Phytoremediation

Description
Phytoremediation is a bioremediation process that uses various types of plants to remove, transfer, stabilize, and/or destroy contaminants in the soil and groundwater. There are several different types of phytoremediation mechanisms. These are:
1. Rhizosphere biodegradation. In this process, the plant releases natural substances through

2. 3.

4.

5. 6. 7.

its roots, supplying nutrients to microorganisms in the soil. The microorganisms enhance biological degradation. Phyto-stabilization. In this process, chemical compounds produced by the plant immobilize contaminants, rather than degrade them. Phyto-accumulation (also called phyto-extraction). In this process, plant roots absorb the contaminants along with other nutrients and water. The contaminant mass is not destroyed but ends up in the plant shoots and leaves. This method is used primarily for wastes containing metals. At one demonstration site, water-soluble metals are taken up by plant species selected for their ability to take up large quantities of lead (Pb). The metals are stored in the plants aerial shoots, which are harvested and either smelted for potential metal recycling/recovery or are disposed of as a hazardous waste. As a general rule, readily bioavailable metals for plant uptake include cadmium, nickel, zinc, arsenic, selenium, and copper. Moderately bioavailable metals are cobalt, manganese, and iron. Lead, chromium, and uranium are not very bioavailable. Lead can be made much more bioavailable by the addition of chelating agents to soils. Similarly, the availability of uranium and radio-cesium 137 can be enhanced using citric acid and ammonium nitrate, respectively. Hydroponic Systems for Treating Water Streams (Rhizofiltration). Rhizofiltration is similar to phyto-accumulation, but the plants used for cleanup are raised in greenhouses with their roots in water. This system can be used for ex-situ groundwater treatment. That is, groundwater is pumped to the surface to irrigate these plants. Typically hydroponic systems utilize an artificial soil medium, such as sand mixed with perlite or vermiculite. As the roots become saturated with contaminants, they are harvested and disposed of. Phyto-volatilization. In this process, plants take up water containing organic contaminants and release the contaminants into the air through their leaves. Phyto-degradation. In this process, plants actually metabolize and destroy contaminants within plant tissues. Hydraulic Control. In this process, trees indirectly remediate by controlling groundwater movement. Trees act as natural pumps when their roots reach down towards the water table and establish a dense root mass that takes up large quantities of water. A poplar tree, for example, pulls out of the ground 30 gallons of water per day, and a cottonwood can absorb up to 350 gallons per day.

The plants most used and studied are poplar trees. The U.S. Air Force has used poplar trees to contain trichloroethylene (TCE) in groundwater. In Iowa, EPA demonstrated that poplar trees acted as natural pumps to keep toxic herbicides, pesticides, and

fertilizers out of the streams and groundwater. The US Army Corps of Engineers has experimented with wetland plants to destroy explosive compounds in the soil and groundwater. Submersed and floating-leafed species (coontail and pondweed, and arrowhead, respectively) decreased trinitrotoluene (TNT) to 5% of original concentration. Submersed plants were able to decrease Royal Demolition Explosive (RDX) levels by 40%, and when microbial degradation was added, RDX decreased by 80%. Sunflowers, using rhizofiltration, were used successfully to remove radioactive contaminants from pond water in a test at Chernobyl, Ukraine.

Limitations and Concerns

The toxicity and bioavailability of biodegradation products is not always known. Degradation by-products may be mobilized in groundwater or bio-accumulated in animals. Additional research is needed to determine the fate of various compounds in the plant metabolic cycle to ensure that plant droppings and products do not contribute toxic or harmful chemicals into the food chain. Scientists need to establish whether contaminants that collect in the leaves and wood of trees are released when the leaves fall in the autumn or when firewood or mulch from the trees is used. Disposal of harvested plants can be a problem if they contain high levels of heavy metals. The depth of the contaminants limits treatment. The treatment zone is determined by plant root depth. In most cases, it is limited to shallow soils, streams, and groundwater. Pumping the water out of the ground and using it to irrigate plantations of trees may treat contaminated groundwater that is too deep to be reached by plant roots. Where practical, deep tilling, to bring heavy metals that may have moved downward in the soil closer to the roots, may be necessary. Generally, the use of phytoremediation is limited to sites with lower contaminant concentrations and contamination in shallow soils, streams, and groundwater. However, researchers are finding that the use of trees (rather than smaller plants) allows them to treat deeper contamination because tree roots penetrate more deeply into the ground. The success of phytoremediation may be seasonal, depending on location. Other climatic factors will also influence its effectiveness.

