Analysis of pollution removal from wastewater by <em>Ceratophyllum demersum</em>

Abstract

Water is one of the most stable and abundant complexes on nature that can be polluted with natural and human factors. Polluted water is harmful to human health and need to purify. One of the economic and rapid methods for elements removal is displacement of metals by biosorption. Two treatments in four replications for the purpose of purifying wastewater by Ceratophyllum demersum were designed. The treatments included raw municipal wastewater (RMW) and treated municipal wastewater (TMW). The experiment was performed at the open air of Khorasgan University area for 18 days without aeration. Result of the COD indicated that the COD of RMW and TMW were decreased from 664 to 152.75 mg/l and 260 to 64.5 mg/l, respectively. Also, this investigation demonstrated that the amount of ammonium in RMW and TMW decreased from135 to 15 meq/l and 90 to 10 meq/l, respectively. The amount of nitrate in RMW and TMW had a similar decreased from 60 to 30 meq/l as well as 4.48 to 0.53 meq/l, respectively and the amount of phosphorous in RMW and TMW declined from 13.68 to 1.15 meq/l and 4.48 to 0.53 meq/l, respectively. It could be concluded from these results that a significant amount of these macro elements were absorbed by C. demersum. The other factor that was measured in this study was the electrical conductivity (EC). Results of this factor indicated that the EC of treated municipal wastewater (from 1.34 to 0.95 ds/m) and the EC of raw municipal wastewater (from 2.68 to 2.12 ds/m) were reduced. The variation for NH₄, NO₃, COD and EC were < 5%. Therefore it was concluded that C. demersum can be used for refining wastewater.