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Innovations Poplar tree
photo credit: Milton Gordon
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Poplar Demand W. Conard Holton Abstract
Trichloroethylene (TCE) is a common industrial solvent that poses a particular pollution problem in groundwater ; while TCE disappears from surface water within a few weeks, groundwater contamination can take months or years to degrade. Humans have not conclusively been shown to develop cancer in response to TCE exposure, but rats and mice exposed to TCE have an increased incidence of liver and lung cancers. Now, phytoremediation offers an alternative approach to TCE cleanup that may be substantially less expensive, faster, easier, and more aesthetically appealing to the public than traditional methods, which include aeration and charcoal absorption. Poplar trees have proven particularly effective at breaking down TCE. It is believed that the poplars completely metabolize the TCE by breaking it down into chloride salts. Naturally fast growing and thirsty, a hybrid poplar being tested by researchers can grow 3 m or more per year and can pump large quantities of contaminated water out of the ground.
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