Title : Energy recovery of plants used in phytoremediation of soils polluted with fuels
Abstract:
Plants grown on soil contaminated by fuels, as part of phytoremediation, are used to produce biofuels in order to valorize them. These are the bean (Vicia faba) and the pea (Pisum sativum) from the legume family; they have shown their resistance to fuel pollution. We analyzed the hydrocarbons in these plants using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Furthermore, the biochemical pathway was followed to produce bioethanol from the lignocellulosic biomass obtained after cultivation of these plants. The results obtained revealed that there was a passage, into the plants, of hydrocarbons present in the soil. On the IR spectra, the intensity of the peaks, corresponding in particular to the functional groups of the hydrocarbons, is greater for the two species when they were cultivated on polluted soil compared to cultivation on unpolluted soil. This shows that both the bean and the pea absorbed the hydrocarbons from the soil. Concerning the production of biofuels, the breathalyzer revealed the presence of alcohol in the distillation products of plant biomass. The quantity of bioethanol produced by the pea and by the bean was respectively approximately 27 and 42ml for respective biomasses of 8.4 and 12.4g. The ratio of the volume of bioethanol produced to plant biomass represents an energy value of 1.7 and 1.8TEE/T for peas and beans respectively.
Keywords: Pollution, phytoremediation, pea, bean, biofuel.
