Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1. INTRODUCTION: .................................................................................................................. 2
3. METHADOLOGY .................................................................................................................. 7
RHIZOFILTERATION:.............................................................................................................. 7
EXPERIMENT............................................................................................................................ 9
4. FINDINGS: ........................................................................................................................... 12
5. CONCLUSION: .................................................................................................................... 13
6. REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................... 14
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1. INTRODUCTION:
Phytoremediation is an emerging technology which uses plants and their associated rhizospheric
sediments, groundwater, surface water, and even the atmosphere. Researchers have found that
plants can be used to treat most classes of contaminants, including petroleum hydrocarbons,
chlorinated solvents, pesticides, metals, radionuclides, explosives, and excess nutrients. Plant
species are selected for phytoremediation based on their potential to evapotranspirate groundwater,
the degradative enzymes they produce, their growth rates and yield, the depth of their root zone,
DESCRIPTION OF TCE
dry cleaning operations and is one of the most extensive contaminants of soil and groundwater.
laboratory studies, chronic inhalation exposure has been found to cause liver, kidney, and neural
reactions in animals. Vinyl chloride, breakdown product of TCE, is considered even more toxic.
TCE tends to enter soil in relatively small area from leaking drums, pipes or landfills and to diffuse
outward through unsaturated zones in the soil. While it continues to move through the soil, it
reaches downward to underlying aquifers. Because TCE is denser than water, it is then "collects
in small pools of contaminant" at the bottom of aquifers. Therefore, TCE is difficult to locate and
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The World health organization estimates that drinking 1 part per million (ppm) TCE in water over
a lifetime will cause cancer cases in 32 people in 100,000, while drinking 1 parts per million (ppm)
PROPERTY VALUE
Molecular weight 131.5
Boiling Point 87 C
Melting point -73 C
Specific gravity 1.4642 at 20 C
Solubility in water 1,000 mg/liter
Log octanol/ water partitioning coefficient 2.29
Vapor pressure 60 mm Hg at 20 C
Vapor density 4.53
1.2 BACKGROUND
CHARACTERISTICS OF POPULUS
Populus is a member of the Salicaceae family and there are around 30 species of Populus
distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Populus sp. have the ability to cross within the
genus both in the wild and through controlled breeding, so there are a large number of potential
hybrids.
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• Greater than 25 species worldwide
• High transpiration rates (100 liters/day optimally for 5 year old tree)
In the case of TCE contamination, hybrid poplars (Populus trichocarpa × Populus deltoides) and
Eastern cottonwoods (Populus deltoides) have acquired most of the attention. These are said to
be as phreatophytic species, meaning that their deep roots draw water from the water table.
Additionally, poplars and cottonwoods have a fast growth rate and have demonstrated an ability
PRESENT STATUS
✓ Currently researches have been able to clarify some of the predicted mechanisms for TCE
phytoremediation. Early studies fascinating on the degradation of TCE by ex-planta
enzymes (those that are released by the plant into the root zone).
✓ Dehalogenases have been recognized as enzymes that degrade TCE; however their
degradation capacities are not fully understood. Degradation capacity depends not only on
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the production of dehalogenases and their capability to degrade trichloroethylene, although
also on their rate of release, the nature of the soil, and the concentration of
The United States military is presently testing TCE phytoremediation in the field at the Edward
Sears Site in New Jersey and at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland hybrid poplars are
being used on these sites to treat TCE contamination at depths of around 2.5 m (8 ft.). At the
Aberdeen site, the poplars have been planted as hydraulic pumps, in a pattern intended to try to
prevent TCE from moving to a nearby marsh. The major military demonstration site is at the Naval
Air Station in Ft. Worth, Texas (USA), formerly Carswell Air Force Base. Eastern cottonwoods
(Populus deltoides) have been planted at the Ft. Worth site to treat TCE contamination in the
• As phytoremediation of TCE does not have a long way record of successful use, so there
• Plant scientists, engineers and regulators must work together to develop standards for
concentration, bioavailability, and plant uptake and degradation; output parameters such as
metabolic end points, rate and extent of remediation; events within the soil, plant, air, water
matrix such as diffusion, mass balance, mass flow and costs, including true capital and
operating expenses.
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• Further research will focus on plant selection and development. Plants to be selected for
significant rates and elongate roots to deep levels. Plants other than poplars and
cottonwoods should be found; Willows (Salix spp.), eucalyptus (Eucalyptus spp.), black
• In addition, genetic engineering is seen as a promising area for plant research, as genetic
tools may enable researchers to design plants better equipped to locate and metabolize TCE
research. These technologies combine the most effective aspects of two or more strategies.
