Wastewater Treatment Potential of Water Lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) with Modified Engineering Design

• Published in: Journal of water chemistry and technology Vol. 41; no. 3; pp. 197 - 205
• Main Authors: Gaballah, M. S., Ismail, K., Beltagy, A., Zein Eldin, A. M., Ismail, M. M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow Pleiades Publishing 2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Ammonia; Aquatic plants; Aquatic Pollution; Biological Methods of Water Treatment; Copper; Design engineering; Design modifications; Earth and Environmental Science; Environment; Floating plants; Freshwater plants; Heavy metals; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Iron; Metals; Nickel; Pistia stratiotes; Removal; Waste Water Technology; Wastewater; Wastewater treatment; Water depth; Water Industry/Water Technologies; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Water Quality/Water Pollution; Water treatment; plant coverage; biochemical parameters; water measurements
• ISSN: 1063-455X; 1934-936X
• DOI: 10.3103/S1063455X1903010X

The layout of the system comprised 3 experimental units with 3 replicates. Each unit consists of one level of water depth with four levels of Pistia stratiotes coverage (50; 70; 90 and 0% (control)) under the outdoor condition. The results indicated that P. stratiotes can be successfully used for wastewater treatment since it had the ability to achieve the goal of proposed design; where the highest removal percentages of BOD 5 ; NH 3 ; TN; TP were 83.5; 97.53; 90.3; 87% after 5; 3; 5; 4 days, respectively in the case of 25 cm of water depth with plant coverage of (90; 70; 50 and 70%, respectively). As compared with K—C* and P—K—C* models, this system achieved high removal efficiencies of water measurements and heavy metals (Fe, Cu, Ni and Pb). The results showed that this aquatic plant P. stratiotes can be successfully used for waste water treatment and therefore can be used for large-scale.