Curing contaminated and saline land with Industrial crops and producing biomass for high-value applications

IASIS aims at providing solutions for curing both contaminated and saline land through phytomanagement. Selected high-yielding, non-food (industrial) crops will provide biomass feedstock to develop intermediate and end bioproducts, following a cascading biorefinery approach, via economic-viable value chains. Farmers will have an active role on how to remediate the contaminated and/or saline soils while generating additional income by providing sustainable feedstock for non-food value-added applications. In order for the main and specific objectives to be fulfilled a total number of 6 work packages have been designed. The work starts with the crops’ optimisation (improved genotypes) and phytomanagement strategies (microbial consortia) development (WP1) for both contaminated and saline soils that will be tested and validated both in lab scale and in field case studies (FCSs). FCSs will be set up (WP2) in eight sites in Europe (4 contaminated and 4 saline), where 8 high-yielding, non-food (industrial) crops will be grown, following low-input and phytomanagement practices, to produce feedstock for the value chains and the bio-products development (WP3) as well as to engage and train the farming community (WP2). Two main groups of bioproducts will be developed (WP3) based on the type of industrial crops exploited (oilseeds and lignocellulosic) and in total 10 intermediate and 10 end-products will be developed and tested. Sustainability and feasibility assessment will be carried out on the most promising biomass-to-products pathways (WP4). A Decision Support System, to assess the viability and the soil remediation of the proposed value chains, and applicable business models will be developed tailored to the IASIS needs that will be applied for the IASIS case studies but will be applicable beyond the project. The regulatory framework will be outlined, while policy recommendations will be proposed. WPs 5 & 6 are dedicated to project dissemination and coordination.