Sustainability of phytoremediation: Post-harvest stratagems and economic opportunities for the produced metals contaminated biomass.

Heavy metals (HMs) are indestructible and non-biodegradable. Phytoremediation presents an opportunity to transfer HMs from environmental matrices into plants, making it easy to translocate from one place to another. The ornate features of HMs' phytoremediation are biophilia and carbon neutrality, compared to the physical and chemical remediation methods. Some recent studies related to LCA also support that phytoremediation is technically more sustainable than competing technologies. However, one major post-application challenge associated with HMs phytoremediation is properly managing HMs contaminated biomass generated. Such a yield presents the problem of reintroducing HMs into the environment due to natural decomposition and release of plant sap from the harvested biomass. The transportation of high yields can also make phytoremediation economically inviable. This review presents the design of a sustainable phytoremediation strategy using an ever-evolving life cycle assessment tool. This review also discusses possible post-phytoremediation biomass management strategies for the HMs contaminated biomass management. These strategies include composting, leachate compaction, gasification, pyrolysis, torrefaction, and metal recovery. Further, the commercial outlook for properly utilizing HMs contaminated biomass was presented.

Ornamental plants for the phytoremediation of heavy metals: Present knowledge and future perspectives.

Environmental matrices are polluted with the plethora of contaminants, and among these, the concerns related to heavy metals (HMs) are also included. Due to the low cost in a long-term application and environmental friendliness, the use of biological remediation has gained significant attention in recent decades. The use of ornamental plants (OPs) in the field of phytoremediation is scarcely reported, and the impacts of HMs on OPs have also not been investigated in great depth. The OPs mediated HMs remediation can simultaneously remove contaminants and bring improvement in aesthetics of the site. The biomass of OPs produced after such activities can be used and sold as pot plants, cut flowers, essential oils, perfumes, air fresheners production, metal phytomining, and feedstock in silk production. The OPs also present a lower risk of HMs bioaccumulation compared to crop plants. This review focuses on the current knowledge of HMs toxicity to OPs, their applicability advantages, methods to improve the tolerance of OPs with incremented HMs uptake, challenges in the field, and future application perspectives. The case studies realted to practical application of OPs, from China, Iran, India, Oman, Pakistan, and Turkey, were also discussed. This work fetches the inter-disciplinary features and understanding for the sustainable treatment of HMs in a new novel way, to which no previous review has focused.