Removal of fluoride (F–) in ground water by living biosorbent

Environmental Engineering Division, Civil Engineering Department, Jadavpur University, Kolkata-700 032, India

E-mail: kripasindhu0052@gmail.com, sukalpa17@gmail.com, mukherjeesomnath19@gmail.com

Manuscript received online 28 December 2019, accepted 27 March 2020

Fluoride (F^–) contaminated groundwater is elucidated in many parts of the world inclusive India that causing a serious concern on health disorder in human body. Various physico-chemical methods are practiced in the field primarily focusing to remove F^– from water to render fit for human consumption. Sustainable green technology using plant based treatment methods commonly known as phytoremediation to attenuate different metallic contaminants including arsenic has been reported in literatures. However, a limited number of research reports are published so far regarding fluoride attenuation from groundwater by adopting an eco-sustainable rational phytofiltration plant. With this view a laboratory experiment was performed to investigate the uptake and accumulation capacity of F^– by a living aquatic macrophyte. In the present study, living water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) plants were picked up from a nearby shallow pond and grown in Hoagland solution in the laboratory. Batch experiments have been done with different initial F^– concentration and varied amount of biomass doses exposing to fluoride spiked solution. It was observed that, 100 g/L of plant species could effectively remove 44.62% of F^– corresponding to initial concentration of 3 mg/L after 8 days detention time. Different isotherm models were explored to fit with experimental data out of which Freundlich model fitted reasonably well (R² = 0.982).