Recent Progress of Phytoremediation-Based Technologies for Industrial Wastewater Treatment

Phytoremediation is considered of a cost effective and environmentally friendly technology and has been used successfully for the remediation of soils and water contaminated with various pollutants. Specifically for full scale application to treat industrial wastewater, phytoremediation is used as sole technology for different types of wetlands. However, phytoremediation of polluted water in wetland type reactor has been mostly studied as black box. The method to measure the performance is only based on pollutant removal efficiency and there is very limited information available about of the pollutant removal mechanisms and process dynamics in these systems. Thus, the aim of this chapter was to briefly review basic processes of phytoremediation, its mechanisms and parameters, and its interaction between rhizo-remediation and microbe-plant. In addition, this chapter also elaborated phytoremediation challenges and strategies for full-scale application, its techniques to remove both organic and inorganic contaminants by aquatic plants in water, and some examples of applications in industries.