Investigation of the Possibility of Phytoremediating a Soil Contaminated with Anthracene

Abstract

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are one of the most important organic pollutants frequently found in the environment. In this experiment, the effect of phytoremediation as a cost effective method was studied on the concentration of anthracene (C14H10) which is one of PAHs. The effect of sorghum (V1), hairy vetch (V2) and oat (V3) was studied under four concentrations of anthracene (S1, S2, S3 and S4) in soil. In S1 level which pollution was the lowest, the three plants had the highest reduction rate. The reduction rate was decreased by increasing the pollution level (S2 and S3),; the lowest reduction rate was observed in S4 level which had the highest pollution level. There was significant difference between the three plants and the fallow. Generally, hairy vetch had the highest phytoremediating capacity and resistance compared with the other plants.