Project summary
The enrichment of metals from diffusely distributed concentrations (e.g. sewage and sewage sludges) is possible using currently available technology systems but only with great expenditure of energy. This exploratory project investigated the usability of the adaptation strategy of plants that hyperaccumulate metals in their tissue. Different analysis demonstrated which plants under which conditions provide antimony, chromium, cobalt, manganese, nickel, zinc and rare earths particularly for good accumulations of sludge. In addition lead, cadmium, copper and mercury were analysed because they represent limit values for heavy metal concentrations in sewage sludge.
The aim was to identify the best-fit plants for antimony, chromium, cobalt, manganese, nickel, zinc and rare earths, as well as identify appropriate substrate properties. In addition, suitable sites for Austria were elicited where these metals are incurred in economically interesting quantities in effluent streams. Relevant stakeholders (from the beginning to the end of the process chain i.e.: waste management, industrial) were addressed in order to involve them in the development of appropriate work-up strategies.
The results of this project provided a substantial foundation for next steps and identified open research questions:
- Recovery of valuable resources from sewage sludge or ash or metal-rich industrial wastewater (e.g. sewage metal producing farms), on an energy and environmentally friendly way
- Simultaneously detoxification of the starting materials of heavy metals and thus opening the possibility to bring back to the biological cycle (e.g. as a fertilizer in agriculture)
Project lead
Technical office for chemical engineering, DI Monika Iordanopoulos-Kisser
Project partner
alchemia-nova
Project status
completed in April 2014
