Italian researcher says hemp stalks grown in polluted soil are good for construction and energy

Curated and edited by Sechat, with information from Hemp Today

Hemp grown to clean polluted soil could be used in concrete construction and energy production, virtually without health risks, suggested an Italian researcher.

Vito Gallo, Professor of Chemistry at the Polytechnic University of Bari, said that the performance of the hemp plant in the phytoremediation process leaves only traces of any pollutants behind.

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“Hemp allows a kind of dilution of metals in the biomass, resulting in a material that, at first glance, presents very limited or even no health risks,” said Gallo, who is also the coordinator of BIO SP.HE.RE., a specific research initiative on hemp.

The professor suggested that scientific organizations could come together to establish acceptable levels of concentration of any foreign substances in hemp-derived products.

Robust Research

Stakeholders are working on significant research on phytoremediation, where specific plants are grown both to clean pollutants, such as heavy metals, and to stimulate the degradation of organic compounds to enrich the soil. Hemp has proven to be highly effective in both functions, as Italian scientists have aimed to document later.

The question has always been what would be done with the contaminated hemp after it is harvested from polluted fields.

Italian researchers have postulated that most heavy metals absorbed by hemp are stored in the roots and leaves of the plant, leaving only tiny amounts in the hemp stalk, thus they continue to study this process.

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Hemp and Soil

Research in Italy is based on studies conducted in 2002, when researchers from the University of Wuppertal and the Faserinstitut in Bremen, Germany, showed that hemp plants seeded for remediation collected most heavy metals in the leaves, while the stalks of the plants were practically unaffected. A subsequent study in India in 2014 identified hemp as a promising tool for the hyperaccumulation of heavy metals such as arsenic, lead, mercury, copper, chromium, and nickel. More studies since then have supported both analyses.

In addition to using hemp stalks for hemp concrete, the biomass can be burned for energy. With the ashes collected under controlled conditions, metals can be extracted and reused, Gallo said.

New Sustainable System

“Using hemp for phytoremediation would lead not only to the creation of a new land use system linked to environmental protection but also to the generation of jobs and sustainable resources for the community, according to the principles of the green economy and bioeconomy,” said Marcello Colao, a biologist from the Italian Association of Environmental Biologists of Apulia (ABAP), who is also studying phytoremediation.

Colao leads the GREEN project, which studies different varieties of hemp and classifies them according to their phytoremediation capacity. This research, in partnership with the Puglia government region, is part of a broader initiative that is researching hemp for its potential in sustainable development and carbon sequestration, developing strategies for better agricultural management practices.

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Also supported by the Puglia government, BIO SP.HE.RE, the project under Gallo's direction, is studying a mixture of microalgae and hemp to see how it can improve the phytopurification of water and soil. Researchers reported that laboratory analyses showed that the mixture facilitated the growth of hemp plants in polluted soil, thus accelerating the phytoremediation process; hemp plants were particularly effective in absorbing cadmium, nickel, and zinc, the team said.

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