PERFORMANCE OF MACROPHYTES IN VARIOUS WASTEWATER TREATMENT
In recent years, the amount of wastewater produced from several activities has increased as a result of the rapid improvement of living standards. Natural treatment systems are considered one of the best treatment options, particularly in warm climates. Macrophytes have capacity to improve the water quality by absorbing nutrients, with their effective root system. The reuse of treated wastewater has become a viable option to minimise water scarcity problems.
The objective of the study was to evaluate the performance of two different aquatic macrophytes in waste water treatment. This research work was carried out in three different wastewaters such as municipal wastewater, sewage and seafood processing plant wastewater using macrophytes (Eichhornia crassipes and Lemna minor ) at four different dilutions [D0 (Raw), D1(25% dilution), D2(50% dilution) and D3(75% dilution)]. E. crassipes and L. minor were inoculated separately at the rate of 10 kg and 0.6 kg wet wt / m2 in 50 l tub containing wastewaters. The water quality parameters were analysed once in a week for a period of one month.
In the present study, maximum of 96% NH3-N removal was noticed at 25% dilution in all the wastewaters. In seafood processing plant and municipal wastewater, the maximum of 98% NO3-N was noticed using E.crassipes. Among the three different wastewaters, maximum PO4-P removal of 82 and 96% was noticed in E. crassipes and L. minor treated municipal waters respectively. The maximum BOD and COD removal efficiency of 85% and 82% were noticed in raw sewage water in Eichhornia treated system. Hence, E.crassipes is a potential species for wastewater treatment especially NO3-N, BOD and COD removal. L.minor is very effective in removing the PO4-P in all the three wastewaters. The option of macrophytes in various wastewater treatments under local environmental conditions can be explored by further verifying the removal efficiency under variation of different environmental conditions. Also this is need of hour that macrophyte system should be used for treatment of wastewater because their performance is comparable to conventional wastewater treatment plants and also the system has very low operational and maintenance costs.
