Shahabaldin Rezania

Comprehensive review on phytotechnology: Heavy metals removal by diverse aquatic plants species from wastewater

Environmental pollution specifically water pollution is alarming both in the developed and developing countries. Heavy metal contamination of water resources is a critical issue which adversely affects humans, plants and animals. Phytoremediation is a cost-effective remediation technology which able to treat heavy metal polluted sites. This environmental friendly method has been successfully implemented in constructed wetland (CWs) which is able to restore the aquatic biosystem naturally. Nowadays, many aquatic plant species are being investigated to determine their potential and effectiveness for phytoremediation application, especially high growth rate plants i.e. macrophytes. Based on the findings, phytofiltration (rhizofiltration) is the sole method which defined as heavy metals removal from water by aquatic plants. Due to specific morphology and higher growth rate, free-floating plants were more efficient to uptake heavy metals in comparison with submerged and emergent plants. In this review, the potential of wide range of aquatic plant species with main focus on four well known species (hyper-accumulators): Pistia stratiotes, Eicchornia spp., Lemna spp. and Salvinia spp. was investigated. Moreover, we discussed about the history, methods and future prospects in phytoremediation of heavy metals by aquatic plants comprehensively.

Perspectives of phytoremediation using water hyacinth for removal of heavy metals, organic and inorganic pollutants in wastewater.

The development of eco-friendly and efficient technologies for treating wastewater is one of the attractive research area. Phytoremediation is considered to be a possible method for the removal of pollutants present in wastewater and recognized as a better green remediation technology. Nowadays the focus is to look for a sustainable approach in developing wastewater treatment capability. Water hyacinth is one of the ancient technology that has been still used in the modern era. Although, many papers in relation to wastewater treatment using water hyacinth have been published, recently removal of organic, inorganic and heavy metal have not been reviewed extensively. The main objective of this paper is to review the possibility of using water hyacinth for the removal of pollutants present in different types of wastewater. Water hyacinth is although reported to be as one of the most problematic plants worldwide due to its uncontrollable growth in water bodies but its quest for nutrient absorption has provided way for its usage in phytoremediation, along with the combination of herbicidal control, integratated biological control and watershed management controlling nutrient supply to control its growth. Moreover as a part of solving wastewater treatment problems in urban or industrial areas using this plant, a large number of useful byproducts can be developed like animal and fish feed, power plant energy (briquette), ethanol, biogas, composting and fiber board making. In focus to the future aspects of phytoremediation, the utilization of invasive plants in pollution abatement phytotechnologies can certainly assist for their sustainable management in treating waste water.

The efficient role of aquatic plant (water hyacinth) in treating domestic wastewater in continuous system

ABSTRACT In this study, water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) was used to treat domestic wastewater. Ten organic and inorganic parameters were monitored in three weeks for water purification. The six chemical, biological and physical parameters included Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Ammoniacal Nitrogen (NH3-N), Total Suspended Solids (TSS), and pH were compared with the Interim National Water Quality Standards, Malaysia River classification (INWQS) and Water Quality Index (WQI). Between 38% to 96% of reduction was observed and water quality has been improved from class III and IV to class II. Analyses for Electricity Conductivity (EC), Salinity, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and Ammonium (NH4) were also investigated. In all parameters, removal efficiency was in range of 13–17th day (optimum 14th day) which was higher than 3 weeks except DO. It reveals the optimum growth rate of water hyacinth has great effect on waste water purification efficiency in continuous system and nutrient removal was successfully achieved.

Microplastics pollution in different aquatic environments and biota: A review of recent studies

Microplastics (MPs) are generated from plastic and have negative impact to our environment due to high level of fragmentation. They can be originated from various sources in different forms such as fragment, fiber, foam and so on. For detection of MPs, many techniques have been developed with different functions such as microscopic observation, density separation, Raman and FTIR analysis. Besides, due to ingestion of MPs by wide range of marine species, research on the effect of this pollution on biota as well as human is vital. Therefore, we comprehensively reviewed the occurrence and distribution of MPs pollution in both marine and freshwater environments, including rivers, lakes and wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). For future studies, we propose the development of new techniques for sampling MPs in aquatic environments and biota and recommend more research regarding MPs release by WWTPs.

