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Assessment of Phosphate Laundries Wastewater Phytotoxicity and Biotreatment Assays
Author(s) -
Moula Amel,
Borgi Mohamed Ali,
Loukil Slim,
Chaieb Mohamed,
Mekki Ali
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
clean – soil, air, water
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.444
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1863-0669
pISSN - 1863-0650
DOI - 10.1002/clen.202000077
Subject(s) - phytotoxicity , wastewater , chemistry , germination , nuclear chemistry , environmental chemistry , botany , environmental engineering , biology , environmental science
The phytotoxicity potential of phosphate laundries wastewater (PLW) is assessed. Likewise, the assays of biotreatment of the PLW by microbial detoxification are investigated. Chemical characterization results show that PLW are alkaline, saline, highly turbid, and rich in suspended matter and total solids. PLW samples are loaded with potentially toxic metals, presented in decreasing order as follows: calcium (1230 mg L −1 ), potassium (1032 mg L −1 ), iron (275.45 mg L −1 ), lead (1.64 mg L −1 ), zinc (1.12 mg L −1 ), copper (1.04 mg L −1 ), and cadmium (1.03 mg L −1 ). Besides, PLW exhibits high phytotoxicity values for Raphanus sativus , Medicago sativa , and Sorghum bicolor seeds germination. The microbiological enumeration reveals considerable autochthonous microflora. Biotreatment includes five selected native strains (Se, S16, S19, S20, and S29) used as a tool of PLW detoxification. The strains tested manifest a bioprocessing performance according to the following decreasing order: S29 > S16 > S20 > S19 > Se. The biotreated phosphate laundries wastewater (BTPLW) achieves a noticeable reduction of toxicity. Indeed, analysis of the correlation matrix between the potentially toxic metal content and the germination index (GI) values shows significant correlations ( p ≤ 0.01).