Research Article PHYTOREMEDIATION OF MERCURY FROM CFL LAMPS

Phytoremediation is an emerging and effective innovative technology for treatment of a wide variety of contaminants. This work mainly focuses on removal of heavy metal mercury which has life threatening properties with respect to environment. Understanding the alarming effects of mercury on the environment and human health is the main aim of the present study and to develop a process that would facilitate the reduction of mercury emissions into the atmosphere and water bodies by phytoremediation. The ICP-MS results shows that mercury content in CFL bulbs vary significantly with brand. The amount of mercury collected from phosphor powder, glass and vapour phase are 60.8 mg/kg, 7.16 mg/kg and 7.16ppb respectively. Then the recovered mercury was subjected to phytoremediation using two different plant extracts and the result showed better bioremediation and IC50 at 62.5 μg using MTT assay