Heavy metal contamination of industrial brownfields poses a serious threat to ecosystem and human life. Phytoextraction is the use of hyperaccumulating plants to remove toxic metals from soil into harvestable above-ground biomass represents a promising low disturbance alternative to conventional excavation-based remediation. However, a critical “lab to field” paradox undermines its large-scale deployment: hyperaccumulators that perform impressively under controlled laboratory conditions, consistently underperform in real-world industrial settings due to multimetal competitive ion dynamics, soil heterogeneity and agronomic scaling constraints. This review provides an integrated field scale, ecological and techno economic assessment of commercial phytoextraction, moving beyond physiological frameworks to address structural operational bottlenecks. We evaluate multi metal substrate competitive ion uptake kinetics, synthetic microbial consortia design, biomass valorisation through low temperature pyrolysis and closed loop hydrometallurgical metal recovery. A quantitative techno economic analysis (TEA) framework based on net present value (NPV) modelling identifies high value metals (nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co) and some rare earth elements) as the primary candidates for economically self-sustaining phytomining operations. Regulatory barriers, carbon (C) market integration challenges and community social license requirements are critically assessed. This paper serves as an actionable engineering blueprint for transitioning phytoextraction from laboratory concept to commercially viable, zero-waste circular biorefinery operation.