Phytoremediation of Palm Oil Mill Secondary Effluent (POMSE) by Chrysopogon zizanioides (L.) using artificial neural networks.

ABSTRACT Artificial neural networks (ANNs) have been widely used to solve the problems because of their reliable, robust, and salient characteristics in capturing the nonlinear relationships between variables in complex systems. In this study, ANN was applied for modeling of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and biodegradable organic matter (BOD) removal from palm oil mill secondary effluent (POMSE) by vetiver system. The independent variable, including POMSE concentration, vetiver slips density, and removal time, has been considered as input parameters to optimize the network, while the removal percentage of COD and BOD were selected as output. To determine the number of hidden layer nodes, the root mean squared error of testing set was minimized, and the topologies of the algorithms were compared by coefficient of determination and absolute average deviation. The comparison indicated that the quick propagation (QP) algorithm had minimum root mean squared error and absolute average deviation, and maximum coefficient of determination. The importance values of the variables was included vetiver slips density with 42.41%, time with 29.8%, and the POMSE concentration with 27.79%, which showed none of them, is negligible. Results show that the ANN has great potential ability in prediction of COD and BOD removal from POMSE with residual standard error (RSE) of less than 0.45%.

Optimization of aluminium recovery from water treatment sludge using Response Surface Methodology

For decades, water treatment plants in Malaysia have widely employed aluminium-based coagulant for the removal of colloidal particles in surface water. This generates huge amount of by-product, known as sludge that is either reused for land applications or disposed to landfills. As sludge contains high concentration of aluminium, both can pose severe environmental issues. Therefore, this study explored the potential to recover aluminium from water treatment sludge using acid leaching process. The evaluation of aluminium recovery efficiency was conducted in two phases. The first phase used the one factor at a time (OFAT) approach to study the effects of acid concentration, solid to liquid ratio, temperature and heating time. Meanwhile, second phase emphasized on the optimization of aluminium recovery using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). OFAT results indicated that aluminium recovery increased with the rising temperature and heating time. Acid concentration and solid to liquid ratio, however, showed an initial increment followed by reduction of recovery with increasing concentration and ratio. Due to the solidification of sludge when acid concentration exceeded 4 M, this variable was fixed in the optimization study. RSM predicted that aluminium recovery can achieve 70.3% at optimal values of 4 M, 20.9%, 90 °C and 4.4 h of acid concentration, solid to liquid ratio, temperature and heating time, respectively. Experimental validation demonstrated a recovery of 68.8 ± 0.3%. The small discrepancy of 2.2 ± 0.4% between predicted and validated recovery suggests that RSM was a suitable tool in optimizing aluminium recovery conditions for water treatment sludge.

Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Groundwater Quality in Selangor, Malaysia

The groundwater quality varies in short periods affected by the natural and anthropogenic factors. This study examines the spatial and temporal variations of groundwater quality at Selangor, Malaysia aimed to determine the availability of groundwater resources. Providing information and data for a holistic and comprehensive management, sustainable development of groundwater can be implemented based on the quantity and quality monitoring. The temporal variations of these major water quality data were cross-checked against the hydrologic variations. The mapping and graph of water parameters were plotted and analysed using geographic information system (GIS). Analysis was based on a short-term data collected from three prominent groundwater wells supplying raw water. A total of 22 water parameters were used for quality analysis and then compared to the previous results conducted by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in 2002. Results showed that the availability of groundwater in Selangor State quantity was adequate and the quality meets the requirement standard. Considering the fact that groundwater is part of the hydrologic cycle, proper water management procedures, planning and policies can be achieved only through an integrated approach involving both surface water and groundwater.