Biofuels could clean up Chernobyl 'badlands'

[Dogmudgeon]

All we have to do now is prove that hemp is especially good at this process, and we get to kill a whole flock of birds with one stone -- no windmill blades required!

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227144.500-biofuels-could-clean-up-chernobyl-badlands.html">Biofuels could clean up Chernobyl 'badlands'

Contaminated lands, blighted by fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, could be cleaned up in a clever way: by growing biofuels. Belarus, the country affected by much of the fallout, is planning to use the crops to suck up the radioactive strontium and caesium and make the soil fit to grow food again within decades rather than hundreds of years.

A 40,000 square kilometre area of south-east Belarus is so stuffed with radioactive isotopes that rained down from the nearby Chernobyl nuclear power station in 1986 that it won't be fit for growing food for hundreds of years, as the isotopes won't have decayed sufficiently. But this week a team of Irish biofuels technologists is in the capital, Minsk, hoping to do a deal with state agencies to buy radioactive sugar beet and other crops grown on the contaminated land to make biofuels for sale across Europe.

...

Farmers grow some grain crops here. The radioactive material concentrates in roots and stalks, which they plough back into the soil after harvesting. So the soil is almost as contaminated now as it was after the accident. The Belarus government hopes that by growing biofuels and using the whole plant, it can cleanse the soil. "Instead of centuries of natural decay this process will cut the time to 20 to 40 years," Savinkh says.

Greenfield plans to build the first biofuels distillery next year at Mozyr, close to one of the most contaminated areas (see map). The €500 million plant will turn half a million cubic metres of crops a year into 700 million litres of biofuels, starting in 2011. As many as 10 more plants will follow provided funding can be raised, says Miller. The European Union reckons it will need about 25 billion litres of bioethanol by 2020 to meet green fuel targets.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227144.500-biofuels-could-clean-up-chernobyl-badlands.html">There's more ...

I wonder if particular crop plants have a preference for the elements which comprise the radionucleides. If certain grasses and/or weeds have an affinity for various toxic metals, this would have far wider applications than radionucleide clean-up. Plants that suck up mercury, for example, could be used downwind of coal-burning plants. Landfills with high levels of toxic metals would be especially good places to test this process.

On the same page is a link to http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227145.600-chicken-feathers-could-make-cheap-hydrogen-store.html">an article about using chicken feathers to store hydrogen.

--d!

[diane in sf]

1. Looks like mushrooms may be helpful too.

http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/677/

talks about mushrooms converting radioactivity to fuel. I recommend watching Paul Stamets talk at TED:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world.html

[JohnWxy]

2. very interesting. New Scientist. often touches on things others won't give any space to: Ethanol.

"A 40,000 square kilometre area of south-east Belarus is so stuffed with radioactive isotopes that rained down from the nearby Chernobyl nuclear power station in 1986 that it won't be fit for growing food for hundreds of years, as the isotopes won't have decayed sufficiently. But this week a team of Irish biofuels technologists is in the capital, Minsk, hoping to do a deal with state agencies to buy radioactive sugar beet and other crops grown on the contaminated land to make biofuels for sale across Europe.

The company, Greenfield Project Management, insists no radioactive material will get into the biofuel as only ethanol is distilled out. "In distillation, only the most volatile compounds rise up the tube. Everything else is left behind," says Basil Miller of Greenfield. The heavy radioactive residues will be burned in a power station, producing a concentrated "radioactive ash". This can be disposed of at existing treatment works for nuclear waste, he says.

The Belarus government hopes that by growing biofuels and using the whole plant, it can cleanse the soil. "Instead of centuries of natural decay this process will cut the time to 20 to 40 years," Savinkh says.

Greenfield plans to build the first biofuels distillery next year at Mozyr, close to one of the most contaminated areas (see map). The €500 million plant will turn half a million cubic metres of crops a year into 700 million litres of biofuels, starting in 2011. As many as 10 more plants will follow provided funding can be raised, says Miller. The European Union reckons it will need about 25 billion litres of bioethanol by 2020 to meet green fuel targets."

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700 million liters from one ethanol plant. 10 plants, planned, would produce 7 Billion liters of ethanol... more than one fourth the needs of European union in 2020. I wonder how much ethanol they could produce out of 40,000 sq km!!! My guess is several times the 2020 requirements of the European Union.


..... While the ethanol production process is safe and it appears growing these crops can get the nuclear material out of the soil there does appear to be some doubts about the destruction of the radioactive residue however: "The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency is not so sure, however. Its head of waste, Didier Louvat, told New Scientist that, while the biofuels process should be safe, neither Belarus nor Ireland has an adequate way of disposing of the radioactive residues at present."

Still, this promises to be a very significant step in the right direction. BEing able to clean up contaminated soil and at the same time provide a renewable fuel that reduces GHG vs gasoline!

Of course, disposing of nuclear waste is something everybody has no real answer to. All we've got now is to bury it deep somewhere and hope it doesn't leak out in 100,000 years. In that respect Ireland and Belarus are no further behind the U.S. or anybody else.