Phytoremediation of Industrial Waste Leachates by Planted Filters Composed of Phragmites australis (Cav) Trin ex Steud, Typha latifolia L. and Cyperus papyrus L.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to evaluate the purifying ability of 3 parallel planted filters (PF1, PF2 and PF3) composed of three plants (Phragmites australis (Cav) Trin ex Steud, Typha latifolia L., Cyperus papyrus L.) on leachates from a landfill of industrial waste in Pointe-Noire (Republic of Congo). This landfill site includes a technical landfill for ordinary industrial waste (OIW) and a technical landfill for hazardous and soiled industrial waste (SIW). In order to assess purifying ability, we sampled 14 samples over 8 weeks, with 7 samples of the raw leachates from the technical landfill center, and 7 samples of leachates cleaned after passing through the tryptic vegetable filter. The physico-chemical analyzes made it possible to determine the following parameters: TOC, COD, NO3 -,PO42-, Ni, Cd, CrVI, Zn, Cu and Pb. The results showed a significant decrease in organic pollution with abatement rates in TOC and COD greater than 90%. The average removal efficiency is respectively 45.97% for nitrates and 40.2% for phosphates. The abatement rates for heavy metals range from 41.2% to 60.9% for nickel, from 52.2% to 68.5 % for cadmium, from 49% to 71.7% for chromium VI, from 59% to 74.6% for zinc, from 50.9 % to 65 % for copper and from 61.4% to 75.1% for lead. However, additional analyzes are needed to confirm the hypperaccumulator nature of these plant filters in particular absorption isotherms and kinetics of extraction of heavy metals of Phragmites australis (Cav) Trin ex Steud, Typha latifolia L., Cyperus papyrus L.)