Chapters authored
Metal-Contaminated Soil Remediation: Phytoremediation, Chemical Leaching and Electrochemical Remediation
Soil contamination has led to serious land tenure problems, reduction in land usability for agricultural production; as a consequence, food insecurity is nowadays a global challenge. Indeed, with rapid population growth across the world, the food demand for consumption has drastically increased and traditional ways of producing food cannot meet with the actual demand. Industrialization has been acknowledged as a way out to sustain humanity with food. Unfortunately, the later has further turn into a threat to the environment. In effect, several potentially toxic elements (PTE) are being released in the environment and soil systems; and arable or agricultural lands are getting restraint, limited and scarce. Nowadays, there is a consensus on remediating contaminated lands with PTE, mainly inorganic contaminants, metals. The state at which a metal is found in the soil greatly influences its bioavailability, interaction with plants and the level at which it will threaten (toxicity) the environment and thus human. It even defines the remediation approaches to be applied for the soil restoration. This chapter will provide an insight on the occurrence of PTE in the soil, bioavailability and remediation approaches namely phytoremediation, chemical leaching and electrochemical remediation; and finally highlight the future research direction on this topic.
Part of the book: Metals in Soil