Assessment of Plants at Petroleum Contaminated Site for Phytoremediation

Abstract

-The study is aimed at identifying native plants growing around petroleum hydrocarbon contaminated site in Umuahia, Nigeria that has the ability to phytoremediate the contaminant from the soil. A total of 28 native plants in the area were sampled. Most of the plants demonstrated the ability to grow in a high concentration of the total petroleum hydrocarbon which is an indication that they can be used for phytoremediation of a petroleum hydrocarbon contaminated soil. Chromolaena odorata, Aspilla africana, Chloris babata, Pasparlum vaginatum, Bryophylum pinnatum, Paspalum scrobiculatum, Spondias mombim, Euragrostis atrovilens, Cyperus rotundus, Uvaria chamae all demonstrated phytoremediation characteristics in the contaminated site. Among those characteristics was the ability to survive the toxic nature of the contamination and to uptake part of the contamination. Pearson correlation demonstrated a significant and positive relations (r = 0.64, p = 0.003) (p ˂ 0.05) between the soil and root TPH. Using bioaccumulation factor as a module for phytoremediation resulted in Linear regression between TPH concentration in the soil and root tissue of Y = 1.8696x + 608.55. From this study, chromolaena odorata, Aspilla Africana and Uvaria chamae were selected as candidate plants for phytoremediation of PAHs.

Implications of Soil Pollution with Diesel Oil and BP Petroleum with ACTIVE Technology for Soil Health

“…Hence, these compounds should be removed from polluted soils as fast as possible. The rate of PAHs degradation in the soil is largely affected by the type of petroleum pollutant [6,7,73] and by plant species used for phytoremediation [16,22,74]. In the present study, the degradation of hydrocarbons was significantly affected by the petroleum product.…”

“…Petroleum products disturb the growth and development of plants [16,17,73]. Nevertheless, plant response to soil pollution with these products depends on pollutant type [73,86] and plant species [5,26,87].…”

“…The proper choice of plant species for the phytoremediation process is of the outmost significance [15,17]. A prerequisite for effective degradation of organic pollutants is a well-developed root system of plants [16,21,23], because it prevents organic pollutants migration across the environment. One of such plants meeting these criteria is Elymus elongatus which was used in our study.…”

“…Phytoremediation is deemed not only a promising technology for the treatment of polluted soils, but also one of the most cost-effective ones in this respect [15,16,17]. It includes the following methods: phytoextraction, phytodegradation, phytotransformation, rhizofiltration, phytostabilization, and phytovolatilization.…”

“…Alternatively, some substances were emitted to the atmosphere as a result of methylation [18]. Attempts of phytoremediation of soils polluted with petroleum products have been undertaken with the following herbaceous plants: Cyperus rotundus , Chloris babata , Pasparlum vaginatum , Paspalum scrobiculatum , Euragrostis atrovilens [16], Cynodon dactylon , Digitaria sanguinalis, and Cyperus orthostachyus [19]; also with: Acorus calamus [20], Chromolaena odorata , Aspilla africana , Bryophylum pinnatum [16], and Zea mays [21]; and with trees: Spondias mombim [16], Betula pendula [22], and Salix varieties [23].…”