Recovery and recycling of lithium: A review

Occurrence and toxicity of antibiotics in the aquatic environment: A review.

Polyhydroxyalkanoates: Characteristics, production, recent developments and applications

Environmental contamination by hazardous environmental pollutants is a widespread and increasingly serious problem confronting society, scientists, and regulators worldwide (Debenest et al 2010; Hajeb et al 2011; Nanthi and Bolan 2012; Shahid et al 2013a) Among these pollutants, the heavy metals, are a loosely-defined group of elements that are similar in that they all exhibit metallic properties, and have atomic masses >20 (excluding the alkali metals) and specific gravities >5 (Rascio and Navari-Izzo 2011) This group mainly includes transition metals, some metalloids, and the lanthanides and actinides Heavy metals can be toxic to plants, animals and humans, even at very low concentrations Heavy metals are natural components of the earth’s crust and are present in different concentrations at different sites (Shahid et al 2012a)

Heavy-metal-induced reactive oxygen species: phytotoxicity and physicochemical changes in plants.

The global use of petroleum hydrocarbons for energy and raw materials in various applications has increased with extensive release of a wide variety of contaminants into the environment, affecting soil, surface water and groundwater. The effect results to numerous health, ecological and environmental issues. However, treatment of contamination and pollution caused by petroleum hydrocarbons is a huge and laborious work. It involves several in situ or ex situ treatments comprising containment, separation and destruction which include biological, chemical, physico-chemical, thermal and heat, electric and electromagnetic, acoustic and ultrasonic treatment methods. These treatment methods involve several other techniques and strategies as listed in this review. The health risks pose by petroleum hydrocarbon pollution have driven scientists to research, develop and implement risk-based remediation strategies for restoration and reclamation of affected environments. To select the best treatment option for remediation, it is important to comprehend the nature, composition, properties, sources of pollution, type of environment, fate, transport and distribution of the pollutants, mechanism of degradation, interaction and relationships with microorganisms, the intrinsic and extrinsic factors affecting remediation. It helps to evaluate and predict the chemical behaviour of the pollutants with the short and long-term effects and mitigate the effects of pollution and limit exposure to the pollutants. Despite the available remediation options for petroleum hydrocarbon management and removal, sufficient and complete remediation can be implemented by adoption of proper approach derived from risk-based management procedure that can be practical, scientifically defensible, widely adapted, sustainable, non-invasive, eco-friendly and cost-efficient. This paper provides an overview of the various remediation and treatment technologies derived from risk-based approaches that are used for isolation, containment, separation, restoration reclamation and remediation of soil, sediments, surface water and groundwater contaminated by petroleum hydrocarbons and organic compounds.

Remediation of soil and water contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbon: A review

Acute and diffuse contamination of soil by organic and inorganic pollutants causes wide concerns and intentional or accidental introduction of these substances poses serious impact in public health and environment. Heavy metals are elements not degradable and can be teratogenic, mutagenic, endocrine disruptors. PAHs are elements of difficult management and they can cause carcinogenesis and toxicity in human. Different techniques have been used for the remediation of contaminated soils, but the phytoremediation is proposed as possible alternative, convenient and environmentally friendly than traditional physicochemical techniques. Phytoremediation employs different plant species able to accumulate or degrade different contaminants and, the biomass produced can be used for other purposes such as cogeneration of energy and/or biofuels production, obtaining benefits to health, environment and cost management. A better knowledge of phytoremediation potential is essential in order to increase the use of this technique in the near future for remediation of contaminated lands in the economic and sustainable way. This review provides additional information about the application of phytoremediation processes in soils contaminated by heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons using herbaceous and woody plants.

Eun Hea Jho

Papers

Phytoremediation of contaminated soils by heavy metals and PAHs. A brief review

Effect of different soil washing solutions on bioavailability of residual arsenic in soils and soil properties.

Heavy metal and sulfate removal from sulfate-rich synthetic mine drainages using sulfate reducing bacteria.

Lithium sorption properties of HMnO in seawater and wastewater.

Prediction of Cd and Pb toxicity to Vibrio fischeri using biotic ligand-based models in soil