Page 279 - Plant-Based Remediation Processes

Chapter 13
Phytoremediation Towards the Future: Focus
on Bioavailable Contaminants

Gianniantonio Petruzzelli, Francesca Pedron, Irene Rosellini,
and Meri Barbafieri

13.1 Introduction

The term phytoremediation refers to a set of technologies that employ plants for
soil, sediment and contaminated water remediation. Due to their simplicity, low
cost and, above all, environmental benefits, phytotechnologies have raised consid-
erable interest since 1990s for in situ remediation of contaminated soils. Of these
techniques, metal phytoextraction is, at least theoretically, a brilliant strategy for
the biological remediation of nonbiodegradable contaminants.
Phytoextraction and all other phytotechnologies have been extensively exam-
ined, discussed, and applied, and overall emerging framework has shown some
positive results—along with several limitations, i.e., the need for further efforts to
make them more efficient. In fact, there is a noticeable discrepancy between the
number of scientific papers based on laboratory tests and the results achieved from
concrete cleaning operations (Robinson et al. 2006). While the scientific commu-
nity has found a challenging area of research, the field application of these
technologies has encountered several difficulties that are often underestimated in
theoretical studies. The results from experiments in hydroponics or in uncontami-
nated soils spiked with pollutants, although scientifically valid, do not reproduce
the real conditions of contamination. Increasing concern derived from the
differences between expectations resulting from the theoretical data and the practi-
cal realization of remediation have led to the conclusion that phytoextraction is not
feasible in practice. This is due to the length of time required for remediation, and
the difficulty in obtaining a high biomass production with high metal concentrations
(Ernst 2005; McGrath et al. 2006; Robinson et al. 2006; Van Nevel et al. 2007).

G. Petruzzelli • F. Pedron • I. Rosellini • M. Barbafieri (*)
National Research Council — Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Section of Pisa, Via Moruzzi 1,
56124 Pisa, Italy
e-mail: meri.barbafieri@ise.cnr.it

D.K. Gupta (ed.), Plant-Based Remediation Processes, Soil Biology 35, 273
DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-35564-6_13, # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013