Phyona uses hyper-accumulator plants to extract metal contaminants from soil and converts them into high-value nanoparticles for manufacturing. The company offers site planning, soil consultancy, and a consumer seed product for gardeners, turning land remediation into a resource recovery process.
Funding
Funding not disclosed
Founders
Product
Problem
Soil contamination from industrial and domestic activities leaves metals like lead, zinc, and copper in the ground, which is typically addressed through destructive chemical cleaning or soil removal and replacement. These conventional decontamination methods are costly, disruptive, and can have negative environmental impacts, while the recovered metals are lost rather than reused.
Solution
Phyona provides a natural mining and recovery process that uses dedicated hyper-accumulator plants to extract metals from contaminated soils and other substrates. The plants are stressed by excess metals, which triggers them to move contaminants from the soil into their roots, after which Phyona harvests the plants and converts the recovered metals into high-value nanoparticles for manufacturing use. The company offers planning services for site planting design, consultancy for soil testing and remediation recommendations, and a consumer product called Lorna's Seeds for gardeners and allotment owners to regenerate their own soil. This approach valorises a resource that would otherwise be treated as a nuisance, supporting a more sustainable cycle of metal recovery and reuse.
Target Audience
Primary customers include industrial site owners and developers needing sustainable land remediation, as well as gardeners and allotment owners seeking to regenerate contaminated soil through the Lorna's Seeds consumer offering.
Features
- Hyper-accumulator plant-based extraction process that naturally removes metals including lead, zinc, titanium, manganese, copper, and trace amounts of rarer metals like molybdenum
- Conversion of recovered metals into high-value nanoparticles suitable for manufacturing applications
- Site planting design service that balances landscaping with the range of hyper-accumulator plants key to the mining process
- Soil testing and analysis consultancy to identify contaminants and recommend remediation and regeneration options
- Lorna's Seeds consumer product using UK native plants for gardeners and allotment owners to extract metal contaminants from their soil
- Harvested plants are processed to extract metals and up-cycle them into high-value products