Vegetos

Abstract

Biofiltration is an emerging new technology, applied for waste water treatment and other toxic compounds. A zolla, a free floating aquatic fern, in this context, has distinct advantage since it scavenges waste waters and heavy metals from its biofilter, so an attempt was made to study its efficacy to decontaminate arsenic amended water. For continuous flow metal ion uptake experiment, laboratory scale glass bioreactor was used. The bioreactor was washed and packed with different inoculum sizes, viz. 10 g, 30 g and 50 g of A zolla microphylla biomass. Both fresh as well as dry biomass was used for this study. The bioreactor was connected to a mariotte flask in which different concentrations, viz. 5 ppm, 7.5 ppm, 10 ppm, 15 ppm and 20 ppm of sodium arsenate were filled. The mariotte flask was connected to a glass bioreactor. The metal ions which were run through the packed A zolla biomass were collected at different incubation periods, viz. 1 hr, 2 hrs, 4 hrs, 6 hrs, 8 hrs, 10 hrs and 12 hrs. The supernatants were stored for detection of arsenic through AAS method. While using A zolla freshmass as biofilter, maximum and minimum sodium arsenate uptake were recorded in 10 ppm and 5 ppm sodium arsenate concentrations coupled with 8 hrs and 1 hr incubation period, respectively for both 10 g as well as 50 g inoculum sizes. For 30 g inoculum size, maximum and minimum sodium arsenate uptake were recorded in 10 ppm and 5 ppm sodium arsenate concentrations coupled with 10 hrs and 1 hr incubation period, respectively. When A zolla drymass was used as biofilter, maximum and minimum sodium arsenate uptake were recorded in 10 ppm and 5 ppm sodium arsenate concentrations coupled with 8 hrs and 1 hr incubation period, respectively for 10 g, 30 g and 50 g inoculum sizes. Thus, biofilter of A zolla using living as well as dead biomass can be exploited for the removal of heavy metals from waste waters.