Phytoremediation utilizes living plants to clean contaminated soil, air, and water, offering a cost-effective and environmentally friendly approach to remediation. The technique involves various processes like phytoextraction, rhizodegradation, and phytodegradation, targeting heavy metals and organic pollutants. While effective in certain applications, it requires long-term commitment and faces limitations such as susceptibility to soil toxicity and potential bioaccumulation of contaminants.

1. Phytoremediation
Presented by
Aglaia

2. Phytoremediation
• It refers to the technologies that use
living plants to clean up soil, air, and water
contaminated with hazardous
contaminants.
• It is defined as "the use of green plants and
the associated microorganisms, along with
proper soil amendments and agronomic
techniques to either contain, remove or
render toxic environmental contaminants
harmless".

3. • It is a cost-effective plant-based approach
of remediation that takes advantage of the
ability of plants to concentrate elements
and compounds from the environment and
to metabolize various molecules in their
tissues.
• It refers to the natural ability of certain
plants called hyper accumulators to bio
accumulate, degrade, or render harmless
contaminants in soils, water, or air.

6. • Toxic heavy metals and organic pollutants
are the major targets for phytoremediation.
• Knowledge of the physiological and
molecular mechanisms of
phytoremediation began to emerge in
recent years together with biological and
engineering strategies designed to optimize
and improve phytoremediation.
• In addition, several field trials confirmed
the feasibility of using plants
for environmental cleanup.

7. Application
• Phytoremediation may be applied wherever
the soil or static water environment has become
polluted or is suffering ongoing chronic pollution.
• Examples where phytoremediation has been used
successfully include the restoration of abandoned
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.

8. • Many plants such as mustard plants, alpine
pennycress, hemp, and pigweed have proven to
be successful at hyper accumulating
contaminants at toxic waste sites.
• Not all plants are able to accumulate heavy
metals or organics pollutants due to differences
in the physiology of the plant.
• Even cultivars within the same species have
varying abilities to accumulate pollutants.
• Over the past 20 years, this technology has
become increasingly popular and has been
employed at sites with soils contaminated with
lead, uranium, and arsenic.

9. • While it has the advantage that
environmental concerns may be treated in
situ, one major disadvantage of
phytoremediation is that it requires a long-
term commitment, as the process is
dependent on a plant's ability to grow and
thrive in an environment that is not ideal
for normal plant growth.

10. Types of Phytoremediation
1. Phytosequestration
• Also referred to as ​phytostabilization, there are many
different processes that fall under this category.
• They can involve absorption by roots, adsorption to
the surface of roots, or the production of
biochemicals by the plant that are released into the
soil or groundwater in the immediate vicinity of the
roots and can sequester, precipitate, or otherwise,
immobilize nearby contaminants.

11. 2. Rhizodegradation
• This process takes place in the soil or
groundwater immediately surrounding the
plant roots.
• Exudates from plants stimulate rhizosphere
bacteria to enhance biodegradation of soil
contaminants.
3. Phytohydraulics
• Use of deep-rooted plants—usually trees—
to contain, sequester, or degrade
groundwater contaminants that come into
contact with their roots.

12. • For example, poplar trees were used to
contain a groundwater plume of methyl-tert-
butyl-ether (MTBE).
4. Phytoextraction
• This term is also known as
phytoaccumulation.
• Plants take up or hyper-accumulate
contaminants through their roots and store
them in the tissues of the stem or leaves.
• The contaminants are not necessarily
degraded but are removed from the
environment when the plants are harvested.

13. • This is particularly useful for removing
metals from soil.
• In some cases, the metals can be recovered
for reuse by incinerating the plants in a
process called phytomining.
5.Phytovolatilization
• Plants take up volatile compounds through
their roots, and transpire the same
compounds, or their metabolites, through
the leaves, thereby releasing them into the
atmosphere.

14. 6. Phytodegradation
• Contaminants are taken up into the plant
tissues where they are metabolized, or
biotransformed.
• Where the transformation takes place
depends on the type of plant and can occur
in roots, stems, or leaves.

15. Advantages
• the cost of the phytoremediation is lower than
that of traditional processes both in situ and ex
situ
• the plants can be easily monitored
• the possibility of the recovery and re-use of
valuable metals (by companies specializing in
"phyto mining")
• it is potentially the least harmful method because
it uses naturally occurring organisms and
preserves the environment in a more natural
state.

16. – it preserves the topsoil, maintaining the
fertility of the soil.
– Increase soil health, yield, and plant
phytochemicals.
– the use of plants also reduces erosion and
metal leaching in the soil.

17. Limitations
– phytoremediation is limited to the surface area
and depth occupied by the roots.
– slow growth and low biomass require a long-
term commitment
– with plant-based systems of remediation, it is
not possible to completely prevent the
leaching of contaminants into
the groundwater (without the complete
removal of the contaminated ground, which in
itself does not resolve the problem of
contamination)

18. – the survival of the plants is affected by the
toxicity of the contaminated land and the
general condition of the soil.
– bio-accumulation of contaminants, especially
metals, into the plants which then pass into
the food chain, from primary level consumers
upwards or requires the safe disposal of the
affected plant material.
– when taking up heavy metals, sometimes the
metal is bound to the soil organic matter,
which makes it unavailable for the plant to
extract.

19. Thank you
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