ABSTRACT
Distillery waste is spreading in water and soil and impart a chemical load to the environment; its integrity renders the environmental quality fairly deplorable, affecting aquatic biodiversity and plant growth. Therefore, a sustainable bioprocess is badly needed to remedy the toxicity imparted by the recalcitrant organic and inorganic pollutants in the untreated distillery waste. Various physicochemical methods have been reported for degradation and decolorization of complex waste discharged from distilleries, but these techniques are not feasible at large scale due to high cost, generation of huge amounts of toxic sludge, and other secondary pollutants. Phytoremediation is a promising, environment-friendly technique to remove pollutants from the site contaminated with toxic pollutants. This green remediating technology is based on the combined action of plants and their associated microbial communities to degrade, remove, transform, or immobilize toxic compounds located in soils, sediments, groundwater, and surface water. This chapter provides a wide review of the definition and processes of phytoremediation technology uses for waste management. In addition, the case studies on phytoremediation of distillery waste performed in India and abroad has been discussed in detail. The integration of microbial-treated effluent with constructed wetlands planted with macrophytes is successful for the efficient treatment of distillery effluent treatment.