The success of remediation depends in establishing a selected plant community. Introducing new plant species can have widespread ecological ramifications. It should be studied beforehand and monitored. Additionally, the establishment of the plants may require several seasons of irrigation. It is important to consider extra mobilization of contaminants in the soil and groundwater during this start-up period. If contaminant concentrations are too high, plants may die. Some phytoremediation transfers contamination across media, (e.g., from soil to air). Phytoremediation is not effective for strongly sorbed contaminants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Phytoremediation requires a large surface area of land for remediation.

Applicability
Phytoremediation is used for the remediation of metals, radionuclides, pesticides, explosives, fuels, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs). Research is underway to understand the role of phytoremediation to remediate perchlorate, a contaminant that has been shown to be persistent in surface and groundwater systems. It may be used to cleanup contaminants found in soil and groundwater. For radioactive substances, chelating agents are sometimes used to make the contaminants amenable to plant uptake.

Technology Development Status

Phytoremediation is a broad technology type that has been successfully demonstrated for some contaminants and is experimental for others February, 2000: Chernobyl (Ukraine) On the morning of April 26, 1986, a small town in the former Soviet Union was the site of a nuclear explosion that literally shook the earth. The historic accident at Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Reactor 4 in the Ukraine caused severe radioactive contamination. Families within a 30-km zone of the power plant were evacuated, and in the months that followed, extensive contamination was discovered in areas up to 100 km from the site. Scientists are hopeful that plants may play a key role in cleaning up some of the contamination.

In 1989, three years after the explosion, the Soviet government asked the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to assess the radiological and health situation in the area surrounding the power plant. Among the most significant findings were radioactive emissions and toxic metals--including iodine, cesium-137, strontium, and plutonium--concentrated in the soil, plants, and animals. Such substances are potentially harmful to human health. For example, although iodine tends to disappear within a few weeks of exposure, it can be inhaled or ingested and then accumulated in the thyroid gland, where it delivers high doses of radiation as it decays. Since 1991, the Canadian Nuclear Association has noted a marked increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer in the area surrounding the nuclear accident. Cesium-137, radioactive cesium with a mass number of 137, can enter the food chain and deliver an internal dose of radiation before it is eliminated metabolically. Apparently these toxic substances entered the food chain via grazers, such as cows and other livestock, that fed on food web. plants grown in contaminated soils. The toxins then accumulated and concentrated in the meat and milk products eventually consumed by humans. Additionally, wild foods, such as berries and mushrooms, are expected to continue showing elevated cesium levels over the next few decades.

To prevent further spread of these toxins, it was determined that livestock should be allowed to feed only on uncontaminated plants and on plants not tending to accumulate toxic metals within their tissues. Then a soil cleanup method was employed using green plants to remove toxins from the soil. This technique is phytoremediation, a term coined by Dr. Ilya Raskin of Rutgers University's Biotechnology Center for Agriculture and the Environment, who was a member of the original task force sent by the IAEA to examine food safety at the Chernobyl site. Phytoremediation is a process that takes advantage of the fact that green plants can extract and concentrate certain elements within their ecosystem. For example, some plants can grow in metal-

laden soils, extract certain metals through their root systems, and accumulate them in their tissues without being damaged. In this way, pollutants are either removed from the soil and groundwater or rendered harmless. Today, many researchers, institutes, and companies are funding scientific efforts to test different plants' effectiveness at removing a wide range of contaminants. Raskin favorsBrassica juncea and Brassica carinata, two members of the mustard family, for phytoremediation. In laboratory tests with metals loaded onto artificial soil (a mix of sand and vermiculite), these plants appeared to be the best at removing large quantities of chromium, lead, copper, and nickel. Several members of this family are edible and yield additional products such as birdseed, mustard oil, and erucic acid, which is used in margarine and cooking oil. Researchers at the DuPont Company have found that corn, Zea mays, can take up incredibly high levels of lead. Z. mays, a monocot in the Poaceae or grass family, is the most important cultivated cereal next to wheat and rice, yielding such products as corn meal, corn flour, cornflakes, cooking oil, beer, and animal feed. Phytokinetics, a company in Logan, Utah, is testing plants for their ability to remove organic contaminants such as gasoline from soil and water. Applied Natural Sciences in Hamilton, Ohio, is taking a slightly different route by using trees to clean up deeper soils, a process they call "treemediation." University researchers from the UK reported in the May 1999 issue of Nature Biotechnology that transgenic tobacco plants can play a role in cleaning up explosives.

