Project
GOLD
GOLD project aims to produce clean low Indirect Land Use Change biofuels by growing selected high yielding lignocellulosic crops on contaminated land, and, in long-term, to stabilise and/or to return the polluted lands back to the agricultural production.
This research project is mainly built on three pillars (WPs 1-3). In the first pillar (WP1) the optimization of selected high-yielding lignocellulosic energy crops (miscanthus, switchgrass, biomass sorghum and industrial hemp) for phytoremediation purposes will be addressed in two continents: Europe and in Asia (India and China). In the second pillar (WP2), the biofuel production will be accomplished by two thermochemical conversion routes. In the third pillar (WP3), an integrated sustainability assessment will be carried out and a specific model will be developed for selected value chains, so as to bridge the gap between phytoremediation strategies and clean biofuel production. Mapping in detail the contaminated sites and analyzing the decontamination strategies in terms of further replication at EU level will be a part of WP3. Spatially explicit models will be applied and combined with spatial data for soil contamination.