Interviews

Biomede: Harnessing plants’ natural attributes to decontaminate soil

  • France
  • 4 min read
  • Jun 04, 2021
  • By Sophie Douez

Hyperaccumulator plants © Biomede

The Lyon-based startup says using plants to remove harmful metals from the earth is a sustainable, cost-effective green alternative to decontaminate soil in agricultural or urban environments

French startup Biomede has developed and commercialized a process to extract pollutants from the soil using hyperaccumulator plants, which have a natural ability to draw pollutants such as lead, copper or nickel from the earth and accumulate them in their leaves, stems and roots. 
The solution, called phytoremediation, is a green alternative to decontaminating soil in agricultural or urban environments instead of using chemicals to remove pollutants from the soil or heavy machinery to remove and replace large quantities of earth. 
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