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Phytoremediation is the use of certain plants to clean up soil,
sediments, and water contaminated with metals organic contaminants such as crude
oil, solvents and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). The word Phytoremadiation
comes from the Greek word phyton, meaning “plant,” and the Latin word
remediare, meaning, “to remedy.” This word in general is used to describe a
system whereby certain plants, working together with soil organisms, can
transform contaminants into harmless and often, valuable forms. This practice is
increasingly used to remediate sites contaminated with heavy metals and toxic
organic compounds.
(Wwwoocities.com/CollegePark/Lab/9619/phyto1.html)
Phytoremadiation is a
name for the expansion of an old process that occurs naturally in
ecosystems as both inorganic and organic constituents cycle through plants.
Plant physiology, agronomy, microbiology, hydrogeology, and engineering are
combined to select the proper plant and conditions for a specific site.
Phytoremediation is an aesthetically pleasing mechanism that can reduce remedial
costs, restore habitat, and clean up contamination in place rather than
entombing it in place or transporting the problem to another site. . (Todd
Zynda Michigan University TAB Program).
Phytoremediation is the direct use of living green plants for in situ, or in place, risk reduction for contaminated soil, sludges, sediments, and ground water, through contaminant removal, degradation, or containment. Growing and, in some cases, harvesting plants on a contaminated site as a remediation method is an aesthetically pleasing, solar-energy driven, passive technique that can be used to clean up sites with shallow, low to moderate levels of contamination. This technique can be used along with or, in some cases, in place of mechanical cleanup methods. Phytoremediation can be used to clean up metals, pesticides, solvents, explosives, crude oil, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, and landfill leachates. (Recent Development for In Situ Treatment of Metal Contaminants Soils, March 1997).
The concept of using plants to clean up their environment is not a new one, but most research in this area was strictly in studying those few wild plants that actually grew in waste infested areas. It wasn't until Dr. Ilya Raskin, a Russian born US educated scientist, came along that phytoremediation was actually born. Dr. Raskin, who not only came up with this new technology involving plants, but also named it; came to the United States in 1976. In 1989, he encountered a company called Envirogen Inc., which was using mico-organisims to degrade and clean up oils and chemicals in soil. Dr. Raskin became interested in finding a similar technology to clean up heavy metals, one this micro-organisms just can't do. It was at this point that Dr. Raskin remembered some reading he did back home. He states: "I remembered reading Russian papers from the 1930's and 1940's about geobotany, in which they prospected for minerals by looking at the plants. Some plants have a high capability of accumulating metals from the soil." These plants gave a clue to what minerals were under the surface, but couldn't these same plants be used to absorb the metals from the soil? It was then that phytoremediation was born. Dr. Raskin and others have science spent many hours finding those plants that best took metals from their environment.(www.Geocities.com/College/Park/Lab/961/phyto1.Html).