Phytoremediation as an alternative for metals recovery

The growth in metal use, in the past few decades, raises concern that supplies may be insufficient to meet demands in the future. In the other hand, soil contamination by toxic heavy metals is a serious problem worldwide.  Phytoremediation is a bioremediation technique that consists of the use of plants and their microbiota in the remediation of contaminated soils. The hyperaccumulating plants absorb the contaminants, mainly the metals, through their roots, and later translocate the contaminants to their aerial parts. Metals extracted by the plants could then be recovered and recycled.

This topic is discussed in chapter 4 of the book  Biomass: Struture, Properties and Aplications from EdUFSCar. The magazine Education in Chemistry from April 2022 also presents an update of this topic.