Phytoremediation of Heavy Metals Contaminated Soils from Landfill Site Using Sunflower

Abstract

The objective of this study is to treat heavy metals contamination in municipality landfill soils byphytoremediation. The ability of Sunflower (Helianthus Annus) grows in heavy metals contaminated soils frommunicipality landfill in uptaking lead, chromium and zinc was investigated. In addition, comparison ofethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and Chitosan to Sunflower heavy metals uptake were also explored.In this study, experiments were performed by growing Sunflower using soils from Khon Kaen Municipalitylandfill in a series of pots. After two weeks, EDTA and Chitisan were added at different ratio to increase theability of the sunflower to uptake heavy metal. Sunflowers were harvested 8 weeks after seeding to analyze forheavy metals content in its flower, leaves, stem and root.Results revealed that, the soils from municipality landfill were contaminated with lead, chromium andzinc equal to 209.00 228.00 and 963.00 mg/kg, respectively. After collected the sunflower to determine theamount of heavy metals, Sunflower uptake of zinc was found to be the highest, followed by lead andchromium, respectively. For heavy metals accumulation in the sunflowers parts, all three heavy metals hassimilar trend where heavy metals accumulate greatest in the root, followed by leaves , stem and flower,respectively.After added chelating agent that has ability to bind heavy metals, it was found that EDTA effect theability of the Sunflower in uptaking heavy metal from the soil. This is due to the ability of EDTA to dissolvesome heavy metals complex, making them available for plants uptake. On the contrary, this study found thatChitasan which can form complex with metals has no impact to lead, chromium and zinc accumulation inSunflower.