{"id":10593,"date":"2021-11-29T11:37:36","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T10:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/litoclean.com\/blog\/what-differentiates-phytoremediation-from-other-decontamination-technologies\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T08:57:01","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T06:57:01","slug":"what-differentiates-phytoremediation-from-other-decontamination-technologies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.litoclean.com\/en\/blog\/what-differentiates-phytoremediation-from-other-decontamination-technologies\/","title":{"rendered":"What differentiates phytoremediation from other decontamination technologies?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pollutants of anthropogenic origin, i.e. from human activities, can adversely affect health and the environment.\nEven low levels of such pollution can present risks due to the physicochemical nature of the substances released and have an impact on the various environmental compartments, such as the hydrosphere (water), the lithosphere (soil), the atmosphere (air\/gas) and the biosphere (animals and plants). <\/p>\n\n

When a source of contamination is identified in the subsoil (soil and groundwater), various technologies can be useful for its decontamination.\nBut, among all those available, bioremediation is gaining strength.\nThis type of methodology uses biological processes to degrade contamination to innocuous compounds or to reduce their concentrations to levels below the limits established by regulatory entities 1.<\/sup> <\/p>\n\n

Given the context of climate change, loss of biodiversity and scarcity of resources in which we find ourselves, bioremediation, due to its inherent sustainability, acquires prominence as a key technology in decontamination processes.<\/p>\n\n

What is phytoremediation?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

La fitorremediaci\u00f3n<\/a> es un tipo de biorremediaci\u00f3n en la que se utilizan especies vegetales, y los microorganismos del suelo asociados a sus ra\u00edces, para disminuir las concentraciones o los efectos t\u00f3xicos de los contaminantes en el medio. As\u00ed, la tecnolog\u00eda de la fitorremediaci\u00f3n se puede utilizar para varios compartimentos ambientales y para diversos tipos de contaminantes, ya que puede implicar diferentes procesos de transformaci\u00f3n o acci\u00f3n sobre la contaminaci\u00f3n (Figura 1)\u00a02,3<\/sup>. Por ejemplo, en el caso de los procesos de fitodegradaci\u00f3n o fitovolatilizaci\u00f3n, se puede conseguir una disminuci\u00f3n de las concentraciones o la completa transformaci\u00f3n de los contaminantes a compuestos inocuos. Mediante la fitoestabilizaci\u00f3n, lo que se consigue es reducir la movilidad\/biodisponibilidad de los contaminantes y, por tanto, disminuir su dispersi\u00f3n y el riesgo potencial sobre la salud humana y ecosistemas. Finalmente, la t\u00e9cnica de la fitoextracci\u00f3n se basa en la acumulaci\u00f3n de los contaminantes en el tejido vegetal de las plantas utilizadas. (Tabla 1).<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Figure 1<\/em><\/strong>:\n(A) Modelo esquem\u00e1tico de las diferentes tecnolog\u00edas de fitorremediaci\u00f3n y que implican la fijaci\u00f3n o eliminaci\u00f3n de los contaminantes;\n(B) Procesos fisiol\u00f3gicos que ocurren en las plantas durante la fitorremediaci\u00f3n (Fuente: adaptado de Greipsson 2<\/sup>). <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
Technology<\/strong><\/td>Action on contaminants<\/strong><\/td>Main types of contaminants<\/strong><\/td>Vegetation<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Phytostabilization<\/td>In-situ<\/em> fixation<\/td>Organics and metals<\/td>Maintenance coverage<\/td><\/tr>
Phytodegradation<\/td>In situ<\/em> degradation<\/td>Organics<\/td>Maintenance coverage<\/td><\/tr>
Phytovolatilization<\/td>On-site<\/em> disposal<\/td>Organics and metals<\/td>Maintenance coverage<\/td><\/tr>
Phytoextraction<\/td>In situ<\/em> accumulation and ex situ<\/em> disposal<\/td>Metals<\/td>Repetitive harvesting<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n

Table 1<\/em><\/strong>Comparison between various phytoremediation technologies (Source: adapted from Greipsson 2<\/sup>).<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Comparison with other decontamination technologies<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Bioremediation technologies, including phytoremediation, are considered cost-effective environmental restoration strategies.\nThis is true both at an economic and technical-environmental level, since they represent an easy-to-implement alternative to conventional remediation systems, which are also resource-intensive and usually more destructive to the soil 2.<\/sup>\nIn addition, the possibility of treating the contamination in situ<\/em> and not generating a final waste reduces the life cycle of these processes and the potential local toxic impacts, which makes them very attractive remediation strategies 4.<\/sup>\nFor this reason, bioremediation has become one of the preferred technologies for soil and groundwater remediation 5.<\/sup> <\/p>\n\n

In particular, phytoremediation, in turn, presents the possibility of generating very interesting synergies, including revegetation 6,7<\/sup>, ecological restoration of degraded areas 8<\/sup> or the production of biofuel from biomass .<\/sup> <\/p>\n\n

However, phytoremediation techniques also present some key points that must be taken into account, especially during the design phase of the remediation system, to ensure the effectiveness of the treatment.\nFor example, it must be taken into account that the scope of phytoremediation is limited to the root zone of the plants, so it will only act on the affection located at those depths, and that its effectiveness will be reduced when the concentrations of contaminants are toxic to them 2.<\/sup> <\/p>\n\n

Thus, although phytoremediation technologies have been studied and applied for years and many of the remediation approaches are promising 9<\/sup>, it is also true that some experts in the field have shown concern about their remediation capacity and efficiency 10<\/sup> and there has not yet been significant commercial application of this technology and related produced crops.<\/p>\n\n

