Upgrading Wastewater Treatment by Water Hyacinth in Developing Countries

Abstract

With increasing stress on existing wastewater treatment systems, it is necessary either to upgrade the treatment unit(s) or install an entirely new treatment plant. Obviously, the upgrading is preferred over the alternative of having a new system. Keeping this in view, in the present project, an attempt has been made to explore the possibility of upgrading existing facultative ponds using water hyacinth. Bench-scale batch studies were designed to compare the performance of hyacinth treatment system with facultative ponds. Investigations were carried out with synthetic wastewater having COD in the range of 32.5-1090 mg/l. The efficiency of COD removal in water hyacinth ponds was 15-20 percent more than the facultative ponds. Based on the results, an empirical model has been proposed for COD removal kinetics. In the second phase of the project a hyacinth pond was continuously operated. BOD, COD, TS, TN, TP, pH, and DO were regularly monitored. However, the DO of the effluent from hyacinth treatment system was considerably reduced. Effluent should be aerated before it is discharged. The results indicate that the existing facultative ponds can be stalked with water hyacinth to improve their performance as well as hyacinth treatment systems can be installed to support the conventional treatment.