The document discusses the topic of phytoremediation, which uses plants to remove pollutants from soil, water, and air. It defines phytoremediation and describes the various processes involved like phytoextraction and rhizofiltration. Examples are given of plants commonly used in phytoremediation like Indian mustard, willow, and sunflower. While phytoremediation has advantages of being low-cost and using solar energy, it also has limitations like being a slower process than traditional techniques and potential contamination of the food chain. The document concludes that phytoremediation is still evolving but has potential to help curb toxic pollution.

1. Phytoremediation
Ami Jobanputra 16E016
Vidhi Shah 16E038
Priti Khandelwal 16E062
Krishna Bodhanwala 16B035
Chanchal Soni 16B042
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2. Contents
• Soil pollution
• What is Phytoremediation?
• Process of Phytoremediation
• Applications of Phytoremediation
• Countries where phytoremediation is used
• Advantages of Phytoremediations
• Disadvantages of Phytoremediation
• Various plants for phytoremediation
• Conclusion
• Reference
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3. Soil Pollution
• Soil pollution or soil contamination as a part of land
degradation is caused by the presence of xenobiotic (human-
made) chemicals or other alteration in the natural soil
environment.
• It is typically caused by industrial activity, agricultural
chemicals, or improper disposal of waste.
• The most common chemicals involved are petroluem
hydrocarbons, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (such as
naphthalene), solvents, pesticides, lead and the other heavy
metals.
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4. Phytoremediation is one
of the step to control
soil pollution!
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5. What is Phytoremediation?
• In phytoremediation, phyto means ‘plants’ and remedium
means ‘restoring balance’.
• 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
ground water.
• Hyper accumulators- It refers to the natural ability of certain
plants to bioaccumulate, degrade or render harmless
contaminants in soils, water or air.
• Toxic heavy metals and organic pollutants are the major
targets for phytoremedation.
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Source: www.landarchs.com

7. Process of Phytoremediation
The various processes are as follows:
• Phytodegradation – use of plants to uptake, store and
degrade contaminants with its tissue.
• Phytostimulation (Rhizodegradation) - use of rhizospeheric
associations between plants and symbiotic soil microbes to
degrade contaminants.
• Phytovolatilisation – use of plants abilty to uptake
contaminants from the growth matrix and subsequently
transform and volatilize contaminants into the atmosphere.
• Phytoextraction- use plants to absorb, translocate and store
toxic contaminats from a soil matrix into their root and shoot
tissue.9/22/2018 7Environmental and Energy Studies

8. • Rhizofiltration – use of roots to uptake also store
contaminants from an aqueous growth matrix.
• Phytostabilisation- plant-mediated immobilisation or
binding of contaminats into the soil , thereby reducing there
bio availabilty.
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Source: www.landarchs.com

10. Applications of Phytoremediations
• Phytoremediation has been used successfully in metal
mine workings and sites.
• Contaminants such as metals, pesticides, solvents,
explosives and crude oil and its derivatives have been
mitigated in phytoremediation projects worldwide.
• Many plants such as mustard plants, alpine, pennycress,
hemp and pigweed have proven to be successful at
hyperaccumulating contaminants at toxic waste sites.
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11. Countries where Phytoremediation is used
• United States of America
• Europe
• Pakistan
• Bangladesh
• South Africa
• Indonesia
• India
• China
• Australia
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12. Phytoremediation in India
• In India, urbanization, excessive utilization of natural resources,
and population growth are the causes of air, water and soil
contamination or soil erosion and water logging.
• So many types of plants and grass are grown, to control the
pollution, erosion and water logging.
• For instance: for soil erosion, various plants and grass are grown
namely Eucalyptus-bhabar grass, Acacia catechu-forage grass,
Leucaena-Napier grass, Sesamum seed.
• For water logging- Eucalyptus tereticornis, Populus deltoids,
Terminalia arjuna, Acacia auriculiformis etc.
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13. Advantages of Phytoremediation
Uses solar energy
and is low cost
The harvested
biomass can be
economically
valuable
Provides habitat for
animal life
In situ and passive
techniques
Has reduced
environmental
impact and
contributes to the
landscape
improvement
Reduction in
dispersal of dust and
contaminants by
wind
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14. Disadvantages of Phytoremediation
Limited to shallow soils
or where contamination
is localized to a surface
( <5m)
There is little
knowledge of farming,
genetics, reproduction
and diseases of
phytoremediating
plants.
Metal concentration
in the soil can be
toxic and lethal to
plants.
Contamination may
spread through the
food chain if
accumulator plants are
ingested by animals.
The area to be
decontaminated must
be large enough to
allow applications of
cultivation techniques.
Treatments slower
than the traditional
physico-chemical
techniques.
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15. Various plants for
Phytoremediation!
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16. Indian mustard
 This plant remove 3 times more Cd
than others, reduce 28% of Pb, upto
48% of Se, and it is effective against
Zn, Hg and Cu as well.
 However, the interesting fact is that
Indian Mustard removed radioactive
Cs137 from Chernobyl
(phytoremediation of Radiocesium-
Contaminated Soil in the Vicinity of
Chernobyl, Ukraine) in the 80’s as
well.
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source:www.landarchs.com

17. Willow
•The water loving plants beautify
landscapes, however, it’s worth is
not confined to appearance only.
they have a more use in
phytoremediation as well.
•This deal with Cd, Ni and Pb, and
work even in mixed heavy metals
like diesel fuel polluted sites.
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source: www.landarchs.com

18. Poplar tree
• The advantageous effect of
poplar tress on soil and
underwater has also been widely
studied. Their secret lies in the
naturally well-designed root
system which take up large
quantities of water.
• Chlorinated solvents such as
trichloroethylene, or carcinogenic
carbon tetrachloride, are the
organic pollutants that hybrid
poplars face better.
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source: www.landarchs.com

19. Indian grass
• Indian grass is capable to
remediate petroleum
hydrocarbons.
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source: www.landarchs.com

20. Sunflower
• Sunflowers reduce different
PAH (Polycyclic Aromatic
Hydrocarbon) level from soil, in
an effective way.
• Heavy metals such as Pb, Zn are
also removed effectively by this
plant.
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source: www.landarchs.com

21. Conclusions
• Phytoremediation successfully curbs the ill effects of toxic
metals, but this yet to become a commercially viable technology
in India.
• Globally, phytoremediation is still in the evolving stage while the
pros and cons of this technology at field level is not clearly
understood.
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22. References
• landarchs.com
• Pubs.sciepub.com
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23. Thank
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