Ornamental Plants for Urban Wastewater Hydroponic Treatment
摘要
Water resource management is essential for human survival and one of the key activities for sustainable development. Environmentally friendly wastewater treatment and reutilization are focus approaches to achieve good qualitative and quantitative water status, thus hydroponic systems have been studied as tools to treat wastewater while offering the possibility to generate income through the commercialization of the produced crops. This study evaluates the potential of ornamental plant usage for hydroponic wastewater treatment, with the monitorization of morphological crop growth parameters and wastewater physicochemical quality parameters. From the selection of eight species, Petunia x hybrid, Tagetes patula, Antirrhinum majus, Calendula officinalis, and Dianthus chinensis, performed better in the wastewater hydroponic system. Removal percentages of contaminants in the system were up to 99.4% of BOD5, 87.4% of COD, 98.7% of N, 100% of K, 78.9% of Ca, 98.4% of Mg, and 91.6% of PO4, with the wastewater quality being compatible with local discharge parameters by the end of crop growth. The systems can efficiently recover the wastewater and produce viable crops. The reclaimed wastewater can potentially be used for different purposes as an alternative to freshwater usage.