WASTE WATER TREATMENT USING AQUATIC PLANTS

Abstract

In wastewater engineering, one of the most sophisticated methods of wastewater treatment is the tertiary treatment or biological treatment. A large number of inputs in the form of capital investment and energy have been placed for few decades now for meeting up the wastewater treatment objectives. To compensate these costs, natural wastewater treatment technologies, particularly the application of aquatic plants for wastewater treatment have been considered for quite long. The ability of aquatic ecosystem, mainly the aquatic plants to carry out wastewater purification has been exploited and this forms one of the major principles for natural wastewater treatment technologies. This study report, constitute of various underlying concepts and principles involved in the wastewater treatment using aquatic plants. The report also present the results obtained from the research study carried to investigate the treatment or removal efficiency of aquatic plants to remove pollutants from wastewater via constructed wetland technology. A generalized criterion for selection of aquatic plants has also been presented after undertaking different literature study. From the experimental work, it was evident that aquatic plant brings about significant removal rate when design for optimum operating conditions. Aquatic plant systems are as valid as land treatment systems or conventional systems, but each has its strong and weak points. Aquatic plants are not the answer to every problem, but they should at least be considered during design reviews. Small communities with some open land are prime candidates for an aquatic plant system. More attention needs to be devoted to macrophytes species selection for maximizing the treatment performances.