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(16-08) Phytoremediation of Persistent Petroleum Hydrocarbons from Contaminated Soils. El-Alawi, Yousef*,1, Huang, Xiao-Dong1, Ji, Shangning1, Dixon, George1, Glick, Bernard1, Greenberg, Bruce1, 1 Dept. of Biology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada ABSTRACT- Phytoremediation of persistent petroleum hydrocarbons has received attention as it has the potential to be an effective route for remediation of such contaminants. However, in general, phytoremediation is slow for persistent organic contaminants. To improve the remediation process, multiple techniques that complement different aspects of contaminant removal have been applied to soils in combination. This resulted in an enhanced multi-process phytoremediation system with improved and accelerated remediation kinetics leading in more rapid and more complete removal of persistent petroleum hydrocarbons. The remediation process includes physical (volatilization), photochemical (photooxidation), microbial degradation and plant growth (phytoremediation) steps. The techniques applied to realize these processes are land farming (aeration and light exposure), microbial remediation (introduction of contaminant degrading bacteria) and phytoremediation (plant growth with plant growth promoting rhizobacteria). This makes the overall remediation process very effective at removal of persistent, strongly bound contaminants from soil. The key elements for successful phytoremediation is to use the plant species that have ability to proliferate in the presence of high levels of contaminants and strains of PGPR that increase plant tolerance to contaminants and accelerated plant growth in heavily contaminated soils. The rapid and massive biomass accumulation of plants in contaminated soil has led to more rapid and complete remediation processes. It appears that the combination of multi-techniques may be a viable solution for remediating persistent organic contaminants from soils. Key words: Bioremediation, Phytoremediation, Petroleum hydrocarbons, Soil |
