The Effectiveness of Heavy Metals Pb, Cd and Zn Reduction in NPK Fertilizer Waste Combined with Biofilters of Seaweed (Gracillaria sp.), Blood Clam (Anadara sp.), and Zeolite

Abstract

The heavy metals Cadmium Cd, Pb and Zn in fertilizer factory waste in aquatic environment enables toxic level of metal concentration for the life of aquatic organism. The metal-polluted aquatic environment potentially affect is surroundings. This study aims to find out the effectiveness of the reduction of the heavy metals Cd, Pb and Zn by using a biofilter combination of seaweed (Gracillaria sp.), blood clamp (Anadara sp.) and zeolite. This study used biofilter combination between seaweed (Gracillara sp.), and blood clamp (Anadara sp.) with different concentration for each treatment. The result of this study shows that the proper use of biofilter combination can reduce the content of heavy metals Cd, Pb and Zn in NPK fertilizer factory waste. The initial contents of heavy metals Cd, Pb and Zn in NPK fertilizer factory waste were 0.01058 mg/L, 1.155 mg/L and 1.38 mg/L respectively, which were reduced into 0.0205 mg/L, 0.0736 mg/L and 0.0283 mg/L. Heavy metals Cd and Pb were best degraded at P2, while combined Zn were at P4.