Phytomining: plants as environmentally friendly metal suppliers. Prof. Oliver Wiche from the HSZG researches innovative approaches for sustainable raw material extraction.
Phytomining, also known as agromining, is an environmentally friendly process in which special plants, known as hyperaccumulators, absorb metals such as nickel, cobalt or germanium from the soil and store them in their tissue. This method offers a sustainable alternative to conventional mining and could play an important role for green technologies and high-tech applications in particular.
In phytomining, plants are grown on metal-containing soil. They absorb the metal ions from the soil via their roots and store them in leaves or stems. After harvesting, the biomass is processed to extract the metals. This process is particularly promising in regions with metal-rich soils or on former mining slag.
Prof. Oliver Wiche from the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences has conducted extensive research in this field in the past and plans to expand this work in the future. In the "PhytoGerm" project, he investigated which plant species - including reed canary grass, maize and millet - are suitable for germanium extraction. He is also focusing on the innovative method of whole plant biorefinery. This involves using biomass, which is already processed in biogas plants, to extract valuable metals such as germanium. Such approaches could make phytomining significantly more efficient and economically viable.
Phytomining offers great potential as an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional mining. Nevertheless, challenges remain, such as the limited availability of metal-bearing soils and the optimization of metal uptake by plants. Prof. Wiche and his team are working on improving these processes and extending the method to wider applications.
In view of the rising demand for critical raw materials such as nickel and germanium, phytomining is becoming increasingly important. In Europe, this approach - particularly through new technologies and concepts such as whole-plant biorefineries - could make an important contribution to sustainable raw material extraction.
You can find out more about this topic and the research in the article "Phytomining: How plants extract valuable metals from the soil" by Patricia Klatt on Spectrum of Science.