Advances and Applications of Water Phytoremediation: A Potential Biotechnological Approach for the Treatment of Heavy Metals from Contaminated Water

Abstract

Potable and good-quality drinking water availability is a serious global concern, since several pollution sources significantly contribute to low water quality. Amongst these pollution sources, several are releasing an array of hazardous agents into various environmental and water matrices. Unfortunately, there are not very many ecologically friendly systems available to treat the contaminated environment exclusively. Consequently, heavy metal water contamination leads to many diseases in humans, such as cardiopulmonary diseases and cytotoxicity, among others. To solve this problem, there are a plethora of emerging technologies that play an important role in defining treatment strategies. Phytoremediation, the usage of plants to remove contaminants, is a technology that has been widely used to remediate pollution in soils, with particular reference to toxic elements. Thus, hydroponic systems coupled with bioremediation for the removal of water contaminants have shown great relevance. In this review, we addressed several studies that support the development of phytoremediation systems in water. We cover the importance of applied science and environmental engineering to generate sustainable strategies to improve water quality. In this context, the phytoremediation capabilities of different plant species and possible obstacles that phytoremediation systems may encounter are discussed with suitable examples by comparing different mechanistic processes. According to the presented data, there are a wide range of plant species with water phytoremediation potential that need to be studied from a multidisciplinary perspective to make water phytoremediation a viable method.

Plants for saving the environment- Phytoremediation

“…Best known for their phytoremediation abilities in the temperate zone are Elodea canadensis, Callitriche stagnalis, Potamogeton natans, and P. pectinatus. Free-floating and submerged macrophytes are used primarily for phytoremediation of common heavy metals and metalloids: Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb, As, but also Cr, Ni (Augustynowicz et al, 2020;Delgado-Gonzales et al, 2021. ) and U (Favas et al, 2014), and to a lesser extent, also for phytoremediation of organic compounds and textile dyes (Ansari et al, 2020).…”

The effect of heavy metal lead (Pb) removal by Hydrilla verticillata, Hygrophila polysperma, and Rotala rotundifolia plants on the height and dry weight of plants

“…Heavy metals are one of the contaminants that enter water bodies and are widely studied. Heavy metals are one of the most widespread and dangerous pollutants, widely distributed in soil and water [1]. Metal pollutants such as lead, mercury, cadmium, copper, and zinc are very difficult to remove from soil, water, and air because they cannot be degraded into harmless small molecules by biochemical reactions [2].…”

Valorization of Fibrous Plant-Based Food Waste as Biosorbents for Remediation of Heavy Metals from Wastewater—A Review

“…Several technologies have been employed for eliminating heavy metals from wastewater, contaminated aquatic media, and industrial effluents over the last three decades, including chemical precipitation [ 26 ], solvent extraction [ 27 ], coagulation–flocculation [ 28 ], advanced oxidation [ 29 ], membrane filtration [ 30 ], reverse osmosis [ 31 ], ion exchange [ 26 ], ozonation [ 32 ], photocatalysis [ 33 ], adsorption [ 34 , 35 ], biosorption/bioaccumulation [ 36 ], bioleaching [ 37 ], phytoextraction using hydroponic systems coupled with bioremediation [ 38 ], phytofiltration [ 39 ], electroremediation [ 34 ], etc. However, there is no single best method to provide adequate treatment, as each treatment has its own distinct benefits and shortcomings, not only in terms of cost but also in terms of consistency, efficacy, practicability, viability, and operational difficulties ( Table 2 ) as well as environmental impact [ 40 ].…”