Phy2Climate: Life Cycle Assessment of phytoremediation combined with biofuel production

A significant area of land worldwide is contaminated and therefore unfit for any use. There is a huge need for bringing the polluted lands back to useable conditions in a harmless and sustainable way. In the Phy2Climate project, phytoremediation of contaminated sites in 4 regions all over the world is combined with innovative biomass processing technologies to produce clean biofuels for road and shipping transport as well as bio-coke as substitution of petroleum coke in the metallurgical industry. Greenhouse Gas reduction should be achieved by substituting fossil fuels and pet-coke as well as by enhancing the organic carbon content in the soil. To be able to judge the sustainability aspects of the technology, its environmental impact has to be analyzed in terms of the whole life cycle. This work presents the results of the first iteration of Life Cycle Assessment of phytoremediation and biofuel production. Primary inventory data have been collected from four pilot phytoremediation sites and from the biorefinery and supplemented with secondary data based on literature review and own mathematical calculations. The data have been then fed into a LCA model of pilot sites and biorefinery prepared in LCA for Experts software. Environmental impacts have been calculated using Environmental Footprint 3.1 methodology. The results confirm positive impact of phytoremediation on the ecotoxicity and human toxicity impact categories, as well as show the potential of Phy2Climate approach in the field of reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases.