Phytoremediation of Domestic Wastewater and Leachate Using Free Floating Aquatic Plants: Comparative Study

Abstract

Phytoremediation is a form of environmental remediation that uses plants to remove, degrade, or immobilize pollutants and contaminants from soil, water, and air. In this current study the potential of Eichhornia crassipes (water hyacinth) and Lemna minor (duckweed) to remove pollutants (TSS, TDS, BOD, COD) from wastewater and leachate was investigated over a period of 30 days. The efficiency of both plants in removing contaminants were calculated and compared. The experiment was conducted on raw domestic wastewater, raw leachate, and diluted leachate (75, 30, and 15%). TSS, TDS, BOD, and COD were reduced in wastewater by Lemna minor (66, 78, 78, 76%) and E. crassipes (71, 90, 85, 78%), respectively. Better removal efficiency in leachate was recorded at 75% concentrated leachate after 1 day by 25% BOD and 39% COD reduces with duckweed and 31% and 52% with water hyacinth. 30% concentrated leachate was attained a significant amount of removal efficiency after 30 days by 49% BOD and 53% COD with duckweed and 51%, 57% with water hyacinth. According to the findings of this investigation, Lemna minor and E. crassipes both considerably reduced pollutants in wastewater by more than 71% and normal clearance from leachate by more than 30%. This study’s findings demonstrate the potential of Eichhornia crassipes(water hyacinth) over lemna minor (duckweed), both plants can be used for the phytoremediation of domestic wastewater and by using enhanced methods and plants in leachate. This phytoremediation technique can be used as a pretreatment method.