Rhizospheric Treatment of Hydrocarbons Containing Wastewater

Hydrocarbons have a global attention as some of harmful contaminants due to their potential in causing fatal disease to mankind. In India, their usage is being continuously increasing to meet the needs of growing population from last few decades. Hydrocarbon discharge from various anthropogenic activities (viz., petrochemical industries, gasification, incineration) are primarily causing the detrimental effect onto the soil health and groundwater. Therefore, several methodologies and hybrid technologies are being developed for the remediation of these hydrocarbons, including physical, chemical, and biological processes. But, the remediation processes employing microorganisms and plants have been considered as environmental friendly as well as cost-effective techniques. Moreover, several efforts have been made in improving the effectiveness of these technologies. This chapter provides an understanding of remediation techniques by highlighting the multidisciplinary aspects. These approaches can be effectively deployed for the soil and groundwater remediation. Further, an approach of exploring the experimental outcomes in combination with the numerical modeling has been discussed which is a beneficial tool for making the technology transfer feasible from laboratory to field scale applications effectively as well as in cost-effective manner.