Phytoremediation to Remove Pollutants from Water, Leachates and Soils

Abstract

Phytoremediation is a technique that uses various types of plants to remove, treat, translate, or destroy pollutants from soil and water. We used Sorghum vulgare to remediate soils contaminated by hydrocarbons, Chrysopogon zizanioides to treat landfill leachates, and Lemna minor to remove nickel from mining water. The phytoremediation process was performed using hydroponic crops for water and planters for soils. The soil samples were contaminated with diesel (10%). Phytoremediation process using Sorghum vulgare was performed for 30 days in planters. Soil with the same concentration of diesel without plants was used as a control (natural attenuation). The efficiency of diesel removal was 92% while natural attenuation reached a removal rate of 49%. A sample of leachate from a landfill in Cartagena (Colombia) was submitted to the remediation process using hydroponic crops of Chrysopogon zizanioides for 10 days. The metal uptake of cadmium was up to 98.4% nickel 98.7% and lead 98%. Additionally, synthetic water prepared with nickel (10%) was remediated through a hydroponic crop of Lemna minor for 10 days. This plant reached a removal efficiency of nickel of 68%. All above suggests that phytoremediation is a suitable technique to clean waters and soils.