Phy2Climate Project<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

LITOCLEAN has experience in the field of R&D and phytoremediation<\/a>, and one of the active projects is currently part of the Horizon 2020 (H2020) strategy of the European Union (EU).\nThe Phy2Climate project<\/a> is entitled “A global approach for recovery of arable land through improved phytoremediation coupled with advanced liquid biofuel production and climate friendly copper smelting process<\/em>” and brings together 17 partners<\/a> from 10 different countries. <\/p>\n\n

The objective of the project, which is divided into several work teams<\/a>, is to connect and combine the processes of phytoremediation of contaminated sites with the clean production of biofuels.\nThese biofuels will not present land use change risks, and it will be studied whether phytoremediation will decontaminate soils affected by a wide variety of contaminants, making the restored land available for agriculture, while improving the overall sustainability, legal framework and economics of the process.\nThis will promote the revaluation of a waste (both contaminated soil and contaminated biomass generated during phytoremediation) and the generation of a product with market value (biofuel), contributing significantly to the MissionInnovation Challenge<\/em> for sustainable biofuel production, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the circular economy. <\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Figure 2<\/em><\/strong>Phy2Climate project concept (Source: Phy2Climate).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Technically, the Phy2Climate project investigates phytoremediation processes of contaminated sites with different characteristics (type of contamination – metals and total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH), soil type, climate, legislation) in 5 regions of the world (South America, Europe and Asia).\nOnce the biomass is harvested, it will undergo an innovative cascade conversion technology to produce value-added products such as direct biofuels for road and maritime transport, as well as bio-coke, as a replacement for petroleum coke in the metallurgical industry. <\/p>\n\n

In particular, LITOCLEAN is collaborating with two Spanish technology partners (EXOLUM and LEITAT) in the optimization of phytoremediation strategies at a site located in Tarragona<\/a> and contaminated by TPH.\nDuring last spring, a preliminary characterization of the soil under study was performed and laboratory tests with four plant species in hydrocarbon phytoremediation were initiated.\nBased on the results obtained, the field pilot is being designed, which is expected to start next March. <\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Figure 3. <\/em><\/strong>Conducting soil sampling (P1, P2, P3, P4) and soil sampling during the preliminary characterization of the pilot test site in Spain (Source: Phy2Climate).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Authors: <\/strong>Nat\u00e0lia Bl\u00e1zquez, Carlos Herrarte, David Garriga and Mar\u00e7al Bosch<\/p>\n\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

1. Crawford, R. L. & Crawford, D. L. Bioremediation: principles and applications<\/em>.\n(Cambridge University Press, 2005). <\/p>\n\n

Greipsson, S. Phytoremediation. Nat.\nEduc.\nKnowl. <\/em> 3<\/strong>, 7 (2011).<\/p>\n\n

3. Lee, J. H. An overview of phytoremediation as a potentially promising technology for environmental pollution control. Biotechnol.\nBioprocess Eng. <\/em> 18<\/strong>, 431-439 (2013).<\/p>\n\n

4. Lemming, G. et al.<\/em> Environmental impacts of remediation of a trichloroethene-contaminated site: Life cycle assessment of remediation alternatives. Environ.\nSci.\nTechnol. <\/em> 44<\/strong>, 9163-9169 (2010).<\/p>\n\n

5. Pandey, J., Chauhan, A. & Jain, R. K. Integrative approaches for assessing the ecological sustainability of in situ bioremediation. FEMS Microbiol.\nRev. <\/em> 33<\/strong>, 324-375 (2009).<\/p>\n\n

6. Yan, A. et al.<\/em> Phytoremediation: A Promising Approach for Revegetation of Heavy Metal-Polluted Land. Front.\nPlant Sci. <\/em> 11<\/strong>, 359 (2020).<\/p>\n\n

7. Tran, H.-T. et al.<\/em> Revegetation on abandoned salt ponds relieves the seasonal fluctuation of soil microbiomes. BMC Genomics<\/em> 20<\/strong>, 478 (2019).<\/p>\n\n

8. Gaji\u0107, G. et al.<\/em> Ecological Potential of Plants for Phytoremediation and Ecorestoration of Fly Ash Deposits and Mine Wastes. Front.\nEnviron.\nSci. <\/em> 6<\/strong>, 124 (2018).<\/p>\n\n

9. Peuke, A. D. & Rennenberg, H. Phytoremediation. EMBO Rep.<\/em> 6<\/strong>, 497-501 (2005).<\/p>\n\n

10. Conesa, H. M., Evangelou, M. W. H., Robinson, B. H. & Schulin, R. A critical view of current state of phytotechnologies to remediate soils: Still a promising tool? Sci.\nWorld J. <\/em> 2012<\/strong>, 1-10 (2012).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pollutants of anthropogenic origin, i.e. from human activities, can adversely affect health and the environment. Even low levels of such pollution can present risks due to the physicochemical nature of the substances released and have an impact on the various environmental compartments, such as the hydrosphere (water), the lithosphere (soil), the atmosphere (air\/gas) and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9050,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[242,239],"tags":[322,253,257,254],"class_list":["post-10593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soil-blog","category-water-blog","tag-phytoremediation","tag-soil-decontamination","tag-tph-en","tag-water-treatment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.litoclean.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.litoclean.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.litoclean.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.litoclean.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.litoclean.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10593"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.litoclean.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14380,"href":"https:\/\/www.litoclean.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10593\/revisions\/14380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.litoclean.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.litoclean.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.litoclean.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.litoclean.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}