Özet:

This work investigates the use of lemon grass to remediate mechanic workshop soil. Contamination of soil with engine oil and other petroleum hydrocarbons is a problem in Nigeria. It has been reported previously by Pam et al. 2013 and Fayinminnu and Abimbola, 2016 respectively that analysis of samples of the soils in mechanics workshops revealed that the concentrations for most heavy metals such as Cadmium (Cd), Copper (Cu), Manganese (Mn), Nickel (Ni), Lead (Pb) and Zinc (Zn), in the soils are above background levels and permissible limits recommended for soils. Hence the need to remediate contaminated mechanic workshops soil in Nigeria. Phytoremediation was studied for 96 days. After the 52 days of planting, the heavy metals uptake in each sample was analyzed for root, stem and leaves at an interval of 21 days specifically for Lead (Pb), Nickel (Ni) and Cadmium (Cd). Absorption Atomic Spectroscopy (AAS) analysis showed that lemon grass uptakes lead, Nickel and Cadmium. The percentage removal of these heavy metals from the residual oil contamination soil was 95% lead (Pb), 67 % Nickel (Ni) and 83 % Cadmium (Cd) respectively while the 99.3 % Total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) of the contaminated soil before planting decreased to 31.20 % after the 96 days period. Lemon grass remove significant amount of heavy metals (Pb, Ni and Cd) from the mechanic workshop contaminated soil. Thus, lemon grass has a hyper-accumulative uptake capacity for bioavailable residual oil heavy metals, therefore it is suitable for the phytoremediation of the contaminated soil.

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