Water Hyacinth Roots as Economic Potential Biomass for the Removal of Organic Pollutants in Wastewater via Application of Coated Wire Electrodes

The applicability of Water Hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) as an important aquatic weed plant in sub-tropical regions of the world makes it a useful bio-accumulator and biosorbent for some organic pollutants including phenolic pollutants and some nitrogenous organic pollutants form wastewater. The experimental conditions upon using the investigated biomass were optimized to achieve a reduction of the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and the total organic carbon (TOC) by about 90%. Also the sorption of the reported pollutants was examined as a function of its initial concentration in wastewater, pH, weight of roots and contact time. The concentration of phenolic pollutants and nitrogenous organic compounds in influent and effluent of wastewater and in the collected water samples were monitored using several coated wire ion selective electrodes (ISEs). Each ion selective electrode is designed specifically to monitor one type of pollutants. The results obtained using the dried roots of water hyacinth is compared to that obtained when a granular activated carbon (GAC) is used. Preliminary results show that the outlet of the purification biomass meets most of the regulator’s limits for discharge of treated wastewater in Egypt. Therefore, the treated effluents can be used safely in different applications such as irrigation of golf course, green way or park. If it is sufficiently clean it can also be used for ground water recharge, in recharging of batteries or in some industrial use. Moreover, such water hyacinth roots can be used as an effective tool for the treatment and reuse of wastewater as they have been shown to adsorb and accumulate toxic elements.