Ø Campus Vesta is a training centre for the fire brigade, police, civil protection and other emergency services managed by the province of Antwerp. Until 2011, PFAS-containing firefighting foam was practiced here. Ø Soil and groundwater became contaminated with PFAS. Because the site offers a lot of space, she has a lot of options to get started with phytoremediation. C-Biotech was able to convince the management of Campus Vesta to go along with this innovative approach.
Ø At the beginning of April, a willow field was planted right next to the training platform in a first phase. Young willows are trees with a high water demand and therefore act as a natural groundwater pump on solar energy. The absorbed water evaporates through the leaves during growth, the PFAS remains in the biomass. This biomass will be harvested before the leaves fall and disposed of as PFAS-containing waste. At a later stage, it will be investigated how the PFAS can be definitively destroyed in the process and how the PFAS-free residual product can be recovered as a soil improver. At Campus Vesta, we will further investigate and quantify PFAS uptake by willows.
Ø As an alternative to willows, a test is also being carried out with a very limited number of kiri trees. Ø In addition, there is industrial hemp, which will be sown in May. Hemp mainly tackles PFAS contamination in the solid part of the soil. The test site will be set up in such a way that experiments can be carried out with various additives that can promote the uptake of PFAS by the plant. The interaction with groundwater (supply of new PFAS at high groundwater levels) will also be investigated.
Ø Campus Vesta has the potential to become the test site for phytoremediation in Belgium and Europe!