PHYTOREMEDIATION

An Environmentally Sound Technology for

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Pollution Prevention, Control and Remediation
This presentation Involve:
What is Phytoremediation
How does Phytoremediation work
Advantages of Phytoremediation
Disadvantages of Phytoremediation
 WHAT IS PHYTOREMEDIATION?
Phytoremediation is the direct use of
living green plants for in situ, or in
place, removal, degradation, or
containment of contaminants in
soils, sludges, sediments, surface
water and groundwater.
Phytoremediation is:
A low cost, solar energy driven cleanup technique.
Most useful at sites with shallow, low levels of
contamination.
Useful for treating a wide variety of environmental
contaminants.
Effective with, or in some cases, in place of
mechanical cleanup methods.
Why Plants?
(phyto means plant)
Plants are unique organisms equipped with
remarkable metabolic and absorption
capabilities, as well as transport systems that
can take up nutrients or contaminants
selectively from the growth matrix, soil or
water.
 Phytoremediation involves growing plants in a
contaminated matrix, for a required growth
period, to remove contaminants from the
matrix, or facilitate immobilisation
(binding/containment) or degradation
(detoxification) of the pollutants
How does it work?
The root system provides an enormous surface
area that absorbs and accumulates the water
and nutrients essential for growth, as well as
other non-essential contaminants.
Deep-lying contaminated ground water can be
treated by pumping the water out of the
ground and using plants to treat the
contamination.
Advantages
Phytoremediation has several advantages. The method is
cheap, being ten times less expensive than conventional non-
biological strategies (Chappell 1998)
The method generates less secondary wastes (Doty 2008)
and minimizes leaching of contaminants (Suthersan 1999)
Public acceptance for phytoremediation is very high. The
relationships that humans have to plants are rooted deep in
our evolutionary past and Homo sapiens has a deeply held
innate appreciation for their value as we all depend on plants
giving food, medicine, and shelter
Disadvanatges
Although phytoremediation appears to be promising, there are
certain limitations associated with the technique. As plants are
used in environmental clean-ups, it takes a long period of time
than other remediation approaches, requiring a long term
commitment for maintenance or the process may be effective
seasonally.
Plants are also sensitive to types and concentrations of
pollutants present at the waste sites (phytotoxicity) (Doty 2008)
and are not able to remove all types of contaminants (Sadowsky
1999), particularly hydrophobic contaminants which tend to
remain adsorbed to soil particles (Suthersan 1999).
Disadvantages
Thus phytoremediation often results in slow and incomplete
detoxification, leading to the accumulation of parent
compounds and toxic metabolites in the plant which
eventually return back to the environment (Van Aken 2008).
Uses Limited plants only
Dependent on season
 Other concern
Researchers are finding that the use of trees (rather than smaller
plants) is effective in treating deeper contamination because tree roots
penetrate more deeply into the ground. In addition, deep-lying
contaminated ground water can be treated by pumping the water out of
the ground and using plants to treat the contamination
The use of plants does not result in a 100% removal of contaminants.
Phytoremediation has been studied extensively in research and small-
scale demonstrations, but full-scale applications are currently limited to
a small number of projects. Further research and development will lead
to wider acceptance and use of phytoremediation.