upstateNYpc biofuel/bioremediation synergies?

Has anyone looked into the potential for bioremediation of
contaminated urban soil through the growing of non-food crops for biofuel?

A recent piece on the “Cars 2.0” web site about biofuel derived from the inedible shrub camelina sativa got me thinking about another possibility for the “urban prairie” that is emerging as we abandon our post-industrial cities.

While it’s best to make biofuel from waste vegetable oil, with any success the demand will outstrip that supply (one can hope, anyway). But a problem with growing crops specifically for biofuels is the displacement or diversion of food crops, as we see in the production of corn ethanol.

Meanwhile, as post-industrial cities are abandoned, “urban prairies” or urban agriculture take the place of industrial area and
neighborhoods. The mayors of cities such as Detroit and Youngstown are seeking to scooch the remaining residents together and give the rest of the area of their cities over to agriculture and natural areas. Soil contamination is of course a big obstacle to growing food crops on such land. Bioremediation is one strategy for cleaning it up.

Growing biofuels in urban areas might help preserve uncontaminated farmland elsewhere for food crops, provide jobs in cities and an alternative to petroleum (and its impact on the environment and foreign policy). Could it also remediate urban soils? Of course, if the contaminants removed from the soil are released when the fuel is burned, it ain’t gonna work.