Title: Plant physiology processes associated with the application of phytotechnologies in the removal of hydrocarbons

Authors: Leonor Angelica Guerrero-Zuniga, Angelica Rodriguez-Dorantes

Addresses: Direccion de Seguridad y Medio Ambiente, Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo, Mexico City, 07730, Mexico. ' Laboratorio de Fisiologia Vegetal, Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biologicas, I.P.N., Mexico City, 11340, Mexico

Abstract: Since the initiation of the industrial age with its parallel reliance on the utilisation of the hydrocarbon reserves on earth, the biosphere has been increasingly exposed to an ever expanding chemical variety of anthropogenic origin. Phytoremediation is an environmental technology for the cleaning of polluted soils using plants that needs the knowledge about transport and fate of pollutants for the best clean-up strategy, this knowledge consists in understanding the physiological processes inside plants. Some of these biological processes that can contribute to the containment and/or remediation of contaminants and the mechanisms in phytoremediation are described in this manuscript. [Received: September 22, 2009; Accepted: December 11, 2009]

Keywords: organic contaminants; environmental technologies; phytoremediation; plant physiology; soil contamination; environmental pollution.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2010.032474

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2010 Vol.3 No.1, pp.60 - 74

Published online: 03 Apr 2010 *

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