Effectiveness of Endophytes Bacteria in Enhancing Floating Treatment Wetland to Treat Textile Wastewater

Abstract

This research investigated the association of consortium endophyte bacteria from different hosts to enhance the performance of Vetiveria zizanioides in treating textile wastewater using Floating Treatment Wetlands (FTWs). The endophyte bacteria were isolated from the roots of three natural plants (Oryza sativa, Colocasia esculenta, and Alternanthera philoxeroides) contaminated by textile wastewater. The selected isolated endophyte bacteria were subjected to the four FTWs reactors containing the Vetiveria sp. and ran for 30 days in a semi-batch system to evaluate their performance. FTWs reactors-augmented endophyte bacteria could reduce the COD, color, and heavy metals in textile wastewater. The highest removal efficiencies of COD (74%) and color (91%) were observed in FK2 (vegetated control) and F4 reactor, respectively. The addition of endophyte bacteria increased the heavy metal reductions of Pb (52%) and Cd (33%) in reactors of F3 and F4, respectively. This study exhibited that the consortium endophyte bacteria isolated from the contaminated plants could improve the FTWs reactor performance. Finally, they reduce the plant stresses in the contaminated wastewater by increasing the plant biomass in roots and shoots. These findings reveal that the consortium of natural endophyte bacteria from different hosts does not inhibit their function and association with the other host plant, but they contribute positive responses to the plant growth and pollutant degradation.