Environmental health aspects of coal ash phytoremediation by selected crops

The objective of this research was to determine the effects of growth media containing FA and FA mixed with soil on selected crop plants seedlings growth. We studied the influence of various FA concentrations (e.g., 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, and 100% of FA in growth media by weight basis) in FA/soil composed media on the germination, growth, and heavy metals uptake of the following plants: barley, Sudan grass, ryegrass, rape, alfalfa, and canola. Plants were grown on Petri dishes (10 cm diameter, 3 replications) for 14–21 days, harvested, dried, and weighed. Experiments have been replicated three times. The concentrations of Al, B, Ba, Co, Cr, Cu, Mo, Sr, Ti, Tl, and V in growth media were determined, and the concentrations of the same elements in young plants were analyzed. Addition of 10, 20, and 30% of FA to the soil were acceptable for most plants, as compared to FA alone used as a growth media. Barley was the only plant of plants used in our research, which was able to sustain seedlings growth on media consisting on FA alone. Preliminary results of chemical analysis of FA and harvested young plants implicate that plants do not accumulate toxic amounts of heavy metals even being grown on media containing 100% FA. Our research results indicate that coal FA might be used as a plant growth media additive. However, additional studies should be undertaken to determine the effects of FA on plants grown till maturity.