Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering

To Measure the Absorption of Metals, from Soil Through the Process of Phytoremediation at Varying Levels of Concentrations

Abstract

Habib Ahmad Jan*

The contamination of metals has an impact, on a considerable number of people worldwide particularly in developing nations. This occurs primarily because environmental policies are either lacking or rarely enforced leading to health related issues are abundant. To reduce the contamination levels in soils, various chemical, physical, and biological methods are utilized. Among biological methods a popular method is phytoremediation in which plants species are utilized that can absorb heavy metals from soil as part of the nutrition Intake. A recent study indicated that the removal capability of Typha latifolia, a plant species commonly used for phytoremediation, is related with concentration of heavy metals in the soil and/or irrigation water, but the study remained inconclusive regarding precise characterization of this effect, due to small sample size and lack of control on the contamination of heavy metals. In this study, the effect of concentration of lead, chromium, nickel, and copper on the extraction efficiency of Typha latifolia is characterized, following a careful regimen of irrigation to supply exact quantities of heavy metals. Several specimens of Typha latifolia were grown in pots under laboratory conditions and irrigated using predetermined quantity of clean water with added known concentrations of the four heavy metals, daily for a period of ninety days. Atomic absorption spectrometry was used to determine the amounts of the four heavy metals before and after the irrigation period to estimate the amounts of heavy metals absorbed by the plants. Concentration increased heavy metals extraction efficiency from the soil using Thypa latifolia specie. Also result shows a trend line between different heavy metals removal by plant species as we increased concentration the efficiency also increased. By finding the value of P our results were more than 99% in confidence interval and no result was obtained which proves our hypothesis incorrect. The equations and specifically the R² value further strengthen our findings as indicator used for authenticity of calculated results. Overall result obtained for heavy metal removal was above 50%for low concentration and increased up to 80% with the increase in concentration of heavy metal in irrigation water.