The purpose of this report is to briefly summarize the current state of phytoremediation
technology, and then focus on the use of poplar trees to degrade (TCE) in contaminated soil.
o The chemical and physical properties have shown difficulty in its removal by traditional
technologies. As the TCE is denser then water, pump and treat methods can be employed.
Many scientists and hazardous waste site managers have revealed that phytoremediation
o Our aim is to remove TCE from the contaminated soil because of it toxicity to animals and
plants. In animal, it has shown its mutagenic behavior. It can also damage to liver, kidney
and nervous system due to its inhalation. While in plants it causes electrolyte leakage.
o Outsets to our objective we will be using Populus species for this purpose. The rate of
transpiration is high and it is not part of food chain. It tress are easily grown and have long
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life. Poplar is phreatophytic plants, which means that they can extend their roots to the
water table.
and reforestation. It also have resistance to drought, salt and borers. This make its ideal for
o Primary goals can only be achieved by performing an experiment that help us to conclude
that Populus have been used for the purification of soil and removal of TCE from it.
3. METHADOLOGY
The following sections will discuss the phytoremediation mechanism that have been reported
when poplars are used to treat TCE. However, the use of these plants to degrade TCE is still a
relatively new idea, so not all of the mechanisms are clearly elaborated at this time.
RHIZOFILTERATION:
A phytoremediation technology which implements the use of aquatic and land plants for water
treatment by different methods such as absorbing, concentrating, precipitating heavy metals from
Rhizofiltration of soil:
The technique is used for the remediation of waste water through aquatic or land plants. Pb, Cd,
Cu, Ni, Zn and Cr, these are heavy metals but can be extracted by the use to Rhizofiltration
process. Plants which are employed for Rhizofiltration are populous plans, sunflower, tobacco,
spinach etc. terrestrial plants can be used for this technique as they have fibrous root systems
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RHIZOFILTARTION OF TCE USING POPULOUS:
Researchers have been researching about the possibility of using trees in the genus populous to
contain it hydraulically and remediate plumes of TCE in ground water. Wastes sites have planted
common contaminant of many of the hazardous sites. In superfund national priority list NPL, it
can be found around 50% there. It above action levels in groundwater of 17% and soils of 16%.
TCE used become prevalent primarily through its use as an industrial degreasing agent. Its use as
an solvent for dry cleaning, an aesthetic for medical and dental use and as an ingredient in paints,
OVERVIEW OF MECHANISM
The cells were capable of metabolizing TCE to produce trichloroethanol, di- and trichloroacetic
acid. Some of the carbon from TCE was found in insoluble, non-extractable cell residue, and
small amounts were mineralized to CO2. Poplar cuttings grown in soil and exposed to TCE
produced the same metabolites. In field trials, trees were planted in soil in test cells and exposed
to TCE via underground water injection during the growing season. During the growing season,
at least 95% of the TCE was removed from the influent water stream in cells containing trees.
Mass balance studies conducted in the laboratory indicated that 70 to 90% of the TCE was
transpired; however, greenhouse and field study results showed that less than 5% of the total
TCE taken up by the plants is transpired. These results show that significant TCE uptake and
degradation occur in poplars. Poplars appear to be useful for in situ remediation of TCE-
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EXPERIMENT
Cuttings of the two hybrid clones noted above were rooted in PVC (polyvinyl chloride) pipes,
20.5 cm diameter, containing a30-cm bottom layer of sand with 60 cm soil (Sultan silty clay
loam) overlay. The plants were dosed with water alone, or with 50 mg TCE/l added directly to
A total of 8 g TCE was added over a period of 8 months. During the period of growth,
transpiration was assayed by enclosing the leaves in plastic bags and pulling the air through a
charcoal filter for 0.5 hr. The results were highly variable and indicated transpiration values from
After 8 months, the plants in PVC pipes were harvested and various morphologic measurements
were taken the major difference noted was that the density of the fine roots in the sand layer of
TCE exposed plants was less than that of the controls. The plant tissues were analyzed for
metabolites of TCE using the same methods that were used for cell analyses.
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The nature and levels of the chlorinated metabolites suggest that the TCE is oxidized as it moves
from bottom roots to the aerial sections of the plant, especially the leaves. These results, together
with the products derived from the axenically cultured poplar cells, strongly argue for a role of
the plant in the metabolism of TCE, in addition to the well-known degradation of TCE by soil
microorganisms.
The mass balance of TCE in hybrid poplar trees was determined in a bioreactor. The leaves, stem
and roots of the plant were enclosed in separate sections of the chamber to allow the study of
plant uptake, incorporation, transpiration, and rhizosphere degradation without interference from
soil volatilization.
