Efficiency of Eichhornia crassipes in the treatment of raw kitchen wastewater

Abstract

The present water crisis mandates the reuse of wastewater for non-potable purpose. In this study, raw kitchen wastewater (KWW) was treated using Eichhornia crassipes, as a low-cost and eco-friendly remediation method. The advantage of Eichhornia crassipes is quick and high efficiency for removal of pollutants from wastewater. It was found that during characterization of raw KWW, the value of pH and the concentration of nitrate nitrogen and ammonium nitrogen were exceeding the permissible limit for irrigation water quality. A field experiment was conducted for 21 days, and the physicochemical parameters were monitored at 3 days of interval. After treatment, the concentration of nitrate nitrogen and ammonium nitrogen reduced to 97.79% and 92.03%, respectively, within 15 days, whereas the pH value increased from 4.3 to 6.67. It was found that Eichhornia crassipes showed good reduction efficiency for BOD5 (77.23%), ammonium nitrogen (92.03%), total organic carbon (39.24%) and total suspended solids (95.94%) as compared to control (KWW sample without Eichhornia crassipes). An increase of 50% biomass of Eichhornia crassipes was observed at the end of the experiment. The study found that the treated KWW can be reused for irrigation purpose as it satisfied irrigation standard guidelines.