Research project conducted for graduate seminar course. The slideshow presents an overview on phytoremediation techniques.

1. Phytoremediation
In-situ methods to remove heavy metal contamination
Vanessa Chappell, Seminar Presentation, Spring 2017

2. Environmental Contamination
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3. Health Effects of Contamination
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4. Two Methods of Decontamination
• Ex-situ method: requires removal of contaminated soil for treatment on or of site, and returning the
treated soil to the resorted site.The conventional ex-situ methods applied for remediating the polluted
soils relies on excavation, detoxification and/or destruction of contaminant physically or chemically
• Excavation and burial in landfills
• Excavating, washing and returning
• In-situ method: It is remediation without excavation of contaminated site. In-situ techniques are favored
over the ex-situ techniques due to their low cost and reduced impact on the ecosystem.
• Bioventing and biodegredation
• Phytostabilization
• Rhizofiltration
• Phytoextraction
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https://youtu.be/bAwAFu7Mrk4

5. Choosing an In-Situ Decontamination Method
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6. Hyperaccumulators
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• Hyperaccumulators have the ability to sequester at least 100x the amount of metals
than non-accululators
• They survive despite concentrating contaminants in their aerial tissues.
• Storage in the vacuole is a common mechanism for the plants to avoid metal toxicity
• Uptake into shoots where it can be easily harvested is desirable because root
extraction is generally not feasible
• Plant roots, aided by plant-produced chelating agents are able to solubilize and take
up micronutrients from very low levels in the soil, even from nearly insoluble
precipitates such as heavy metals

7. Hyperaccumulators
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Pb
Cr Cd
As
Hg
• Unlike organic compounds, metals cannot be degraded, and cleanup usually requires their
removal.
• Phytoextraction methods exploit adaptations of hyperaccumulators
• Each species has it’s own unique ability to sequester certain (sometimes more than one)
heavy metals from the environment .

8. Accumulation of Heavy Metals in plantTissue
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9. Factors affecting the uptake mechanisms of heavy metals
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10. Phytoextraction: Natural vs Assisted
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11. Advantages
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12. Limitations
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Map of Superfund sites as of October 2013. Red indicates currently on final National Priority List,
yellow is proposed, green is deleted (usually meaning having been cleaned up).

14. Examples of Phytoremediation atWork
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Sunflowers
• Chernobyl in Ukrain
• Uranium plant in OH
• Fukashima site in Japan
Pumpkin
• Marker factory cleanup in
New Jersey
Mustard Green
• Lead removal from
playground in Boston
Alpine Pennycrest
• Abandoned mine cleanup
in Britian

15. Questions?