REMOVAL OF EMERGING CONTAMINANTS USING PLANT-BASED SYSTEM

Abstract

THE REMOVAL OF EMERGING CONTAMINANTS (ECS) FROM OUR AQUEOUS ENVIRONMENT IS OF MAIN CONCERN. PLANT-BASED SYSTEMS SUCH AS BIORETENTION SYSTEMS CAN BE CONSIDERED AS A SUSTAINABLE APPROACH WHICH HAS THE POTENTIAL FOR ECS REMOVAL. BATCH EXPERIMENTS SHOWED MONEY PLANT CAN REMOVE SELECTED ECS, NAMELY ACETAMINOPHEN (ACT), ESTRONE (E1), IBUPROFEN (IBP), KETOPROFEN (KTP), SACCHARIN (SAC) AND CARBAMAZEPINE (CBZ) WITH REMOVAL EFFICIENCY OF 92.1%, 83.1%, 89.7%, 51.4%, 30.8% AND 4.9%, RESPECTIVELY. ALTHOUGH, CBZ REMOVAL WAS NOT SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFERENT BETWEEN PLANTED AND UNPLANTED FLASKS. LATER, IT SHOWED THAT PRESENCE OF FE2+-EDTA (IRON CHELATE), INCREASED THE FIRST-ORDER REMOVAL RATE CONSTANTS OF ACT, IBP, AND KTP UP TO 2.9 TIMES HIGHER WHICH THE INCREASE IN REMOVAL RATE WERE SIMULTANEOUS TO REDUCTION OF ENDOGENOUS H2O2 AND PRESUMABLY PRODUCTION OF HYDROXYL RADICAL. A BIORETENTION COLUMN STUDY ALSO SHOWED PROMISING REMOVAL EFFICIENCY OF SELECTED ECS MORE THAN 80% DURING THE 132 DAYS OF CONTINUOUS