Phytoremediation of Explosives

Referee: Dr. C. Neal Stewart, Jr., Department of Plant Science and Landscape Systems, The University of Tennessee, 2431 Center Drive, Knoxville, TN 37996-4561 There is major international concern over the widescale contamination of soil and associated groundwater by persistant explosives residues. The development of methods to remediate these contaminants has been a significant research interest for several decades. In the last 10 years, phytoremediation has emerged as a focus for explosives remediation because of its low cost, low energy requirements, and promising research observing explosives removal from contaminated groundwater and soil. More recent work has focused on the modes of transformation and metabolism of energetic compounds by plants. These biochemical studies and the experimental conditions enabling the degradation and uptake of explosives by different plant species are discussed.