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SELF-ENGINEERING IN PHYTOREMEDIATION: A Relationship With Ecological Engineering Steven C. McCutcheon, Ph.D., PE U.S. EPA National Exposure Research Laboratory – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Steven C. McCutcheon, Ph.D., PE


1
SELF-ENGINEERING IN PHYTOREMEDIATION A
Relationship With Ecological Engineering
  • Steven C. McCutcheon, Ph.D., PE
  • U.S. EPA National Exposure
  • Research Laboratory
  • Athens, Georgia
  • June 11, 2004, Fayetteville, Arkansas
  • 4th Annual Conference of the American Ecological
    Engineering Society

2
Acknowledgements
  • Co-editor and coauthors of the book
    Phytoremediation
  • Although this work was reviewed by EPA and
    approved for presentation, it may not necessarily
    reflect official Agency policy.

3
Overview
  • Phytoremediation and self-engineering
  • Examples of self-engineering at hazardous waste
    sites
  • Roles of phytoremediation in ecological
    engineering

Courtesy Stefan Trapp
4
Phytoremediation
  • Use of green plants and other autotrophic
    organisms to clean up and manage hazardous and
    other wastes
  • Includes bioremediation by heterotrophic bacteria
    when plants provide carbon, nutrients, or habitat
    rhizodegradation
  • Phytoextraction accumulates metals in
    aboveground tissues for harvest
  • Phytodegradation or transformation
  • Phytocontainment and stabilization
  • Phytovolatilization and other types

5
Strengths and Limitations
  • Solar driven, self engineering to ensure
    nutrients and water
  • Aesthetically
  • pleasing, eco-restoration
  • Should be cost effective
  • Shallow depths of soil or water (rooting depths)
  • Plants mainly transform contaminants
  • Long durations and large land areas

6
Potential Savings if the Promise of
Phytoremediation is Proven
  • 0.25 to 0.5 billion at ammunition sites
  • 1 to 2 billion for solvent plumes

1 trillion
7
History of Phytoremediation
  • Raskin coined the term in a 1991 proposal funded
    by U.S. EPA Superfund Program on metals
    accumulation
  • Cunningham and Berti (1993) first used the term
    in the open literature
  • Schnoor et al. (1995) first expanded the term in
    the open literature to include transformation of
    organics
  • Brooks (1998) definitive on hyperaccumulation
  • Raskin and Ensley (2000) and Terry and Banuelos
    (2000) definitive on metals accumulation and
    other inorganics
  • McCutcheon and Schnoor (2003) definitive on
    organics and inorganics, and unified fundamental
    knowledge with plant-based engineering

8
Other Seminal Work
  • Work of Chaney and ARS dates to 1983 on metals
    accumulation
  • Land treatment of waste near Berlin started about
    300 year ago
  • Plant based engineering is now the basis of
    phytoremediation
  • Wetland design
  • Riparian buffer design
  • Tree, grass, and crop plantation

9
The Basic Tools
  • Grass and tree plantation
  • Agricultural cultivation
  • Riparian and engineered buffers
  • Land farming
  • Created treatment wetlands
  • Unit processes
  • Roof gardens and living walls

10
Figure 3-1
Increased human and ecological risk
Increased genetic engineering
Transgenic plants
Cultivated plants
Maintained indigenous plants
Sustainable native or indigenous organisms
Sustainable native or indigenous organisms
Maintained indigenous plants
Cultivated plants
Transgenic plants
Increased maintenance, monitoring, and control
required
Increased residual disposal
11
Most Likely Applications
  • Soil cleanup of oil spills and cyanide
  • Tree plantations and buffers to control and treat
    groundwater and surface water contaminants
  • Wetlands to remove organics from waters
  • Brownfield stabilization and cleanup
  • Vegetative caps on landfills
  • Removal of some metals from soil and water

12
Metals and Elements
13
Figure 3-2
Year 2020
Design and application Increased relevance
Metabolic engineering
Ecosystem succession
Root management
Agronomic, silvicultural, wetland design
Ad hoc plant selection
1995
Landfill disposal
Incineration and composting
Energy recovery
Artifactual products
Residual management Increased relevance
Mining
2020 Year
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17
Self-Design
  • The reorganization, substitution and shifting of
    an ecosystem (dynamics and functional processes)
    whereby it adapts to the environment superimposed
    upon it.
  • (Mitsch, Jorgensen)

18
Defining Ecological Engineering
  • Environmental manipulation by man using small
    amounts of supplementary energy to control
    systems in which the main energy drives are still
    coming from natural sources (Odum, H. et al.,
    1963)
  • Later refined to read, the design of human
    society with its natural environment for the
    benefit of both

19
Some Basic Principles of Ecological Engineering2
  • Ecosystems are self-designing
  • Ecosystem structure function are governed by
    forcing functions
  • Elements are recycled in ecosystems
  • Homeostasis requires accordance between
    biological function chemical composition
  • 2Mitsch Jorgensen, Ecological Engineering

20
Basic Principles - cont
  • Ecosystem processes have characteristic time and
    space scales
  • Chemical biological diversity contribute to the
    buffering capacity of an ecosystem
  • Ecosystems are most vulnerable at their
    geographical edges
  • Ecotones are formed at transition zones
  • Ecosystems are coupled with other ecosystems

21
Basic Principles - cont
  • Ecosystems with pulsing patterns are often highly
    productive
  • Everything is linked to everything else in the
    ecosystem
  • Ecosystems have feedback mechanisms, resilience
    and buffer capacities in accordance with their
    preceding evolution

22
Some Areas of Ecological Engineering
  • Wetland Restoration and Creation
  • Ecohydrology
  • Wetland Wastewater Treatment
  • Bioremediation
  • Bioengineering
  • Stream bank stabilization
  • Slope stabilization
  • Stream and River Corridor Restoration and
    Engineering
  • Riparian buffer designation and design
  • Wetland design to control runoff
  • Floodplain/Hyporheic Zone Management
  • Carrying Capacity Studies
  • Green Space Engineering

23
Parrot feather (Myriophyllum aquaticum)
  • One of the 1st observations of self-engineering
    Alabama Army Ammunition Plant, Childersburg
  • Widespread TNT contamination 1960s to 1980s
  • Beaver dams led to parrot feather and clean water
    and sediment
  • Pine and grasses encroached on sterile bare soils
    to reduce TNT concentrations

24
Laboratory and Pilots
  • Plants protect enzymes and rapidly transform TNT
    and other explosives
  • Dead plants maintain activity for weeks to allow
    new plants to colonize
  • Crude enzyme extracts rapidly deactivated by
    proteases and metals

25
Populus spp.
  • Release of sugars and other simple exudates
    controls redox
  • Reducing conditions favors microbial
    dehalogenation
  • Evapotranspiration can halt ground water plume
    migration and pull contaminated water into vadose
    zone
  • Contaminants taken into the trees are mineralized

26
Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD
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30
Conclusions
  • Phytoremediation involves many forms of
    self-engineering
  • Understanding the degree of self-engineering is
    vital the sustainable ecological engineering of
    hazardous waste sites
  • Many of the same plant-based engineering is
    common to phytoremediation and ecological
    engineering
  • Thus, it is sound to conclude that
    phytoremediation is an important element of
    ecological engineering
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