Phycoremediation of heavy metals from a point source in asa drainage systems using Water Hyacinth (Eichornia crassipes)

Abstract

Abstract The indiscriminate release of untreated or poorly treated effluent from industries into the environment is one of major challenge of industrialization. Heavy metals remain of the components of these effluent that has a deleterious effect on both aquatic lives and man who directly or indirectly depends on the aquatic system for survival. The persistent and non-biodegradable nature of heavy metals has required extended attention to materials that have the ability to remove the non-biodegradable metals by adsorption. The potential of Eichorniacrassipes as an adsorbent in removing heavy metals present in pharmaceutical effluent was investigated. The adsorbentwas introduced to the effluent under different concentrations (1, 5 and 10 mg) and contact time (24, 48 and 72 h). The concentration of Manganese, Copper, Lead and Zinc before and after the experiment was measured using Induced Coupled Plasma –Mass Spectrophotometer. The percentage reduction in concentration of each metal was calculated, for manganese, the highest percentage reduction of 61.86 % (1 mg at 24 h), 63.09 % (1 mg at 24 h), 38.99 % (1 mg, 72 h) and 93.37% (10 mg, 48 h) was reported for Manganese, Zinc, Copper and Lead respectively. This work has presented Eichornia crassipiesas a potential adsorbent with high heavy metal removal efficiency.