Influence of Salinity on Duckweed Growth and Duckweed Based Wastewater Treatment System

Sena Peace Hounkpe Wendeou, Martin Pepin Aina, Martin Crapper, Edmond Adjovi, Daouda Mama

Civil Engineering Department, Université d’Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou, Benin.
Faculy of Science and Technology, Université d’Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou, Benin.
School of Engineering, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.

DOI: 10.4236/jwarp.2013.510103                

Abstract

The growth of duckweed (Spirodela polyrrhiza) was investigated in an outdoor batch system under 15 different conductivities ranging from 200 μS/cm to 3000 μS/cm with average 110 μmol/m² daylight intensity. The growth was performed in an anaerobically treated domestic wastewater using an initial plants population of 50 fronds. Increase in Relative Growth Rate—RGR—(in terms of fresh weight and number of fronds) had a significant non-linear (polynomial) relationship with the conductivity. The maximum RGR related to fresh weight of 0.176 was observed at the conductiviity of 1200 μS/cm while the maximum RGR related to fronds number was 0.193 at the conductivity of 800 μS/cm. The optimum range for duckweeds growth was found to be between conductivities of 600 μS/cm and 1400 μS/cm. The maximal rates of removal of COD of 14.5 mg/day, of 0.65 mg/day, NTK of 15.68 mg/day, faecal coliforms of 100% and turbidity of 80.8% were observed in this range. The COD and PO₄^2- removal rates were highly correlated to the growth rate, with the correlation factor of up to 0.783 and, then to the conductivity. The NTK reduction was positively related to the conductivity.

Keywords

Duckweed; S. polyrrhiza; Growth Rate; Conductivity; Domestic Wastewater

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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