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An NSF-funded research team uses industrial waste to lessen the acidity of soil at polluted sites.
The CCIC called on researchers from community colleges to devise STEM solutions to issues at the nexus of food, energy and water. NSF has been funding such important research for many years. Here, a research team from Arizona State University was able to use forms of nonhazardous industrial waste materials to neutralize the acidity of soil at polluted sites, particularly abandoned mining lands. The method restored fertility to a level that allowed many of the plants, from which biofuels are derived, to grow. As a result, biofuels agriculture could become a significant contributor to soil remediation, land reclamation and natural storm water management that fertile, absorbent ground can provide.
Credit: Jessica Hochreiter, Arizona State University
Images credited to the National Science Foundation, a federal agency, are in the public domain. The images were created by employees of the United States Government as part of their official duties or prepared by contractors as "works for hire" for NSF. You may freely use NSF-credited images and, at your discretion, credit NSF with a "Courtesy: National Science Foundation" notation.
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