Willow coppice plantations as wastewater treatment systems

Short rotation willow coppice (Salix) can be used as vegetation filter to treat industrialand municipal wastewater. In May 1998 a EU-FAIR project, "Biomass short rotationwillow coppice fertilized with nutrient from municipal wastewater (BWCW)" wasstarted to investigate the consequences to establish willow plantations to treatwastewater in some European countries with varying climatic conditions. The aims ofthis research project were to evaluate the positive effects of irrigation of willow-toenergy plantations with wastewater, but also to find the negative consequences and todevelop strategies to deal with them. The project comprises comparable pilot plantationslocated in four different climatic regions in the four European countries: France, Greece,Unite Kingdom and Sweden. In this paper the experiences from this EU research projectBWCW, which will be finished off in 2002, are briefly described.