Performance of cyperus rotundus l. macrophytes for the sewage treatment at different concentrations in the floating constructed wetland reactors

The quantity of sewage generation is increasing day by day especially in cities and its treatment has become a big challenge. Treatment of sewage before disposal is essential to reduce the effect of pollution on the environment which can be achieved by phytoremediation using Cyperus rotundus L. macrophyte. The present investigation was aimed to study the treatment performance and phytotoxic response of Cyperus rotundus L. macrophyte at different concentrations of sewage using a newly developed model of Floating Constructed Wetland Reactor system. The pre-characterized sewage was treated in the batch mode at its different concentrations in Floating Constructed Wetland Reactors (FCWRs) made up of plastic crates having layers beds of thermocol sheet, stone crush aggregates and sand, and was equipped with 120 saplings of Cyperus rotendus L. macrophytes in each reactor planted in 5 rows and 6 columns with 4 saplings at each point. The experiments were carried out in same environment with similar operating conditions to justify comparative treatment performances at different sewage concentrations in terms of reduction in different parameters such as TSS, TDS, TS, BOD, COD, sulphtes, nitrates, phosphates and chlorides. There was considerable reduction in terms of all pollution parameters. The highest BOD reduction of 83.88%, was recorded in 20% sewage set with COD reduction upto 86.36%, TSS reduction upto 81.48%, TDS reduction upto 82.19% without any sign of phytotoxicity. within 35 days of treatment period. The results indicate that the design fabricated is perfectly workable for phytoremediation using Cyperus rotundus macrophyte.