Tratamiento de aguas residuales domésticas mediante el uso de Eichhornia crassipes y Pistia stratiotes para su reúso en áreas verdes

Abstract

The present experimental work seeks to determine the efficiency of two macrophyte species Eichhornia crassipes and Pistia stratiotes in the removal of different physicochemical and microbiological parameters in the domestic wastewater of the Universidad Politécnica Salesiana Campus María Auxiliadora, located at km. 19 of Vía a la Costa, for its subsequent reuse in the irrigation of green areas of the campus and possible use in agricultural irrigation. For its realization, certain norms were followed for sampling and laboratory analysis, which allowed obtaining results before and after treatment with the species used, taking as references the maximum permissible limits established in Tables 3 and 4 of Anexo I del Libro VI de la Calidad Ambiental del TULSMA. The most relevant parameters were selected, considering dissolved oxygen, COD, BOD5, total suspended solids, turbidity, fecal coliforms, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, electrical conductivity, salinity, total dissolved solids, floating matter, oils and fats, nitrates and pH. The experimental process was developed in several stages to achieve the proposed objective. Initially, the domestic wastewater was passed through a fine mesh to retain large particles, then, it was subjected to a simple sedimentation process before entering the experimental system, finally, the treated water was conducted to home filters in order to improve the quality in terms of turbidity and suspended solids. The results obtained showed that Eichhornia crassipes has a greater capacity to remove organic and inorganic pollutants from domestic wastewater compared to Pistia stratiotes which, despite not having the same efficiency as water hyacinth, demonstrated a high purification capacity. The study made it possible to verify that the project is totally feasible both technically and financially.