Phytoremediation Study and Effect of pH on Biomass Productivity of Eichhornia crassipes - Management of Natural Resources in a Changing Environment - page 186

Phytoremediation Study and Effect of pH
on Biomass Productivity of Eichhornia
crassipes

Ajay Kumar , Neetu Singh , Shilpa Gupta , Pallavi Joshi , Sukirti Tiwari ,
and Kavita Swaroop

Introduction

Hindon river is an important tributary of Yamuna river and originates from upper
Shiwalik in Lower Himalayan Range (Jain et al. 2007 ). The river fl ows through
Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut and Ghaziabad in western Uttar Pradesh and
covers a distance of about 200 km before joining the Yamuna river downstream of
Delhi (Jain et al. 2003 ).
The effl uents of Nagdev nala and Star Paper Mill at Saharanpur generate the
fl ow of water in the Hindon river. The industrial effl uents from the cooperative
distillery and municipal wastewater from Budhana town plunge into the river water
in this stretch. In the Ghaziabad district, downstream of Karhera village, the
majority of river fl ow is diverted to the Hindon cut canal at Mohan Nagar, which
outfalls into the Yamuna upstream of the Okhla barrage. Thereafter, the river
receives wastewater through the Dhasana drain at Bisrakh village in Ghaziabad
district (Jain et al. 2003 ). The main objective of the study is to explore the
phytoremediation potential of Eicchornia crassipes and evaluate its biomass
productivity at different pH ranges.
Shoeb and Singh ( 2000 ) reported that under favourable conditions Eichhornia
crassipes can achieve a growth rate of 17.5 metric tons per hectare per day. A
typical biomass from land plants can have 30-50 % cellulose, 20-40 % hemicel-
lulose and 15-30 % lignins (Bhattacharya and Kumar 2010 ; Bhetalu et al. 2012 ;
Sagar and Kumari 2013 ). Masami et al. ( 2008 ) suggested a new method of ethanol
production from the Eichhornia crassipes by using yeast isolated from different
hydrospheres.