Abstract
The ongoing urbanization has led to worldwide increase of diesel consumption resulting in several environmental problems like air, water and soil pollution. Diesel comprises polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which, via various vectors like insufficient combustion, accidents, etc., are subsequently deposited in the soil because of their hydrophobicity and low water solubility. Uncontaminated agricultural or urban soils are of great importance as they have a direct impact on food security and human health. Sixteen of the PAHs have been listed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as ‘priority pollutants’ because of their mutagenic and carcinogenic properties. The removal of PAHs from the environment through phytoremediation is a growing concern and scientific interest. The main objective of this study was to investigate the phytoremediation capacity of the evergreen tree species Cinnamomum camphora for the dissipation and degradation of several PAHs of different chemical structure. A pot experiment was established with artificially diesel contaminated soil from Changsa, China. The experimental design included three different diesel contents with and without tree-plantation. An extraction method and an HPLC separation method with different detectors was developed and applied for the analysis of soil samples. The analytical results revealed that Cinnamomum camphora enhances removal of selected PAHs from the contaminated soil with reduction of 91.1% to 98.8% as well as dissipation of persistent PAHs with 4 total and aromatic rings. However a confirmative study is suggested to understand whether the dissipation effect is due to rhizosphere bacteria or combined effect of several factors.
Highlights
The ongoing urbanization has led to a worldwide increase of diesel consumption resulting with several environmental problems like air, water and soil pollution
A similar result was obtained in a pot experiment that was conducted to investigate the dissipation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the rhizosphere of ryegrass where significant dissipation of PAHs was observed in pots without plants (Binet et al 2000)
Another study carried out to assess the rhizoremediation of long term PAH contaminated soils by the plantation of Miscanthus giganteus showed that there was significant dissipation of 3, 4 and 5 rings PAH in unplanted soils
Summary
The ongoing urbanization has led to a worldwide increase of diesel consumption resulting with several environmental problems like air, water and soil pollution. PAHs are a group of highly lipophilic chemical compounds that are present ubiquitously in the environment as pollutants (Haritash and Kaushik 2009) They rapidly become associated with inorganic and organic suspended particles and are subsequently deposited in sediments and soils because of their hydrophobicity and low water solubility (Yu et al 2009). Due to their persistent, toxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic properties, determination and quantification of PAHs in the environment have received much attention for over the past three decades (International Agency for Research in Cancer 1983). Because of their potential toxic effects in human health and environment, several investigations regarding the removal of PAHs is very important and has attracted scientific interests
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