Rhizofiltration of Heavy Metals from Coal Ash Leachate

Abstract

Heavy metals are leaching out from coal ash in the aquatic environment causing environmental pollution. In the present study the removal of heavy metals from coal ash leachate in the aquatic environment has been studied by using the aquatic plants such as water hyacinth, duckweed and pistia. Rhizofiltration of heavy metals was carried out at varying concentrations of coal ash starting from 0, 5, 10, 20, 30 and 40 percent. Simultaneously the physicochemical parameters of leachate have been analyzed and studied to understand the leachability. Rhizofiltration has shown that pistia has high potential capacity of uptake of the heavy metals Zn, Cr, and Cu, and duckweed has also shown good potential for uptake of Zn, Cr, Cu next to Pistia. Rhizofiltration of Zn and Cu in case of water hyacinth was lower as compared to pistia and duckweed. This research shows that pistia/duckweed/water hyacinth can be good accumulators of heavy metals in aquatic environment.