Phytoremediation of RDX

Abstract

Large amounts of land and groundwater have been polluted through the manufacture, detonation, and disposal of explosives. Explosives are xenobiotic compounds, being toxic to biological systems, and their recalcitrance leads to persistence in the environment. Of the nitramines, RDX is currently the most widely used military explosive and is of particular an environmental concern because of its mobility in soil (Seth-Smith. Microbial degradation of RDX. Ph.D Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2002). Phytoremediation is an inexpensive, self-sustaining, and environmental friendly process that has the potential to remove residual energetic materials from surface soil and groundwater. It is believed that RDX is taken up by plants and accumulates as a parent compound. Currently, it is not understood what transformation pathway is used in the remediation process or if any transformation products are returned to the environment. Certain genes may be responsible for the phytoremediation of RDX. Understanding how phytoremediation works is an important step to being able to implement this technology.