Effective strategy to recycle arsenic-accumulated biomass of Pteris vittata with high benefits

Recycling the arsenic-rich biomass of Pteris vittata is a critical problem during phytoremediation primarily because of the low value and high risk of arsenic-rich biomass. Nevertheless, extracts of P. vittata have been found to have a variety of bio-activities (e.g., anti-oxidation, anti-cancer, and anti-bacterial) and abundant valuable bio-active compositions (e.g.. flavonoids), which might present a new solution for the recycling of P. villata harvests. This work demonstrated a pilot-scale experiment to extract and purify the phenolic compounds from 1 t of arsenic-rich P. villata biomass. Result showed that 47.9 kg of phenolic-rich extract with a potential value of US$908.66-8345.14 was obtained. This extract showed no acute oral toxidties (ID50 > 10 g/kg), no skin irritation, and no chronic risks in the long-term skin contact exposure pathways. All of the wastes from production have been recycled and safely disposed with low cost (USS28.44), and the cost may be further reduced. The calculated benefits from this method showed a potential to provide 995-53,050 US$/hm(2) per year to a phytoremediation project. Therefore, this strategy could address the issue of expensive phytoremediation. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Recycling arsenic-rich biomass of Pteris vittata is a critical issue in phytoremediation, but extracts of P. vittata have valuable bio-activities and compositions, offering a new solution for recycling. A pilot-scale experiment successfully demonstrated the extraction of phenolic compounds from 1 ton of biomass, yielding a high-value extract with low production waste cost.