Feasibility Study of Phytoremediation in Wastewater Treatment

Surface and subsurface water resources are polluted due to rapid urbanization and industrialization, population exploitation etc. Now the water consumption is more and the clean water demand is also high. Recycle and reuse of wastewater is the solution to solve these problems. Phytoremediation is an emerging natural green technology that removes the contaminants from water, soil and sediments by using natural properties of wetland plants. Grey water and industrial wastewater such as dairy effluent are treated with different commonly available wetland plants to analyze the feasibility of phytoremediation in wastewater treatment by constructing the simple wetland based technology (popularly known as phytorid technology). In the present study comparative assessment of the efficiency of different available natural wetland plants are analyzed. These plants are planted in the 3 small scale phytoremediation chambers (cannas plant& umbrella palm in first chamber, water hyacinths& fern type vascular plants in second chamber, combination of both of these and marigold, pea plant, hibiscus are planted in third chamber). The physicochemical characteristics such as turbidity, pH, TSS, TDS, BOD, COD, iron, chloride were done before and after treatment. The results are compared with CPCB standards. Result shows promising reduction in BOD, COD, turbidity, TSS, and also irons and chloride contents are reduced. The result also reveals the effect of microbial action in rhizosphere which promote plant growth have considerable effect on phytoremediation.