Zea mays.

Fruit of Brassicaceae.

In February 1996, Phytotech, Inc., a Princeton, NJ-based company, reported that it had developed

Helianthella sp.

transgenic strains of sunflowers, Helianthus sp., that could remove as much as 95% of toxic contaminants in as little as 24 hours. Subsequently, Helianthus was planted on a styrofoam raft at one end of a contaminated pond near Chernobyl, and in twelve days the cesium concentrations within its roots were reportedly 8,000 times that of the water, while the strontium concentrations were 2,000 times that of the water. Helianthus is in the composite, or Asteraceae, family and has edible seeds. It also produces an oil that is used for cooking, in margarine, and as a paint additive. H. tuberosus was used by Native Americans as a carbohydrate source for diabetics.

Cannabis sativa.

In 1998, Phytotech, along with Consolidated Growers and Processors (CGP) and the Ukraine's Institute of Bast Crops, planted industrial hemp, Cannabis sp., for the purpose of removing contaminants near the Chernobyl site. Cannabis is in the Cannabidaceae family and is valuable for its fiber, which is used in ropes and other products. This industrial variety of hemp, incidentally, has only trace amounts of THC, the chemical that produces the "high" in a plant of the same genus commonly known as marijuana. Overall, phytoremediation has great potential for cleaning up toxic metals, pesticides, solvents, gasoline, and explosives. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that more than 30,000 sites in the United States alone require hazardous waste treatment. Restoring these areas and their soil, as well as disposing of the wastes, are costly projects, but the costs

are expected to be reduced drastically if plants provide the phytoremediation results everyone is hoping for. Meanwhile, of the original four reactors at Chernobyl, Reactors 1 and 3 are still operating today, providing 6,000 jobs and about 6% of the Ukraine's electricity. Reactor 2 was closed after a fire in 1991; the construction of Reactors 5 and 6 came to a grinding halt after the explosion. References, Websites, and Further Reading

What is Not Known

Phytoremediation is a very new topic in the field of science. Research began in the early 1980's,and one of the first times phytoremediation was used was in Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986 to decontaminate water and soil. Since phytoremediation is a new technique, there is still much to be discovered. One area that is being researched is genetic make-up of plants. The genes of plants could be altered so that the plant could take up certain contaminants. A limiting factor on phytoremediation is the kinds of contaminants that it can be used for. If genetically altered plants can be engineered to take up new kinds of contaminants, it would allow for a wider use of phytoremediation. One of the other more interesting concepts in phytoremediation is the potential for nuclear and hazardous waste cleanup. Right now nuclear waste is mainly stored in temporary storage facilities on site. Nuclear power plants for instance, usually have water storage tanks in which used radioactive control rods are meant to be temporarily stored. In the absence of permanent facilities, those rods are being kept in the temporary tanks. If too many rods are contained in the tanks, the coolant water could boil and the vapor could release radioactive material as well as boiling away and exposing the radioactive material. It may be possible to use plants to uptake and even possibly break down the radioactive material to smaller less dangerous compounds that could be stored in the plant. THe plants could then be harvested and stored in a manner easier and more compact than the control rods and coolant tanks. Plants, with some having the ability to uptake heavy metals, could be employed to clean up old mining sites and other sites contaminated with heavy metals. Conventional methods of cleaning those sites involves costly dig or dilution methods. Plants can be cheaply planted with the added benefit of possibly retrieving the metals. Plants that have uptaken heavy metals can be harvested, dried, and burned. The organic material would burn off leaving deposits of heavy metals that could be recycled. Conventional heavy metal cleanup does not offer an effective or profitable means for the regaining of those heavy metals that are of use in industrial processes. Plants have been mentioned in this report that are useful in the uptake of heavy

metals. New research is in store to find the most effective plants for the reuptake of those metals, both in means of speed of growth and amount of bio-mass. The best plants would be the ones that grew quickly and accumulated a high amount of biomass. NOTE ON RESEARCH ON PHYTOREMEDIATION AT MSU Phytoremediation is a promising area of new research both for its low cost and great benefit to society in the clean retrieval of contaminated sites. Here at Michigan State University, research in phytoremediation is in its infancy. The newest research is taking a look at the potential of wilow trees (salix) to uptake heavy metals. Information is being collected from prior studies at other universities and governmental sites, worldwide, on the application of willows for heavy metal uptake. With projects in these initial stages it is unclear exactly the direction of the research on willows and heavy metal uptake here at Michigan State University. But the point persists that phytoremediation as a research interest is very new and scientists and researchers here at Michigan State are at the cutting edge of what is not known in science.

