Phytoremediation of Heavy Metal Contaminated River Water Using Bamboo Reinforced Sunflower

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

The rapid increase in the urban population caused water pollution to the bodies of water in the Philippines. This problem dramatically affects Cavite due to its high dependence on water resources. of all the chemical pollutants, heavy metals such as nickel, lead, cadmium, and zinc quickly became the most abundant and harmful substances due to the health hazards they can cause when consumed by unaware locals. The research study aimed to test whether bamboo-reinforced sunflower absorbs heavy metals from the contaminated soil and become an eco-friendly way of cleaning the river waters.

METHODS

The treatments were placed in the contaminated river water sample for seventy-two (72) hours. The treatments were transferred to a different location every six (6) hours to maintain the right amount of sunlight that the plant needs. After the experimentation process, the water samples were brought to Jefcor Laboratories inc. to undergo inductive Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). Three (3) trials were done for each test. The results were gathered and analyzed using One-Way Analysis of Variance.

RESULTS

After testing the samples, it was shown that the amount of nickel in the sample was reduced from 0.24 mg/L to 0.03 mg/L, the amount of zinc was decreased from 0.06 mg/L to 0.02 mg/L. on the other hand, the amount of lead remained unchanged at 0.05 mg/L, the amount of cadmium also remained unchanged at 0.01 mg/L. The F-value of the uptake of nickel and lead were 51.8481 and 72, respectively, which are both more significant than their corresponding F-critical value (21.1977). This means that there is a substantial difference in the amount of nickel and zinc on the treated and control sample. on the other hand, the F-values for Cadmium and Lead, which is 0 is less than their F-critical values, which are both 7.7086. This means that there is no significant difference in the amount of cadmium and lead between the treated and control setup. These results were obtained using the One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).

DISCUSSIONS

Based on the results, the bamboo reinforced sunflower system is effective in reducing the amount of nickel and zinc in the contaminated water samples. However, the system is not effective against cadmium and lead, which is due to the different properties of heavy metal samples.