Download Rejuvenate – Crop Based Systems on Marginal Degraded Areas

Rejuvenate – Crop Based Systems on Marginal Degraded Areas-Demonstrations
Y. Andersson-Sköld, P. Bardos, P. Björkman, Gh. Crutu, A. Enell, P-D. Georgescu, K. Hemström, M. Hoppenbrouwers, M. Polland, P. Suer, T. Track, B. Vanheusden, M. Wagelmans
Aim and Background
Rejuvenate II is a European project (SNOWMAN) developing approaches for using
marginal land, in particular brownfields, for
biomass production.
Rejuvenate
Risk management
There is an increasing interested in of
biomass for biofuel production. However, the
use of land to produce such biomass has
raised a range of concerns such as about
the sacrifice of agricultural land and nature
conservation issues.
In parallel, brownfields exists for which there
is no economic drive for restoration to conventional functional re-use and/or no realistic
prospect for ”hard” re-use.
The combination of biomass cultivation and
soil rehabilitation could provide leverage to
bring such economical marginal land back
into use.
Recycling
Renewables
Materials and Methods
The project is a desktop study followed up by demonstration scale case studies in Romania and Sweden:
• Copsa Mica - Micasasa (Central Romania, spontaneous vegetation and agricultural land 0.5 + 0.5 ha,
heavy metals) – Rape, Sunflower, Maize, various wild
grasses.
• Vivsta varv (NW Sweden, previous shipyard with
timber storage, 2 ha, dioxins, heavy metals, with and
without sewage sludge) - Salix Klara
• Utansjöbruk(NW Sweden, previous ash and wood
sludge storage, present use has been timber storage,
0.5 ha, heavy metals, with and without wood sludge).
Salix Klara
• Kallinge bruk (South Sweden, landfill at previous
multi industrial site, heavy metals, 0.2 ha, triad analysis, no sludge). Salix Inger
Results
A detailed review of benefits and impacts carried out in a
feasibility study (Rejuvenate I) found that from a generic
perspective biomass on marginal contaminated land can
have significant sustainability benefits, depending on the
followed approach. From a specific site perspective there
are, however, several aspects that need to be considered
to fulfil the requirements of sustainability. To evaluate
sustainability therefore a decision support tool (DST) consisting of a set of model procedures has been developed
in Rejuvenate I.
Ongoing work
The DST is at present being evaluated and undergoing a SWOT
(Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat) analysis. The DST will be
updated based on the forthcoming results including a review of the legal
framework at a European scale, environmental and risk assessments
including Triad analysis of a pilot site and final results from all demonstration sites.
The preliminary results of the SWOT analysis indicate that the DST is a
useful and sound base for the choice of crops at brownfields.
Read more about Rejuventae I: www.snowman-era.net/pages.science.html
1
www.snowman.era.net/downloads/REJUVENATE_final_report.pdf
For
Rape
Corn
Sunflower
0.18 ha
0.15 ha
0.15 ha
Various
wild
grasses
0.5 ha
Stage I:
Crop type
selection
Discussion and conclusion
In principle biomass on marginal contaminated land has a number of
sustainable development benefits, such as:
Stage II:
Site
management
•
•
•
•
•
Stage III:
Valuation of
Approach
reducing the carbon intensity of land remediation,
generating renewable energy,
broader community benefits such as landscape management,
potential wider environmental benefits, for example on soil func
tionality and biodiversity
economic benefits such as revenue generation or at least offset-
ting remediation costs.
Stage IV:
Project
Risk
The DST is a useful process structure to evaluate risks, environmental,
legal and economical impacts from a specific site perspective.
Contact:
[email protected]
Ecological Risk assessment
Goal
As part of the demonstration project at Kallinge bruk (Sweden)
an ecological risk assessment has been performed in order to
assess current and future ecological risks at the site.
Pilot Kallinge bruk
Kallinge bruk is a former steel mill at which in the past slag has
been deposited on a relatively large area. Contaminated slag
lumps (metals) are present in different sizes, mainly just underneath the soil surface.
Slag has been covered by a shallow layer of soil (sand and
gravel). The site is already covered with vegetation, mainly
grasses. The topsoil of the pilot location is polluted with heavy
metals, mainly zinc, lead, chromium and nickel. In July 2010 the
pilot location (450 m2) has been planted with 1,200 willow plants
(Salix).
The Triad
The Triad is a fully validated method to assess ecological risks at
a polluted site and reduces the uncertainties of risk assessment
based on chemical analyses. For the assessment of ecological
risks and the integration of all lines of evidence the RIVM method
is used.
Triad model
The Triad consists of three lines of evidence:
1. Environmental chemistry: analyses of pollutants and the
bioavailable fraction in soil, sediment and/or water, sometimes
extended with analyses of bioaccumulation in organisms.
2. Toxicity: bioassays and biomarkers for toxicity testing using
model organisms in the laboratory.
3. Ecology: field observations of vegetation, macro, meio and/or
micro fauna.
A number of six samples was used for Triad analyses. Samples
were taken in a gradient op heavy metal pollution from clean
(reference sample) to the highest pollution grade (in results from
previous soil researches).
Preliminary results
In only two of six samples one of the heavy metals was measurable available, zinc in one and lead in another. No negative effects
were measured in the Microtox tests nor the nematode analyses.
From the integration of results no ecological risk was found and
all lines of evidence pointed in the same direction.
1 Mesman M.,A. Schouten, M. Rutgers, E. Dirven-van Breemen. guideline Triad. Site-specific ecological risk assessment in the Remediation Criterion. RIVM
711701068, 2007.