Fitoremediation of wastewater in organize industrial zone by using water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes)

Nowaday, phytoremediation with some plants is a very new field of biotechnology and it has recieved increasing scientific attention in recent years. In this study, water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes were cultivated in various wastewaters (balancing pool, membrane bioreactor outflow, concantrates of nanofiltration and reverse osmosis) collected from İzmir Tekeli Organized Industrial Zone. Experiments were carried out at the laboratory scale for the phytoremediation of these waters with E. crassipes. Experiments with E.crassipes were carried out at two different temperatures, 22°C and 25°C. As a result of the study, it was observed that the water hyacinths performed significant decreases in the pH, conductivity, salinity, total dissolved solids, total nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen, ammonium nitrogen, sodium and calcium contents of the raw wastewaters of balancing pool and membrane bioreactor outflow treated waters. It has also be shown that E. crassipes performed decrease in some parameters of reverse osmosis and nanofiltration concentrates but high salinity values were found limit plant' healthy development. In addition, as a result of the salinity tests, lethal salinity value for water hyacinth plant was found to be 3 ppt.