Effect of bacterial inoculants on phytomining of metals from waste incineration bottom ash

Highlights: • Plants inoculated with PGP-bacteria were grown on waste incineration bottom ash. • Rhizobacteria Rhodococcus erythropolis P30 enhanced biomass of Nicotiana tabacum. • Selected PGP-strains enhanced biomass and nutritional status of Salix smithiana. • Strains enhancing growth on contaminated soil had a similar effect on bottom ash. • Bacterial inoculants did not enhance trace element accumulation in plants. - Abstract: Waste incineration bottom ash is considered a secondary resource for valuable trace elements (TE), which is currently neglected in most European countries. Phytomining could potentially recover valuable TE from such waste materials but is still at an exploratory stage with many challenges. The use of bioaugmentation to improve plant growth and TE accumulation of metal-tolerant high biomass plants growing on waste incineration bottom ash was evaluated. Bacterial strains that were previously isolated from rhizosphere, roots and contaminated soil were selected according to their plant growth promoting characteristics and tolerance to the bottom ash substrate. Those selected bacterial strains were tested for their beneficial effects on Nicotiana tabacum and Salix smithiana with regards to phytomining. The rhizobacterial strain Rhodococcus erythropolis P30 enhanced the shoot dry weight of N. tabacum by on average 57% compared to the control plants. Several bacterial inoculants enhanced biomass production and the nutritional status of S. smithiana. Moreover, those bacterial strains previously described to enhance biomass production of N. tabacum and members of the Salicaceae on TE-contaminated soils, also enhanced biomass production of these species on bottom ash. However, bacterial inoculants could not enhance trace element accumulation in plants.