The use of phytoremediation technologies for the purification of soils contaminated with heavy metals

Использование технологий фиторемедиации для очистки почв загрязненных тяжелыми металлами

Abstract

Heavy metals are among the most toxic pollutants in the environment. This paper presents data on contaminated soils with heavy metals of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The ways of their solution are proposed and characterized. Soil contamination with heavy metals is one of the urgent problems of geoecology, they will be transferred to the soil around the storage facility and pose a great threat to the ecosystem, agricultural system and human health. Several methods are already being used to clean the environment of these types of pollutants, but most of them are expensive and far from their optimal performance. The use of plants for cleaning the environment became an effective and cost-effective method only after hyperaccumulative plants were discovered, capable of accumulating up to 5% of nickel, zinc or copper in their tissues in terms of dry weight, that is, tens of times more than ordinary plants. The article provides an overview of phytoremediation technology as an improved method of soil purification. Different types of plants are considered as hyperaccumulators. Hyperaccumulating plants are found in different families and each of them plays an important role in phytoremediation. Since each of them is unique in its own way and each has its own response to the presence of heavy metals in the soil.   The increased interest in this new technology is also explained by the fact that plants are hyperaccumulators of heavy metals, with high efficiency can be used on large areas. This property increases the efficiency of this technology and increases the demand.