Abstract

CARDENAS, Elsa et al. Study of the purification capacity of Pistia stratiotes L. in the treatment of wastewater generated in the Effluents Laboratory of FACEN-UNA. Rep. cient. FACEN [online]. 2023, vol.14, n.1, pp.70-77. ISSN 2222-145X.  https://doi.org/10.18004/rcfacen.2023.14.1.70.

Wastewater treatment systems based on floating aquatic plants represent an interesting option, whose development, design, and operation have been based on empirical procedures, mainly because sufficient data has not been generated to create general design and maintenance models. Floating macrophytes have proven to be efficient in bioremediation of wastewater containing organic matter and toxic substances that are harmful to the environment. The need to find a solution to this growing situation of contamination and the possibility of reusing wastewater has motivated this study, whose objective was to study the purifying capacity of Pistia stratiotes L. in wastewater treatment in order to establish the potential use of this species. The physicochemical parameters were analyzed following the standardized analytical techniques published by the Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater APHA-AWWA-WPC. Regarding the results obtained from the tested parameters, a removal below 50% was observed: BOD5 (30.7%), COD (40.8%), Total Suspended Solids - TSS (42%), pH it varied between 5.4 and 6.2, the dissolved Oxygen was increasing, taking values from 4.78 mgO2/L to 12.09 mgO2/L. Taking into account the statistical results of the t test values, it was concluded that there was no significant removal of the physicochemical and microbiological parameters analyzed in the different concentrations used (5, 25, 50, 75 and 100) %, this could be influenced by the low temperatures of the season and the short term of exposure of the plant with the residual water.

Keywords : Pistia stratiotes; wastewater; treatment plant; removal.

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