Assisted Phytoextraction: Helping Plants to Help Us

Phytoextraction is a process in which plants are used to remove trace metal contaminants from soils. This approach for cleaning soils appears very attractive, but essentially it is still at the development stage. Assisted phytoextraction, also called enhanced phytoextraction, seeks to improve metal extraction rates by manipulating the growing conditions of the plants. However, major technical challenges remain to be resolved.