The major problems we faced were due to the volatility of TCE and its suspected metabolites,
and the absorption of these materials by commonly used laboratory materials such as rubber,
tygon, and various sealants. The chamber is shown in It is constructed of glass, aluminum foil,
Teflon, and inert inorganic materials. Note that the separate sections for roots, stems, and leaves
are independently aspirated to prevent volatile transpirates from leaking into other chambers.
Controls without plants show only 0.03% leakage of the TCE into the foliage chamber.
Small rooted poplar cuttings (approximately 20 cm tall) were planted in a peat moss/vermiculite
mixture in the root section and TCE was added to the root section to a final concentration of 5
mg/l and spiked with 2 x 106 dpm 14C-TCE. After 7 days approximately 0.8% of the added 14C
was detected in the transpirate. Several conclusions can be drawn from these three laboratory
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Second, the plants transpire some of the material, and some is metabolized to known extractable
metabolites, as found in. Finally, some material is fixed in tissue; the nature of incorporation in
tissues is under investigation. We believe that the contribution of each of these pathways towards
the destruction of TCE depends upon variables such as concentration of TCE, size of tree, nature
of soil microflora, type of soil, temperature, light intensity, relative humidity, wind velocity, etc.
Control field trials controlled field trial was set up in collaboration with the Occidental
Chemical Corporation. Double-walled cells, 3.7 m x 6.1 m X 1.5 m deep, were constructed of
60-gauge high-density polyethylene sheeting. The bottoms had about 0.3 m sand overlaid with
1.1 m Sultan silt loam. In order to ensure a uniform flow of input water, a T-shaped input pipe
was used at the bottom of the influent pipe and a 1/40 slope was oriented toward the effluent
well. Four cells were each planted with fifteen 30-cm plants of poplar clone H 11-1 1. Two of
these cells were dosed with water containing 50 mg/I TCE; the other two cells received only
water. The fifth cell, which had no vegetation, also received water containing 50 mg/l TCE.
Each of the cells received the same volume of liquid; however, variable amounts of liquid were
pumped out of the cells on a daily basis to maintain a level of about 20 cm of liquid in the
bottom of the cells. About 9 weeks after injection of TCE into the-cells, breakthrough of TCE
and related metabolites, particularly cis-1,2- dichloroethylene, occurred in the cells that did not
dehalogenation of TCE, perhaps because of ethanol, which was initially used as a solvent for the
The use of ethanol was discontinued, and the concentrations of these compounds decreased. In
cells with trees, very little TCE or metabolites could be detected in the effluent until after leaf
drop (Figure 3). Throughout the course of this first year of the experiment, a total of 957 mmol
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TCE was added to each dosed cell. Of this amount a total of 366 mmol was recovered from the
unplanted cell (cell 8, 38% recovery), while 21 and 61 mmol of TCE were recovered from cells 3
and 5, which were planted with hybrid poplars (2 and 6%, respectively). The stems, roots, and
leaves of the trees exposed to TCE showed the same products of oxidative metabolism which
were seen in the greenhouse studies and tissue culture experiments (Tables 1, 2). The 1-year-old
trees (approximately 3.5 m tall) were very effective in removing TCE from the input water.
4. FINDINGS:
As a result of 2 more years of operation of the experimental field trial, it can be found that
approximately 99% of the TCE is removed from influent water. Virtually there is no detectable
transpiration of TCE on the parts of trees that are more mature and are now 40 feet tall. An
increase in chloride ion, obtained from TCE dechlorination, appears in the soil surrounding the
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5. CONCLUSION:
The conclusion of the experiments shows that TCE has multiple fates in poplars. Although the
mass balance data would have us believe that most of the TCE taken up by the plant is
transpired, the field and greenhouse studies show that very little is transpired under field
conditions. The compound also can undergo oxidation to chloromethyl derivatives such as
which are oxidative metabolites found in mammalian livers .Variable amounts of 14C from TCE
are found fixed in insoluble, non-extractable residues. Plant uptake coupled with TCE
metabolism serves to remove TCE from groundwater and from the soil environment. Details
about these reactions and methods for increasing the amount of mass flowing along these
pathways are still under the state of investigation. Enzymes poplars are being introduced to
increase their tolerance to higher levels of TCE and to increase the fraction of TCE that is
mineralized to CO2. These experiments show that roots of actively metabolizing poplars are able
to intercept a plume of TCE-contaminated water and metabolize most of the TCE taken up. The
system shows promise where there is sufficient space to plant trees and when the roots can reach
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6. REFERENCES
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