Phytoremediation of sewage sludge in soils contaminated with heavy metals

Abstract

The main source of heavy metals in most soils is sewage sludge. Naturally, the heavy metals in soils are transported to vegetations and cultivated crops. These pollutants need to be either reduced or eliminated in the soil to remediate the effects to man, animals, plants, soils, and groundwater. Hence, Jatropha curcas seedlings were planted on six different media to determine the concentration of heavy metals. Thereafter, it was discovered that Jatropha curcas plants through their roots, stems and leaves metabolism, morphology and mechanisms can reduce the concentration of heavy metals like Zinc, Lead, Chromium, Cadmium, and Copper etc effectively from any medium containing 100% sewage sludge. Thus, it was discovered that Jatropha curcas plant is suitable as a phytoremediator of heavy metals in soils.

KEYWORDS: Heavy metal, phytoremediation, sewage sludge, metabolism, morphology.