Heavy metal – Plants have long been used to clean up contaminated soil. But the process is long and takes many successive crops before the soil is actually clean. Scientists in Ireland have found a way to speed up the process-bacteria. They are studying methods that add heavy metal tolerant bacteria to oilseed rape, the crop being studied because it is widely used for biofuel production in Ireland. Scientists have seen increased growth of the crop after adding the bacteria, meaning more crop production, which results in a greater biofuel yield. Researchers plan to extend the study to test different biofuel crops as well as different bacteria.

http://www.tcd.ie/civileng/research/environmental/energy.php