Sustainable Management of Environmental Contaminants Ecofriendly Remediation Approaches

This text details the plant-assisted remediation method, “phytoremediation”, which involves the interaction of plant roots and associated rhizospheric microorganisms for the remediation of soil contaminated with high levels of metals, pesticides, solvents, radionuclides, explosives, crude oil, organic compounds and various other contaminants. Many chapters highlight and compare the efficiency and economic advantages of phytoremediation to currently practiced soil and water treatment practices.

This book focuses on green nanoremediation addressing aspects related to the use of nanomaterials generated through green synthesis protocols to efficiently restore polluted environs. Nanomaterials’ characteristics such as large surface area, capacity to easily reach into contaminated sites, good reactivity, and possibility of being developed to present photocatalytic activity and/or to deal with targeted substances by chemical surface modification are useful specially to perform remediation. As an alternative to conventional physicochemical methods, the green-based synthesis protocols reject the use of harmful reagents, prevent waste production, apply renewable energy source and/or materials, and consider in first place offering the smallest negative impact possible to living beings and to the ecosystem. Green synthesis in nanotechnology field involves the use of seaweeds, bacteria, cyanobacteria, yeasts, fungi, plants (living ones, biomass, extracts) and/or bio-derived products to generate the nanomaterials.