ABSTRACT
Phytoremediation, the use of pJants for environmental remediation, has emerged over the past decade as a potentially cost-effective alternative to the engineering-based methods that have traditionally been used to remediate heavy metaJ and radionuclide contaminated soils. While these Jatter methods havc costs ranging from $10 to as high as $3000 per cubic meter of soiJ, depending on the nature of the contamination and the method of treatment or removal, projected costs for phytoremediation are severaJ orders of magnitude lower, as Jow as $0.02 to $1 per cubic meter [J]. Phytoextraction, one of severaJ phytoremediation biotechnologies, utilizes successive crops of selected plants to remove, or extract inorganic contaminants from soil and concentrate them in the plant shoots. After a specified period of growth, each crop is harvested to remove the contaminant(s) from the site. Harvested plant material is then dried and ashed in a volume-reduction step prior to storage as hazardous waste.
