Phytoremediation of fluoride (f-) from water using germinated seeds

Phytoremediation is defined as the treatment of environmental pollutants using plants that alleviate the environmental problem without the need to excavate the contaminant material and dispose it elsewhere. Plants are specifically selected to remove specific pollutants such as metals, pesticides, solvents, explosives and crude oils. Phytoremediation has many advantages over other traditional pollution removal methods such as cost, decreased environmental disruption and it is more aesthetically pleasing. The present study was focused on removal of fluoride from the industrial effluent water and artificially polluted water using the seeds of Eleusine coracana (Ragi), Pennisetum glaucum (Bajra), Setaria italica (Korra), Sorghum bicolor (Jowar). Seeds were germinated using a paper and cloth germination procedure. After germination, the seed plants were placed in fluoride contaminated water. Fluoride levels were measured using spectrophotometer at regular time intervals. The experiments, removal of fluoride ions by the above-mentioned seeds, were conducted at three different conditions i.e. aerobic, anaerobic, laboratory condition, and all the conditions favour the phytoremediation process. Among these, Pennisetum glaucum (Bajra) shown good results in all three conditions. During phytoremediation process, drastic colour change was observed in industrial effluent and the percentage removal of fluoride ions was high, which indicates that the phytoremediation has followed the strategy of phytoextraction. During and after phytoremediation the effect of concentration, effect of dosage and effect of contact time were also studied. We observed that as the concentration increases, the percentage removal decreases, as the dosage increases the percentage removal also increases and as the contact time increases the percentage removal increases up to optimum level. All the seeds were found to be efficient in the removal of fluoride except Setaria italica (Korra), from industrial effluent and each seed was observed to have a specific function in all the three conditions.