Recent Advances in Phytoremediation Technology
The rapid increase in the environmental contaminants due to various anthropogenic activities has become a serious issue worldwide. New and efficient measures are explored to remove or contain the threat from the increasing levels of environmental pollutio
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Pradeep Dhanwal, Anil Kumar, Shruti Dudeja, Vinod Chhokar, and Vikas Beniwal
Abstract
The rapid increase in the environmental contaminants due to various anthropogenic activities has become a serious issue worldwide. New and efficient measures are explored to remove or contain the threat from the increasing levels of environmental pollution. Plant-based soil and water remediation (phytoremediation) is one such method which can prove to be a sustainable and promising treatment to remediate environmental problems. Phytoremediation exploits the abilities of green plants to uptake, stabilize, or metabolize the pollutants. Moreover, it is a cost-effective and environmentally safe approach as compared to conventional methods to solve the problems of soil and water pollution. Phytoremediation technique has been successfully applied to treat various contaminated sites and pollutants such as heavy metals, dyes, fly ash, hydrocarbons etc. and furthermore, research is underway for exploring new ways to improve the phytoremediation process. Keywords
Environmental • Phytoremediation • Pollutants • Heavy metals
P. Dhanwal • A. Kumar • S. Dudeja • V. Chhokar Department of Bio & Nano Technology, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hissar 125001, Haryana, India V. Beniwal (*) Department of Biotechnology, Maharishi Markandeshwar University, Mullana 133207, Haryana, India e-mail: [email protected] # Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017 R. Kumar et al. (eds.), Advances in Environmental Biotechnology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-4041-2_14
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Introduction
Rapid industrialization with increasing urbanization has enhanced the levels of contaminants in the environment and has become a serious global concern. Over the past few decades, there has been a considerable increase in the pollutants due to anthropogenic activities. Therefore, it is necessary to find new and efficient remediation methods to remove, reduce, or stabilize toxic substances introduced into the environment. Pollutants can be both organic and inorganic chemicals/compounds which include heavy metals as the major constituent of inorganic contaminants, xenobiotic compounds, hazardous wastes, explosives and petroleum products (Nikolic´ and Stevovic´ 2015). These harmful compounds are toxic by nature and can enter the food chain causing mutagenicity and carcinogenicity in animals and human (Afzal et al. 2014). Therefore, their removal from soil and aquatic ecosystem is one of the important issues in the field of environmental sciences and engineering. Traditional methods of soil remediation, such as liming, washing, leaching, turning and deep plowing, are usually energy-consuming and require expensive machinery that often causes secondary pollution. Conventional physical and chemical methods for the cleanup of soil and water polluted with organic compounds are often costly and environmentally destructive. Plant-based soil and water remediation (phytoremediation) is a sustainable and promising treatment that uses
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