Bioaugmentation of floating treatment wetlands for the remediation of textile effluent

Abstract

This pilot study evaluated the effects of bacterial augmentation on the efficiency of floating treatment wetlands (FTWs) to remediate textile wastewater. Two wetland plants, Phragmites australis and Typha domingensis, were used to develop FTWs, which were then augmented with a bacterial consortium of three strains (Acinetobacter junii, Pseudomonas indoloxydans, and Rhodococcus sp.). Results showed that both plant species removed colour, organic matter, toxicity, and heavy metals from textile wastewater and their removal efficiency was further enhanced by augmentation with bacteria. The maximum removal efficiencies of colour, COD and BOD after an 8‐day period were 97, 87 and 92%, respectively, by FTWs carrying P. australis inoculated with the bacterial consortium. Furthermore, the same combination showed 87–99% reduction of heavy metals in the textile wastewater as well. These results indicate that FTWs can be used for the treatment of textile effluent and their working efficiency can be improved by plant‐bacterial synergism.

Bacterial Augmented Floating Treatment Wetlands for Efficient Treatment of Synthetic Textile Dye Wastewater

“…In this study, the bacterial population in the roots and shoots of inoculated plants were found to be higher as compared to non-inoculated vegetated treatment. This could be due to the preferential survival of bacteria in roots and shoots of P. australis in inoculated treatments, as reported in previous studies [28,58]. Further, these bacteria were initially isolated from the roots and shoots of the plants; hence these bacteria possibly have an adaptive mechanism to survive and grow in these parts of the plant in this hostile environment [18,27].…”

“…The unique potential of P. australis to remove heavy metals has been reported by many researchers [25,34]. In the previous studies, P. australis showed similar pattern of removal of heavy metals from industrial effluent [11,28,36]. These previous studies also demonstrated that the heavy metals from wastewater were taken up by the P. australis in its roots and shoots [41,50,51].…”

“…The strain Rhodococcus sp. was rhizospheric as it was isolated from the rhizosphere of Poa labillardierei, and the strain A. junii was isolated from activated sludge [28]. These specific bacterial strains were chosen due to their potential to reduce textile dyes and assist the macrophytes to alleviate pollutant-induced toxicity without compromising plant growth and development.…”

“…This plant-bacteria association may be plant-rhizospheric and or plant-endophytic, depending upon the nature of the bacteria and macrophytes [26,27]. Floating wetlands have been widely used for the treatment of wastewater from different sources [28,29]. However, the potential of FTWs composed of Phragmites australis in combination with inoculated bacteria has not been fully explored for the treatment of dye-enriched textile effluent.…”

Phytoremediation performance of floating treatment wetlands with pelletized mine water sludge for synthetic greywater treatment

“…Floating treatment wetlands are simple in design and require no additional land resulting in savings compared to conventional constructed wetlands [16]. The immersed rhizomes and roots of macrophytes provide a large surface area to develop a biofilm, which plays a key role in the removal of suspended contaminants from the water column [37][38][39][40]. Moreover, roots of some plants supply dissolved oxygen into the waterbody benefiting the growth of aerobic microorganisms, which break organic substances down [41,42].…”