Photoextraction of copper: a case study

Biological waste water treatment is a decades-old biochemical technique. The treatment of waste water using a natural process has always been desirable. Phytoextraction is a green remediation technology used to treat polluted soils. This paper discusses the potential for copper phytoextraction to use vetiver, a hyperaccumulator plant, on a river barge. Experimental data were obtained in a research experiment in which many vetiver-filled styrofoam boxes were put in buckets filled with copper sulphate. The results of the experiment-which took place over a duration of 2 weeks-demonstrate that the vetiver set-up is more effective than the hydrophytes in copper absorption. The set-up is applicable to clean up metal contaminated lakes and rivers - for this example it will be applied to a copper contaminated pond near a mining site.