Project R-7263

Bio-photovoltaic Phytoremediation: electricity generation and environmental cleanup with living plants (Research)

The general goal of this project it to explore through an interdisciplinary approach (physics/biology/microbiology) the combination of the non-conventional and novel concepts of 'microbe-assisted phytoremediation' and 'bio-photovoltaics', which we termed 'bio-photovoltaic phytoremediation'. This idea of bio-photovoltaic phytoremediation is highly innovative: living plants and their associated microorganisms around the roots can be used to clean-up contaminated (ground)water in wetland systems and in the meanwhile produce electricity. When this unconventional approach can be applied, this would open new environmentally friendly routes to address simultaneously pollution and alternative energy generation and therefore upgrade polluted areas into cleaner and self-sustaining, electricity generating landscapes.

01 October 2016 - 30 September 2018