Investigation of the Possibility of Phytoremediating a Soil Contaminated with Anthracene

Abstract

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are one of the most important organic pollutantsfrequently found in the environment. In this experiment, the effect of phytoremediation as a cost effectivemethod 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) insoil. In S1 level which pollution was the lowest, the three plants had the highest reduction rate. The reductionrate was decreased by increasing the pollution level (S2 and S3),; the lowest reduction rate was observed in S4level which had the highest pollution level. There was significant difference between the three plants and thefallow. Generally, hairy vetch had the highest phytoremediating capacity and resistance compared with theother plants.