Fluoride Removal from Ground Water Sample by Pistia stratiotes

Abstract

Fluoride in ground water is a well recognized problem in different parts ofthe earth including India. Various physiochemical separation processes areavailable which are to be considered as environmental friendly.Phytoremediation technology reported in the literature as a sustainable andcost effective green technology and its availability is ubiquitous in India. Aninvestigation was undertaken in Environmental Engineering laboratory,Jadavpur University Kolkata to examine the potential of Pistia stratiotes(water lettuce) for removal of fluoride from a real life groundwater samplescollected from fluoride affected tubewell. The initial concentration offluoride in ground water sample was found to be 8.12 ± 1.26 mg/l. Theexperimental result showed that for a biomass (Pistia stratiotes) of 80 g/L,29.37% fluoride was removed after an10 days of exposure time followingthe pseudo first order reaction kinetics.