Energy crops in sustainable phytoremediation

Phytoremediation is a holistic approach and can be used in large scale to remediate the contaminated land resources. Although the concept of phytoremediation is few decades old and has been applied on a wide range of pollutants, but their sustainability is still questioned at various scientific forums. Therefore, it is the need of the hour to remediate our valuable resources with due considerations for future generations. Such a synergistic bonding by using potential energy crops in phytoremediation programs would be useful to generate new bioenergy resources along with the remediation of contaminated soil. There are several energy crops in the world, but four promising and dedicated energy crops i.e. Miscanthus, Ricinus, Jatropha, Populus have primarily considered in this review to accomplish energy demands with their phytoremediation potential. These four energy crops also act as potential carbon sink and offer an additional profit as carbon tax credits. In recent time we have been able to improve our understanding in phytoremediation, but use of energy plants were not considered so far to make this venture socio-economically acceptable to the society. The present review provides a strategy for linking energy crops in phytoremediation to resolve the sustainability issues and effectively solve the challenges of ever increasing contaminated sites and biofuel demands now and for future. (c) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.