Eli Cohen on sustainability and phytoremediation

Eli Cohen gave a terrific talk Monday night on his work, as director of Ayala Water and Ecology, using plants to remove pollutants and contaminants from water, soil and air.  We’re grateful to the huge crowd that poured into the Arsenal gallery for the event, to Laura Starr and Yamit Perez for putting us in touch with Eli and, of course, to Eli himself for sharing his work and his thoughts.

One of his bigger themes, telegraphed by the title of the talk, “Sustainability in Practice,” was his strong belief that “Natural Biological Systems”– systems constructed of plants, soil, rocks and other natural materials and supported by forces like gravity and sunlight–are not only just as effective as more expensive, technological solutions to environmental remediation, but also, literally, much more sustainable.  He walked through a number of Ayala’s Natural Biological Systems, which filtered and cleaned runoff and sewage from a variety of sites including private residences, a dairy farm, a landfill, a cosmetics plant and an entire city (Hyderabad, India).  His full slideshow is available as a PDF (6MB).

You can stream the entire audio of the talk, below, as you page through the slides.  You can also download that audio directly as an MP3 (71 minutes, 66MB).

New soil remediation technologies

An illustration of success in one of Veru-Tek's on-site soil remediation projects.

Veru-Tek Technologies has developed a spin on phytoremediation to clean up contaminated soil and groundwater on brownfield sites.  Where traditional phytoremediation uses in situ plants, Veru-Tek uses extracts derived from plants, nanometals produced from plant extracts, and other natural substances to dissolve and oxidize contaminants (like coal tar, chemical solvents and petroleum byproducts) in place, turning them into non-toxic compounds.  One method developed by Veru-Tek involves injecting a biodegradable substance similar to corn oil or coconut oil into the soil, where it breaks down pollutants  into smaller molecules and reconfigures them into harmless byproducts.  The company’s remediation methods have been demonstrated in a number of brownfield sites and provide an alternative to hauling contaminated material to landfills.

(Via CleanTechnica)

Countering contamination with cattails

Cattails, those wetland mainstays, are a becoming a popular tool for use in phytoremediation, the use of plants to remove and control environmental pollutants.  Arsenic, pharmaceuticals, even chemicals from explosives–cattails have been used in absorbing all of them.  This sounds promising to us.  While the water in the creeks and wetlands at the Freshkills Park site is no dirtier than most other New York City waterways, the sediment in them is most likely polluted.  We’re trying to develop research partnerships that can help us, among other things, test the capacity of clean-up techniques like phytoremediation.  Maybe cattails could be a subject for that research–though much of the potential population onsite are currently crowded out by invasive crowds of phragmites australis.

Researchers at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University are even looking at turning cattails into a source of biofuel.  What can’t these things do?

(via CleanTechnica)

Landshaftspark Duisburg-Nord

This awesome 200-hectare public park in Duisburg Nord, Germany was transformed from a coal-fired steel production plant into a giant industrial playground. Latz + Partner’s design emphasized the value of memory: the goal was to create a space former mill workers could explore with their grandchildren and still be able to identify the form and function of the old machinery.  Concrete bunkers have been transformed into gardens; a former blast furnace into an observation tower. A derelict gas tank is now the biggest artificial diving center in Europe. Rock climbers hang from concrete walls. Landshaftspark is playful and, at the same time, encourages serious exploration of the industrial past.  A lot of the pollutant clean-up was achieved through phytoremediation.