Phytoremediation potential of wild plants growing on soil contaminated with heavy metals.

Phytoremediation is an emerging technology that employs higher plants to cleanup contaminated environments, including metal-polluted soils. Because it produces a biomass rich in extracted toxic metals, further treatment of this biomass is necessary. The aim of our study was to assess the five-year potential of the following native wild plants to produce biomass and remove heavy metals from a polluted site: poplar (Populus ssp.

Ash from thermal power plants as secondary raw material.

The basic characteristic of thermal power plants in the Republic of Serbia is that they use low-grade brown coal (lignite) as a fuel. Depending on the location of coal mines, lignite may have different properties such as heating value, moisture, and mineral content, resulting in different residue upon combustion. Because of several million tonnes of ash and slag generated every year, their granularmetric particle size distribution, and transport and disposal methods, these plants have a negative impact on the environment.