Mycoremediation of petroleum contaminated soils: progress, prospects and perspectives

Mycoremediation, an aspect of bioremediation, has been investigated for some decades. However, there seems to be little progress on its commercial application to petroleum-contaminated soils despite some promising outcomes. In this review, mycoremediation is examined to identify development, limitations and perspectives for its optimal utilization on petroleum-contaminated soils. Mycoremediation agents and substrates that have been used for the treatment of petroleum contaminated soils have been identified, application methods discussed, recent advances highlighted and limitations for its applications accentuated. Possible solutions to the challenges in applying mycoremediation to petroleum-contaminated soils have also been discussed. From this review, we conclude that for optimal utilization of mycoremediation of petroleum-contaminated soils, ideal environmental, edaphic and climatic factors of a typical contaminated site must be incorporated into the approach from first principles. Development of application procedures that can easily translate laboratory results to field applications is also required.