Growth and Phytoremediation Potential of Watercress Nasturtium officinale R. Br. in Ammonium-rich Wastewater

摘要

Phytoremediation is considered to be eco-friendly andeff icient technology for the removal of pollutants present inwastewater. Nowadays the focus is to look for a sustainableapproach in developing wastewater treatment capability inrapidly increasing. The main objective of this paper is toreview the possibility of using watercress () for the removal of ammonium ion present inhigh-strength industrial wastewater. It was found that therewas no signif icant reduction of shoot height, root lengthand total biomass of watercress due to an increase in NH4+concentrations. Statistical analysis indicates that the lengthof roots were signif icantly (P <0.05) increased at NH4+ richwaste water supply levels of 20-25% while compared to thecontrol. The plants accumulated large amounts ofammonium ion or nitrogen in tissues under conditions ofabundant supply. The removal eff iciency of raw waste waterwas around 66 % for nitrogen, 23% for calcium,25 % for totalhardness, 22% for biological oxygen demand and 38% ofchemical oxygen demand. Nutrient removal eff iciency waspositively correlated with the initial nutrient supply. Theresults show thatgrown in the f ixed mateconomic plant-based treatment system may be aneffective, low-cost phytoremediation technology to treatwater containing a higher concentration of ammonium.