Reeds and Reedmace Bioreactor Technique in Wastewater Heavy Metals Treatment, Rhizofiltration

Abstract

Direct usage of plants to decrease pollution in groundwater and surface water, has gained popularity in both academic and applied fields. Phytoremediation is a low-cost technique and environmentally beneficial technology; heavy metals are absorbed via aquatic plants also usage aqua plants as fertilizer since Phragmites australis have the capability to regrow when harvesting. This would allow heavy metals to be removed from waterways over multiple growing seasons; there was a significant difference in the concentration of copper between reeds bioreactors before and after treatment. The concentration of Cu decreased from 4.00 to 0.0087 mg/L. The lower concentration of Cu values at end of the experiment might be due absorption of heavy metals from the contaminated media. The concentration of Zn was also lower than before planting having the lower concentration (0.0868 mg/L) in the fifth hydroponic. Reed has a high ability to reduce zinc concentration. The concentrations of Co and Cd decreased from 0.400 to 0.043 mg/L. As shown in the results, the levels of concentration of Cd in the reeds bioreactor were decreased. Also, the concentration of Mn decreased from 20 to 0.0219 mg/L. Moreover, Reedmace has the capacity to clean up contaminated water. The values of Cu concentration decreased from 4.00 to 0.0477 mg/L during the entire growth period. Zn from 20 to 0.1685 mg/L. Also, the concentrations of Co and Cd decreased from 0.400 to 0.043 mg/L. The concentration of Mn decreased from 20 to 0.0133 mg/L. The efficiency of reeds bioreactor for heavy metals removal in the following sequence: Mn (99.89%) > Cu (99.78%) > Zn (99.65%) > Co (89.2%) > Cd (86.08%). On the other hand, the sequence of removal efficiency of the Reedmace bioreactor was in the following sequence: Mn (99.93%) > Zn (99.15%) > Cu (98.81%) > Mn (89.25%) > Cd (88.40%).