TY - JOUR
T1 - Germination and growth of horticultural crops irrigated with reclaimed water after biological treatment and ozonation
AU - Amori, Precious Nneka
AU - Mierzwa, Jose Carlos
AU - Bartelt-Hunt, Shannon
AU - Guo, Bing
AU - Saroj, Devendra Prakash
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) Abuja, Nigeria [grant number PTDF/ED/OSS/PHD/POF/1109/17 ]. The first author specially thanks PTDF for providing full financial sponsorship for PhD at the University of Surrey, United Kingdom. Additional support came from scoping projects at University of Surrey as part of STFC Food Security Network led by University of Manchester [Grant number ST/P003079/1 ]. Precious Amori also wishes to thank Monica Felipe-Sotelo for providing technical support in the analysis of metals using the ICP-MS instrument.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) Abuja, Nigeria [grant number PTDF/ED/OSS/PHD/POF/1109/17]. The first author specially thanks PTDF for providing full financial sponsorship for PhD at the University of Surrey, United Kingdom. Additional support came from scoping projects at University of Surrey as part of STFC Food Security Network led by University of Manchester [Grant number ST/P003079/1]. Precious Amori also wishes to thank Monica Felipe-Sotelo for providing technical support in the analysis of metals using the ICP-MS instrument.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2022/2/15
Y1 - 2022/2/15
N2 - Integration of high water-volume and nutrient-rich industrial wastewater into the existing water management plan for agriculture could be a viable option to protect freshwater resources, mitigate water scarcity problems and support the agriculture sector. Hydroponics were set-up to study the effects of treated mixed industrial and domestic wastewater on physiological traits of lettuce and silverbeet. A sustainable hybrid biological-ozonation process was employed for the wastewater treatment. The studied process showed high treatment capacity by removing 96% COD, 92% diesel and 97% methylene blue compounds. Reclaimed streams were analysed for metals using ICP-MS instrument and the concentrations of all elements tested, exception of Cu, Mn, and Mo, fall within the permissible range for crop irrigation. The crops were grown using the effluents (with/without external nutrient) and compared to a recommended nutrient culture and tap water controls. Compared to the control, plants that received external nutrient had a comparable aerial biomass and vegetative growth, higher photosynthetic pigments but exhibited some root development impairments, probably due to high activity of H+, which promoted metal toxicities on plant roots. Under pH-controlled irrigation, an improvement in root growth was observed. The biomass of plants watered with only the treated wastewater were more than 50% higher than the yield in tap water control and plants exhibited high degree of root foraging. The root concentrations of the studied metals, particularly Al, Mn, Cu and Zn were higher than the corresponding shoot concentrations. Pearson correlation analysis showed a significant positive interaction (p<0.01) between K and other elements (Mg, Ca, Cu, Mn, Zn, Fe) in plant tissues, thus indicating its role in facilitating transportation of nutrients and photo-assimilates in plant. The results suggest a high suitability of the treated wastewater for growth of crops. Thus, the reuse of treated mixed industrial and domestic wastewater for irrigation can be considered a sustainable way to cope with the growing water stress across the globe and the water shortage in agriculture. The reuse potential for irrigation of crops depends on the quality of the reclaimed water and the treatment technologies used. With the limited research data available, further studies to elucidate the long-term implications of the irrigation is highly recommended.
AB - Integration of high water-volume and nutrient-rich industrial wastewater into the existing water management plan for agriculture could be a viable option to protect freshwater resources, mitigate water scarcity problems and support the agriculture sector. Hydroponics were set-up to study the effects of treated mixed industrial and domestic wastewater on physiological traits of lettuce and silverbeet. A sustainable hybrid biological-ozonation process was employed for the wastewater treatment. The studied process showed high treatment capacity by removing 96% COD, 92% diesel and 97% methylene blue compounds. Reclaimed streams were analysed for metals using ICP-MS instrument and the concentrations of all elements tested, exception of Cu, Mn, and Mo, fall within the permissible range for crop irrigation. The crops were grown using the effluents (with/without external nutrient) and compared to a recommended nutrient culture and tap water controls. Compared to the control, plants that received external nutrient had a comparable aerial biomass and vegetative growth, higher photosynthetic pigments but exhibited some root development impairments, probably due to high activity of H+, which promoted metal toxicities on plant roots. Under pH-controlled irrigation, an improvement in root growth was observed. The biomass of plants watered with only the treated wastewater were more than 50% higher than the yield in tap water control and plants exhibited high degree of root foraging. The root concentrations of the studied metals, particularly Al, Mn, Cu and Zn were higher than the corresponding shoot concentrations. Pearson correlation analysis showed a significant positive interaction (p<0.01) between K and other elements (Mg, Ca, Cu, Mn, Zn, Fe) in plant tissues, thus indicating its role in facilitating transportation of nutrients and photo-assimilates in plant. The results suggest a high suitability of the treated wastewater for growth of crops. Thus, the reuse of treated mixed industrial and domestic wastewater for irrigation can be considered a sustainable way to cope with the growing water stress across the globe and the water shortage in agriculture. The reuse potential for irrigation of crops depends on the quality of the reclaimed water and the treatment technologies used. With the limited research data available, further studies to elucidate the long-term implications of the irrigation is highly recommended.
KW - Hydroponics
KW - Mixed wastewater agriculture
KW - Mixed wastewater treatment
KW - Vegetable crops
KW - Water reuse
KW - Water scarcity
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.130173
DO - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.130173
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85122512359
SN - 0959-6526
VL - 336
JO - Journal of Cleaner Production
JF - Journal of Cleaner Production
M1 - 130173
ER -