Remediation of heavy metal contaminated soils: an overview of site remediation techniques

At the interface between the atmosphere and the earth's crust and being the substrate for natural and agricultural ecosystems, the soil is open to inputs of heavy metals from many sources. Pollution of the biosphere with toxic metals has accelerated dramatically since the beginning of the industrial revolution. In response to a growing need to address environmental contamination, many remediation technologies have been developed to treat contaminated soil, mainly mechanically or physicochemically based remediation methods, but more recently thermal and biological technologies seem to call for the attention of the scientific community, remediation project engineers and the general public. These techniques as well as their application and viability for the remediation of heavy metal contaminated soils is discussed.