reduction of industrial wastewater lead content through phytoremediation

this study was undertaken to investigate the feasibility of treating industrial wastewater using soil and plant system. nine cylindrical plastic-lysimeters (60 cm diameter and 100 cm height) equipped with a drain pipe at the bottom were filled by granular sandy-loam soil. sunflower, oat and fescue were planted each in three lysimeters, in order to investigate the effectiveness of plants in lead absorption. after plantation, lysimeters were irrigated with well water until the plants were established. then the irrigation was continued by contaminated wastewater consisting of 2 mg/i lead. in addition, the drain effluent was collected and analyzed to determine the ability of soil and plant system for lead sorption. the concentration of lead in drain effluent of all lysimeters was less than the standard limits, which indicate a satisfaction performance for the system in absorbing lead up to 99 percent. the range of lead absorption by different parts of plants was from 0.056 to 0.154 percent, which indicates a phytoremediation process in the system.