Potential Of Water Hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) In Treating Textile And Sugar Wastewater In Mauritius

The potential use of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) as a means for water pollution abatement was  investigated. Two types of industrial wastewaters, namely that from the textile/dyeing industry and raw  sugar manufacturing were studied in batch systems. The percentage reduction in COD for textile effluents was on average 67% for a one-week retention time, while a maximum reduction of 83% was obtained  with sugar wastewater. It was observed that the rate of COD reduction was higher with higher initial  CODs. The system was also very effective in Total Suspended Solids (TSS) reduction from sugar factory  wastewater, and prevented growth of algae as well. The pH during retention time tended to be near neutral.Plant decay and odour due to presence of hydrogen sulphide were the main problems encountered with  some of textile set- ups. These could be attributed to the high salt content and sulphate content of the wastewater respectively.The results obtained indicate that water hyacinth can be considered as a treatment option for sugar  factory effluents, while the complex and varying nature of textile  effluent makes it unsuitable for such a treatment system.Keywords: Wastewater treatment, tropical climate, water hyacinth, biofilter, industrial wastewater

A review of the mechanisms of pollutant removal in water hyacinth systems

Presence of aquatic plants in natural or constructed wetlands not only reduces the concentration of  problematic nutrients from the wastewater, but also alters the physico-chemical environment of the water, rhizosphere and underlying sediment (Reddy & Patrick, 1984). In addition to plant assimilation of nutrients, changes in the environment of the water also help in reducing the pollutant level of the wastewater through biochemical processes brought about by micro-organisms. This paper gives a review of the biochemical and physico-chemical processes occurring in a floating aquatic plant system. Keywords : Water hyacinth, pollutant removal, biochemical/ physico-chemical processes

2,4-Ditellurouracil and its 5-fluoro derivative: Theoretical investigations of structural, energetics and ADME parameters

PubMed ID: 282367472,4-Ditellurouracil exhibits keto-enol tautomerism via different pathways resulting in seven tautomers. These pathways were studied in the gas phase using density functional theory method. The functionals used were BLYP, B3LYP and BHLYP and the basis sets were 6–311++G(d,p) for all atoms except that LanL2DZ ECP was used for tellurium atom only. The results indicate that the diketo form is more stable as observed for uracil and its sulfur and selenium analogues. The effect of introducing fluorine at position 5 was also investigated and the energy difference between the diketo and dienol forms is reduced. 2,4-Ditellurouracil and its 5-fluoro analogue are expected to exist exclusively as the diketo form due to the high interconversion energy barrier. We extended the investigation to predict ADME parameters of the most stable diketo and dienol tautomers in view of understanding their biological properties. This research enlightens keto-enol tautomerism of 2,4-ditellurouracil and its 5-fluoro derivative with additional insights to biological functions. © 2017 Elsevier Lt