3
Introduction
Salt is a contaminant of concern when it is present in soil at a high
concentration. High salt concentrations may be from oil and gas production
or irrigation water that has too much salt.
Coal ash is a residue from coal combustion for electricity or to fire a boiler
at an industrial site. There are also residues from other industrial processes
such as steel mills.
1.1.2 Types of Contaminants
There are two important types of contaminants in soil: inorganic and organic
substances. Organic contaminants such as gasoline can be biodegraded by
biological processes to carbon dioxide and water. Inorganic contaminants
such as lead, other trace elements such as zinc, and salts do not biodegrade.
They are managed by other processes such as phytostabilization. Both types
of contaminants are important and are considered in this book.
1.2 Phytotechnology with Biomass Production
One of the core topics in this book is how to restore soils that are contaminated. There are many ways to make use of the beneficial effects of vegetation in contaminated soil. The concept of using plants to both improve soil
quality and produce a product that has commercial value has been investigated by a number of research teams and used in practice (Alexopoulou
2018; McCutcheon and Schnoor 2003; Nsanganwimana et al. 2014; Pidlisnyuk
et al. 2014). This is one of the core topics of this book, which will be described
further in other chapters. While the NATO project research has been with
Miscanthus, there are many other plants that have the potential to be used
commercially to both improve soil quality and harvest a product that can be
marketed and sold.
1.3 Miscanthus
The focus of this book includes growing Miscanthus at contaminated sites
in order to have a product to harvest and sell. Miscanthus has been the subject of considerable research because of the large amount of biomass that
can be produced (Alexopoulou 2018; Lewandowski et al. 2000; Jones 2020).
Miscanthus crops may exceed 3 m in height and annual yields may be more
than 25 Mg ha −1 (Jones 2020). Miscanthus genetics and the development of
hybrids that have desirable features are important. Establishing Miscanthus