Comparative Assessment and Phytoremediation Potentials of Ipomoea carnea and Ricinus castor Species for Wastewater Treatment

As per the IMD (India Meteorological Department), the state has around 35% monsoon deficit, and in the upcoming years, the deficiency will increase even with higher rainfall and ministry of Jal Shakti (GOI) around 6.8 million people living in rural parts of Maharashtra state relying on the well, bore well, and hand pump water supply. The reduction of water demand by reusing the treated water will be the solution. The treatment through plant-based system makes it possible affordable cost. In this research, the locally available materials (sand, brickbats, coarse and medium-sized aggregate, and soil) is systematically poured into a PVC rectangular container of size about 560 × 470 × 470 mm. The bottom 125 mm thick layer has brickbats of sizes ranging from 80 mm to 120 mm and 60 mm to 85 mm wide. A 105 mm thick blend layer of 20 mm and 5 mm aggregate was placed on the previous brickbat layer. The adopted plant species Ipomoea carnea and Ricinus communis successfully treated the supplied wastewater for the treatment run. The system successfully lowered the BOD by about 80.14% with an average inlet concentration of 310.73 mg/l and outlet concentration of 61.73 mg/l. The concentration of COD was found to be 394.07 mg/l at inlet and 93.00 mg/l at outlet with a removal efficiency of 76.37%.