Study of Phytoremediation Capability in Sulfate Removal from Water

Abstract

Phytoremediation is known as a pollutants method with low cost, without operational complexity, with low energy consumption and no need for sludge disposal. In this study, hydroponic cultivation was chosen for estimation of sulfate removal as a significant sulfur compound in effluents on two fenny plants: pampas grass and bamboo.In this case, the plants were examined under two different retention times and after determining the optimum time (7 days), the main experiments were done for evaluating the plants removal efficiency and sulfate mass absorbance by plants. For better analysis, T-Test and ANOVA with significant influence (p < 0.05%) were also done. Finally, the removal efficiency in pampas grass for all concentrations of 50, 200, 300, 600, 900, 1200, 1500 and 3000 mg/L were 44, 36, 34.22, 30.55, 15.93, 9.72, 7.77 and 4.44 percent, respectively, which were up to two times higher for the bamboos.

Keywords

• Hydroponic
• Phytoremediation
• Pampas Grass
• Bamboo
• Sulfate