Phytoremediation of organic pollutants in wastewater using native plants

Abstract

Phytoremediation is a promising technology for the cleanup of petroleum contaminated soil. Total petroleum hydrocarbon TPH are elements of difficult management and they can cause carcinogenesis and toxicity in human. Different techniques have been used for the remediation of contaminated soils, but the phytoremediation is proposed as possible alternative, convenient and environmentally friendly than traditional physicochemical techniques. In this study two systems adopted; free surface flow (FSF) and sub-surface flow (SSF) to select which system is more suitable for plant to be applied in future study of phytotoxicity test. The preliminary test for two types of plants phragmites communis (The scientific name is phragmites australis) and Helianthus annuus was conducted in a greenhouse for 14 days. The diesel concentrations used in this experiment were (0,1,2,3,5)% V_diesel/V_water for both systems. Through this period the growth parameters measured; were wet weight, dry weight, stem length, root length and observation the withered for the two plants. From this work, SSF better than FSF and Phragmites communis is better in phytoremediation than Helianthus annuus.