Feasibility Study of Online Treatment of Polluted River Water Using Duckweed and Modified Flow Pattern

Water being basic requirement of living beings, is used for fulfilling various purposes. Among all sources, Rivers are primary sources of water, but due to rapid urbanization and industrialization, these rivers are being polluted due to discharge of sewage and other wastewater which are either partially treated or left untreated. Present treatment methods are very expensive and are not running to its full capacity on actual ground. So to overcome this problem, in this paper study has been carried out to use cost effective and natural treatment of polluted water using duckweed and modified flow pattern. Duckweeds are aquatic plants which are used as treatment media and modified river flow pattern is zigzag (DOSIWAN) type pattern which is used as treatment system. River model is used to study the effect of this treatment on the polluted river water. Parameters were studied for Duckweed run samples for winter and summer seasons and also by using Jeevamrut and these results were compared with standard parameters and modified flow pattern sample results. After conducting the experimental analysis of inlet and outlet water samples, it was observed that duckweed run sample results showed average reduction of about 25-70%, 30-60%, 20-60%, 15-50%, 20-77%, 17-50%, 15-63% of COD, BOD, TS, TDS, TSS, TVS and TFS respectively. Also there is increase of 30-95% in DO content in water. After completion of project it was observed that there was reduction in pollutants from the water by using duckweed, further results can be improved if retention time is increased.