Phytoremediation is a collective term for various ways of decontaminating contaminated soil, water and air with the help of plants. In phytoremediation, different plants’ abilities to extract, stabilise or degrade pollutants are utilized.
There are a significant number of studies showing that plants can extract and accumulate PFAS. Perfluorinated carboxylic acids (e.g. PFOA) with 3-11 carbons and perfluorinated sulfonic acids (e.g. PFOS) with 4-10 carbons are the compounds that have been studied most frequently. The distribution of PFAS in plants has also been shown to relate to chain length. Long-chain PFAS accumulate mainly in roots, while short-chain ones have a greater tendency to be transported upwards in parts of the plant above ground.
Within LIFE SOuRCE, phytoremediation was used at the Swedish site (Hovgården) for reducing the levels of PFAS remaining in the water treated with SAFF even further.
A pilot-scale phytoremediation system using two types of salix clones was evaluated using water treated with SAFF. The removal and uptake of PFAS was first tested in multiple 1 m2 pilot scale phytoremediation systems. Measurements included growth of roots and shoots, water consumption and distribution and levels of PFAS in the different plant tissues.