Advantages and Disadvantages

There are both advantages and disadvantages to the use of phytoremediation. Some of both follow: Advantages: 1. Phytoremediation is less expensive than the old "pump and treat" method for the treatment of contaminated water. 2. Phytoremediation is also much less expensive than digging out the contaminated site. 3. Up to 95% of TCE present in water could be removed by simply planting trees and letting them grow. (Gordon, 1996 ) 4. Phytoremediation takes no maintenance once instituted. 5. Since phytoremediation uses plants, it is aesthetically pleasing. 6. After plants are introduced, wildlife is able to flourish at the once uninhabitable site. 7. Solar energy is used to drive the cleansing activity. Disadvantages:

1. Phytoremediation is limited to sites with lower contaminant concentrations. (USEPA, 1996) 2. Phytoremediation is restricted to sites with contamination as deep as the roots of the plants being used. 3. The food chain could be adversely affected by the degradation of chemicals. 4. The air could be contaminated by the burning of leaves or limbs of plants containing dangerous chemicals.

5.

Phytoremediation comes from 2 words: I. Phyto(Greek)= plant II.Remedium(Latin) = restoring balance, or remediating Therefore, phytoremediation can be difined as:

The process by which various pollutants are removed from soil, water, or air by plants.

http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/c ollection/
Phytoremediation Phytoremediation is the term that refers to the use of plants for cleaning up contaminants in soil, groundwater, surface water and air. The use of phytoremediation can be a non-polluting and costeffective way to remove or stabilize toxic chemicals that might otherwise be leached out of the soil by rain to contaminate nearby watercourses. It is also a way of concentrating and harvesting valuable metals that are thinly dispersed in the ground, and offers an attractive option for the remediation of brownfield sites. Phytoremediation encompasses several methodologies, including: phytoextraction or phytoconcentration, where the contaminant is concentrated in the roots,stem and foliage of the plant, phytodegradation, where plant enzymes help catalyze breakdown of the contaminantmolecule, rhizosphere biodegradation, where plant roots release nutrients to microorganisms which are active in biodegradation of the contaminant molecule,

 volatilization, where transpiration of organics, selenium and mercury run through leaves of the plant, stabilization, where the plant converts the contaminant into a form which is not bioavailable, or the plant prevents the spreading of a contaminant plume. The principal application of phytoremediation is for lightly contaminated soils, sludges and waters where the material to be treated is at a shallow or medium depth and the area to be treated is large, so that agronomic techniques are economical and applicable for both planting and harvesting. In addition, the site owner must be prepared to accept a longer remediation period. Plants used to decontaminate soils must do one or more of the following: take up contaminants from soil particles and/or soil liquid into their roots, bind the contaminant into their root tissue, physically and/or chemically, transport the contaminant from their roots into growing shoots, prevent or inhibit the contaminant from leaching out of the soil. The plants should not only accumulate, degrade or volatilize the contaminants, but should also grow quickly in a range of different conditions and lend themselves to easy harvesting. If the plants are left to die in situ, the contaminants will return to the soil. For complete removal of contaminants from an area, the plants must be cut and disposed of elsewhere in a nonpolluting way. Some examples of plants used in phyoremediation practices are water hyacinths (Eichhornia crassipes), poplar tress (Papulus spp), forage kochia (Kochia spp), alfalfa (Medicago sativa), Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis), Scirpus spp, coontail (Ceratophyllum demersvm L.), American pondweed (Potamogeton nodosus) and the emergent common arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia) amongst others.

