (to reduce LUC emissions);
– Development of harvesting methods for roots, stems, leaves;
– Identification of small-scale, low ground pressure machinery.
DAFNE Research Fellow Dr. Riccardo Alemanno shared on his presentation the progress final project results on phytoremediation trials. The study conducted on the basis of the Department of Agriculture and Forest Sciences at the Nello Lupori’ Teaching and Experimental Farm of the University of Tuscia in Viterbo and some selected agricultural
lands in the province of Viterbo.
The international conference also gave the opportunity to share the experience and discuss the results with the scholars from similar fields international research projects as GOLD, Phy2Climate, Waste4Soil, and XTRACT.
Study visits to the CERTH Laboratories inspired consortium members for the future joint research projects to improve the knowledge of energy crops for phytoremediation.
Moreover, the University of Tuscia and University of Strathclyde scholars during the European Geosciences Union (EGU) Conference in Vienna (Austria), held in April, gave an overview of the main results achieved in the three years of the CERESiS Project on the paper entitled: “Plant Biomass for Energy and Phytoremediation Purposes: Three-Year Analysis of Phalaris Arundinacea Production on Contaminated Lands in Central Italy”. This experiment highlighted the manifold benefits of using this plant species. The simultaneous capacity for phytoremediation and energy use of the derived biomass are environmental,
economic, and social winning points.
With the paper “Growing Perennial Rhizomatous Grasses on Contaminated Land: a Strategy for Combining Phyto-Management with Sustainable Biomass Production?” the international group of scholars presented its reports on field trials conducted in UK, Italy, Ukraine, and Brazil. The paper reflect strategy by comparing biomass yield, biomass contamination and the calculated offtake of contaminants for a wide range of generic contaminants across all of the CERESiS trial sites. This will be used to evaluate the potential trade-offs between biomass suitability for use and phyto-management of contaminated land.
The main conclusions can be found at conference proceedings on the EGU website.
CERESiS means “ContaminatEd land Remediation through Energy crops for Soil improvement to liquid biofuel Strategies”. This international project was aimed to investigate whether the production of sustainable biofuel energy crops can be combined with the remediation of contaminated land. CERESiS was oriented to develop of a decision support system for stakeholders and policy makers wishing to produce biofuels while decontaminating land.
CERESiS consortium was funded in the frame of Horizon 2020 European Union scientific research initiative.
Project partners represented 12 institutions from 8 countries: Brazil, Canada, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, UK, and Ukraine. Among them there were universities, research bodies, companies and industry professionals, as well as NGOs.
CERESiS duration: November 2020 – April 2024.
For more information about the CERESiS project results go to its official website: https://ceresis.eu