Author (s): Cristiane DC Martins, Vitor S. Liduino, Fernando JS Oliveira, Eliana Flávia C. Sérvulo Pages: 1-6 Paper ID: 144305-7171-IJET-IJENS Published: October, 2014 Abstract: Phytoremediation under greenhouse condition was investigated as an alternative to clean up an industriallymulti-contaminated soil with both petroleum hydrocarbons and heavy metals. The aim of this work was to study the ability of three sunflower (Helianthus annuus) cultivars (M, H2, and P) to absorb/degrade V, Ni, Cu, Pb, benzo (a) pyrene, and TPH (total petroleum hydrocarbons) from multi-contaminated soil. Assays were performed with three sunflower cultivars, suitable for commercial biodiesel production, in pots containing 5 kg of soil for a period of 40 days. All three varieties were able to reduce the concentration of heavy metals, benzo (a) pyrene, and TPH in the soil, however, the contaminants removal varied according to the assay conditions employed. The highest removal percentage of Ni, Pb, and Cu were obtained for H2 cultivar. On the other hand, the highest removal percentage of V was obtained when the soil was treated with M cultivar. TPH removal did not vary according to the use of different sunflower cultivars. Nevertheless, the highest removal percentage of benzo (a) pyrene was obtained with the M cultivar. The results demonstrated the potential of the phytoremediation technique using sunflower for the treatment of soil multi-contaminated by heavy metals and hydrocarbon’s petroleum.