Typically, researchers look for suitable phytoremediation properties among both cultivated and wild varieties of plants. If suitable wild species are not available, researchers can try to improve the effectiveness of phytoremediation by introducing different genetic varieties. One way this is done is by soaking seeds in a mutationproducing chemical, then screening the germinated seedlings for contaminant tolerance in artificial solutions containing various concentrations of the particular contaminant(s) of concern. Testing is carried out in batches of at least 50,000 seedlings at a time. The most tolerant and vigorously growing plants are analyzed for their

contaminant content and the best of them are bred to produce a line of improved plants.
Although phytoremediation has not been used extensively, it has many advantages: It is low cost in comparison to current mechanical methods for soil remediation. It is passive and solar. It is faster than natural attenuation. The amount of contaminated material going to landfills can be greatly reduced. Energy can be recovered from the controlled combustion of the harvested biomass. It is low impact and public acceptance of phytoremediation is expected to be high. A major barrier to the implementation of phytoremediation is that it is new and not fully developed. There is little regulatory experience with phytoremediation and it has to be considered on a site by site basis. Furthermore, the intrinsic characteristics of phytoremediation limit the size of the niche that it occupies in the site remediation market. Some of the other limitations to phytoremediation are as follows: It is generally slower than most other treatment methods and is climate dependent. In most cases, the contamination to be treated must be shallow. It usually requires nutrient addition, and mass transfer is limited. High metal and other contaminant concentrations can be toxic to the plants, although some plants have greater adaptation to toxicity than others. Access to the site must be controlled, as the plants may be harmful to livestock and the general public. The contaminants being treated by phytoremediation may be transferre d across media (i.e., they may enter groundwater or may bioaccumulate in animals). For mixed contaminant sites (i.e., organic and inorganic) more than one phytoremediation methodology may be required. The site must be large enough to utilize agricultural machinery for planting and harvesting. Momentum for the use of phytoremediation as a cleanup technique is building, particularly in application niches where other technologies are less suitable or do not exist. There will also likely be combined applications of bioremediationand phytoremediation. Table 7 illustrates how other remediation techniques compare to phytoremediation. http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/results.asp? search=chemistry&subject_headings=&educational_level=&type_methods=&topical_areas=&x=0 &y=0 What is Phytoremediation?

Phytoremediation (phyto means plant) is a generic term for the group of technologies that use plants for remediating soils, sludges, sediments and water contaminated with organic and inorganic contaminants. Phytoremediation can be defined as the efficient use of plants to remove, detoxify or immobilise environmental contaminants in a growth matrix (soil, water or sediments) through the natural biological, chemical or physical activities and processes of the plants. Plants are unique organisms equipped with remarkable metabolic and absorption Photo 1: Cabbage plantation growing close to capabilities, as well as transport systems that can a zinc smelter in Silesia, Poland. As a result of take up nutrients or contaminants selectively from the growth matrix, soil or water. a smelt activities lead concentration was highly increased in the soil and then picked up Phytoremediation involves growing plants in a contaminated matrix, for a required growth by a number of crops in the surrounding period, to remove contaminants from the matrix, areas.(Photo: IETU) or facilitate immobilisation (binding/containment) or degradation (detoxification) of the pollutants. The plants can be subsequently harvested, processed and disposed. Plants have evolved a great diversity of genetic adaptations to handle the accumulated pollutants that occur in the environment. Growing and, in some cases, harvesting plants on a contaminated site as a remediation method is a passive technique that can be used to clean up sites with shallow, low to moderate levels of contamination. Phytoremediation can be used to clean up metals, pesticides, solvents, explosives, crude oil, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, and landfill leachates. It can also be used for river basin management through the hydraulic control 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. How Does Phytoremediation Work? There are several ways in which plants are used to clean up, or remediate, contaminated sites. To remove pollutants from soil, sediment and/or water, plants can break down, or degrade, organic pollutants or contain and stabilise metal contaminants by acting as filters or traps.

Photo 2: Experimental phytoremediation crops in Canada (Photo: Environment Canada) The uptake of contaminants in plants occurs primarily through the root system, in which the principal mechanisms for preventing contaminant toxicity are found. 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. 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. Plant roots also cause changes at the soil-root interface as they release inorganic and organic compounds (root exudates) in the rhizosphere. These root exudates affect the number and activity of the microorganisms, the aggregation and stability of the soil particles around the root, and the availability of the contaminants. Root exudates, by themselves can increase (mobilise) or decrease (immobilise) directly or indirectly the availability of the contaminants in the root zone (rhizosphere) of the plant through changes in soil characteristics, release of organic substances, changes in chemical composition, and/or increase in plant-assisted microbial activity. Phytoremediation is an alternative or complimentary technology that can be used along with or, in some cases in place of mechanical conventional clean-up technologies that often require high capital inputs and are labour and energy intensive. Phytoremediation is an in situ remediation technology that utilises the inherent abilities of living plants. It is also an ecologically friendly, solar-energy driven clean-up technology, based on the concept of using nature to cleanse nature.